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My Seattle family is always searching for new, easy, minimal-time-to-prep dinner ideas. We all peruse food blogs, read newspaper columns, and send links to each other with recipes or ideas that sound good. I first looked at this turkey snap pea one skillet dish in the New York Times, and got ready to send it to both my Seattle adult kids when VOILA! Said recipe arrived via text message with a note from Jake that he tried it and loved it.
I trust him 100% when he says something is good, so the next day I made this, had enough leftovers for several lunches, and then sent the link to Rachel who made a double batch for her family of five, who ate every single bite. That’s what happens when you have two teenage boys and a girl , all great eater in the house.
This preparation has a lot of Thai flavors with fish sauce, lime juice and red pepper flakes. I toned down the spice for the two of us. I have also used this formula with ground chicken since I often have a pound of it in my freezer. I particularly loved this since the snap peas were fresh from the farmer’s market, and I had fresh herbs growing like crazy. I served this over rice noodles because I was sick of plain rice.
One Skillet Turkey Snap Peas*
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 red onion, halved and thinly sliced into half-moons
- 1 pound ground turkey or ground chicken
- Salt, as needed (taste first, I think this is plenty salty without adding salt)
- ¼ cup fresh lime juice (from 2 to 3 limes), more to taste
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce, more to taste
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ½ cup fresh torn mint leaves, more for topping
- ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro or basil, more for topping
- 3 scallions, thinly sliced white and light green parts.
- 1 pound sugar snap peas, trimmed
- 2 tablespoons chopped roasted cashews or peanuts (optional but highly suggested)
Instructions
Heat a large skillet over medium-high. Add the oil and red onion slices to the skillet and cook until soft and deeply brown, 7 to 10 minutes. Crumble in the ground turkey, breaking up the meat. Cook until crisp and dark brown, about 8 minutes.
While the turkey is cooking, whisk together the lime juice, fish sauce, red pepper flakes, torn mint leaves, cilantro, and scallion whites, and light green parts. Pour the sauce into the skillet and toss until combined. Cover, turn off the heat and let the snap peas steam until tender and cooked through but still bright green, about 3 minutes.
Taste and add more fish sauce, salt, and lime juice as needed to make everything bright and savory. Top with more torn mint leaves, chopped cilantro and nuts.
*Adapted from Melissa Clark’s New York Times recipe