turkey bolognese

if you’re looking for a recipe that you can throw in the slow cooker, is full of vegetables, and packed with lean meat, then this turkey bolognese is for you! the flavors all meld together as it cooks for hours, and it makes plenty so you even get leftovers to freeze. slow cooker friendly, healthy, leftovers, and delicious–it doesn’t get better than that!

now that we’ve been quarantined at home for 6 weeks and are starting to feel the the dreaded “quarantine 15” creeping up, my husband and I were both craving a healthy (but still delicious!) meal. a friend told me about palmini pasta, so I ordered some on amazon. it is a GREAT pasta replacement–it’s a bit crunchier in texture than pasta, but I think it tastes better than zoodles. zoodles, in my opinion, get soggy and start to disintegrate, and they don’t hold the flavor of whatever pasta sauce you’re using as well as the palmini noodles.

so back to palmini noodles, they are made out of hearts of palm–pretty cool, eh? the shape looks just like linguini, and all you have to do is rinse them and let them simmer in your sauce for about 10 minutes to soak up the flavor before eating. these noodles will definitely be a staple in this house going forward!

because I found these magical noodles, I had to come up with a great sauce. sticking with the health theme, I wanted to use lean meat and pack in a bunch of veggies. alas, my slow cooker turkey bolognese was born.

I really wanted a side vessel to scoop up any remaining sauce in the bowl. but again, sticking with the health theme, garlic bread wasn’t going to cut it. so, I decided to make my cauliflower pizza recipe. instead of topping the cauliflower crust with sauce, etc., I just used mozzarella cheese. once the crust bakes for the initial 20 minutes, throw it back in the oven topped with the mozz for 10-15 additional minutes until the cheese is bubbly and starts to brown. the result is the perfect, healthy, cheesy “bread.” I highly recommend whipping up this side dish while the turkey bolognese cooks. even my almost 2 year old couldn’t get enough of the cauli “bread.” hope you enjoy this meal as much as we did!

Print Recipe

turkey bolognese

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground turkey
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1.5 cups carrots minced
• 1 cup celery minced
• 1 cup yellow onion minced
• 1 8oz package baby bella mushrooms chopped
• 2 tbsp garlic minced
• 1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 24oz jar tomato sauce I used Whole Foods brand tomato mascarpone
• .5 tsp red pepper flakes
• .5 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• .25 cup fresh basil chopped
• .25 cup fresh parsley chopped

Instructions

• in a pan over medium heat, add the olive oil and brown the turkey meat.
• when the meat’s about fully cooked, add in the carrots, celery, onion, mushrooms, and garlic. sauté until the veggies soften and are fragrant (but be sure to not burn the garlic) ~5-7 minutes.
• add the meat and veggies to a slow cooker, along with the crushed tomatoes, jarred tomato sauce, pepper flakes, s&p, basil, and parsley.
• stir to combine, and set the slow cooker to low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.
• serve over your favorite pasta (I used palmini pasta). 
• also, while cooking, I recommend whipping up some cheesy cauliflower “bread” as a side dish. simply use the dishandchips cauliflower pizza recipe for the crust. after it bakes for the initial 20 minutes, top with mozzarella cheese, and put back into the oven until the cheese is bubbly and begins to brown. enjoy!
  

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