I kept this ground turkey stew simple – ground turkey, cannellini beans, kale, Kalamata olives and fresh herbs. The flavours are much of a Mediterranean origin here. Sweet pieces of turkey meat, soft white beans, chewy kale, tangy Kalamata olives in a savoury tomato broth – this ground turkey vegetables stew came out delicious! And the older it is, the better it gets. Just like wine.
Stew is a healthy and quick stovetop meal that keeps well refrigerated for days. Try my slow cooker pumpkin stew with chicken and quinoa stew with beef. Enjoy, and have you tried my ground turkey quinoa casserole yet?
Ground Turkey Stew
Ground Turkey Stew Recipe is quick, easy and healthy vegetable stew with beans and olives. GREAT reviews!
- Prep Time: 12 minutes
- Cook Time: 42 minutes
- Total Time: 54 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 5 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tsp olive oil, extra virgin
- 1 lb ground turkey, extra lean
- 14 oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 cup water, boiling
- 14 oz can cannellini beans, drained & rinsed
- 2 tsp oregano, thyme or Italian seasoning
- 3/4 tsp salt
- Ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 lemon, juice of
- 3/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted and sliced in halves
- 4 cups kale, coarsely chopped & packed
- 1/2 cup basil, chopped
- 1/2 cup parsley, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat dutch oven or large heavy bottom pot on medium heat and add olive oil. Add onion and garlic, saute for 5 minutes or until translucent, stirring occasionally. Add turkey and cook for 12-13 minutes, breaking into pieces and stirring every few minutes.
- Add diced tomatoes, water, beans, thyme, salt, pepper, bay leaves, then stir and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and add lemon juice, olives and kale, then stir, cover and let stand a few minutes or until kale is wilted. Add basil and parsley, stir again and it’s best to let the flavours “marry” each other for 10 minutes or so. Discard the bay leaves and serve hot.
Store: Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Freeze: Fully cook, cool completely and freeze in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Thaw on a stovetop covered on low.
Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating in the comments.
This stew was fantastic!
★★★★★
Would this recipe be doable in a crockpot??
Yes. Just brown turkey a bit and then throw everything in a crockpot for 3 hours on High or 5 hours in Low.
this recipe looks delish, and I’ll be making it this evening. Only issue I have is that it’s advertised as a “freezer friendly” meal, yet under the recipe it says “do not freeze”. I’ll be freezing it anyway, but is there a reason for this? Thanks!
You can freeze it. I fixed that.:)
This was delicious! Even my 10-year old went back for seconds. The only thing I did differently was to use veggie broth instead of water – absolutely delicious. Thank you!
Great recipe. I added sheep’s milk feta on top before serving and my 8 year old asked for seconds..then thirds. Can’t top that review. Will be adding this to my rotation.
This stew was so amazing! Definitely will become a recipe I use regularly. Thank you!!!
Is the nutritional info for each serving or the total meal? Also, I served this dish tonight with a side of quinoa and it was delish!!!!!!!
For each serving. Glad you liked it.:)
Made this the other day and it tastes great! But my husband and I are leaving for the weekend so I wanted to freeze the leftovers so it wouldn’t spoil. I noticed you said ‘do not freeze’ and was wondering why not?
I’m not a fan of defrosted stew texture, especially with kale. It just doesn’t freeze as nice as casseroles because of the liquid. But you could, I mean it’s not the end of the world. I’m just trying to avoid complaints from readers LOL. Glad you liked it!
Makes sense:) I defrosted it today and it’s still fabulous. Thank you:)
Perfect! My husband would love it defrosted too. It’s just tiny little bit different texture for me.:) Enjoy!:)
This looks delicious! To clarify, is the serving size 1 and 1/3 cups?
Yes! And total yield is about 10 cups, so divide as you wish.:)
We just found out my husband is allergic to tomatos. Any ideas on what to use instead of can of diced tomatos?
Yes. Replace it with a slurry – 1 cup chicken stock whisked with 4 tbsp whole wheat flour or 2 tbsp cornstarch. The stew will have more of a savoury chicken sauce which is wonderful.
Oh man that is so delicious! I made it tonight for dinner tomorrow and had a bite to taste it…and wow!!! I’m a huge fan of Mediterranean flavor and this is just awesome. Thanks for all the great recipes and your blog, I’m really enjoying the whole shebang!
LOL, Danielle. You made me laugh with your shebang. You mean my clean eating is a shebang?! Lol. Looks like you cook in batches and in advance like me. Glad you liked it!!! Thank you!
Love kale, love ground turkey and love white beans. Yet I’ve never put them all together. Looks delicious, Olena!
Haha, sometimes simple is easy and yet not so obvious. We tend to overcomplicate things in life, don’t we?!:) Thank you, Denise!
This looks amazing! I love one pot meals like this that I can continue heating up for several meals. This is going on the meal plan this week.
I love the look and hearty ingredients of this stew. So healthy and yes Mediterranean 🙂 It looks like you are doing great with your insanity work out 🙂
I love Mediterranean anything although I’m still due to visit that part of the world.:) And yes, I think I’m gonna finish the Insanity although might be insane by the end of it.
Love it. You could probably substitute chicken drumsticks need be, just cook it a bit longer.
LOL. In Italy they also smoke like chimneys. I remember seeing a field trip at the zoo in Rome, all kids walking in pairs, and two teachers leading at the front – smoking. I was so shocked, but my husband just said “don’t worry, they’re just training future smokers”. haha
Heck, yes. Even chicken thighs would work.
True. I forgot how much people smoke in Europe! Here it’s even weird to see someone smoking on a patio at a restaurant. Eating and inhaling smoke?! No thank you! I haven’t done that for years. Although I remember back in Ukraine, as a teenager, me and GFs used to go for coffee and a cigarette. So European. Lol
I’m going to give this a try with chickpeas! Looks so good. I love all of those flavours and I really enjoy dishes that can be substituted with whatever you love. Stews always seem to get better with age! I always enjoy them the next day even more. And one of my girl friends does the public relations for Insanity! I’ve tried the workouts and they’re pretty “insane,” I must say!
Chickpeas or even soft tofu (add at the end) are great meat replacements for this recipe. I love dishes like these too! Leftovers and taste better with age dishes are time savers! Insanity … I have no words how insane the workouts are because they are so long. Funny but even with those kind of workouts eating clean is everything.