In January of this year, I tore my ACL and meniscus in my knee. I got surgery on the knee in March, but have still been recovering since. Needless to say, running and being active isn’t as much of an option since then. Which means I need to be a bit healthier about what I eat. In addition, during the week, I have an hour/hour-and-a-half commute each way to work, which means I don’t have a ton of time to cook in the evenings. So I often find myself making Asian brown rice bowls as a quick, but healthy and tasty meal option.
I tend to have ground turkey breast or boneless skinless chicken breast on hand in the fridge or freezer since they are super adaptable lean proteins. Combined with avocado, veggies and topped with an egg and aromatics, you have nutritious and filling rice bowls of deliciousness. I’ve made a number of variations of these protein and rice bowls – often taking an Asian slant, but mixing up the proteins, veggies (cooked and raw), egg preparation, etc. But today, I’m sharing one of my most recent variations and one of my boyfriend’s favorites. It involves a variation of a spicy soy-sweet sauce reminiscent of teriyaki flavoring covering ground turkey breast and tender zucchini slivers, sitting on a bed of brown rice topped with a poached egg. So simple, so delicious.
I will say that making rice bowls takes a bit of multi-tasking, so I do recommend preparing some of the ingredients in sequence to ensure that everything is hot and ready to eat when you assemble the final product. For instance, if you’re cooking brown rice, I recommend that you get this started first since it takes the longest to cook with ~50 minutes plus 10 minutes of resting time. If you’re not comfortable making brown rice, I recommend you check out my “how to make brown rice” post for instructions on how to cook rice on the stove (note: the secret is to not follow the instructions on the package!). I also recommend having your vegetables and aromatics chopped and ready to go since the actual cooking of the stir-fry can go pretty quick. In this instance, I had to have my garlic, zucchini and green onions ready first.
Prepare the sauce
Create your sauce by combining soy sauce, chicken broth, sugar, red pepper flakes, ginger and sesame oil in a small bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the cornstarch and water to create a slurry. Don’t be alarmed by the cornstarch slurry; this is a common addition to almost all Chinese stir-fries and helps thicken the sauce to coat all the ingredients. Ever have a thin, runny sauce for your stirfry? I’m guessing that you either didn’t add the cornstarch or not enough of it.
Cook the meat and veggies
Add 1 tbsp cooking oil to your wok or pan. I tend to use grapeseed or vegetable oil as both can withstand high heat but are also flavorless. I don’t recommend olive oil for Asian dishes since the taste is fairly strong and can throw off the flavor balance of the sauce. Add in the minced garlic, and stir fry until fragrant (about 1 minute). Then add in the ground turkey—I prefer ground turkey breast since its leaner—breaking up the turkey along the way, using the back of a wooden spoon or even a potato masher.
After, or as the turkey browns, I recommend getting the pot of water for poaching eggs on heat to boil. Once the turkey is browned, add in the zucchini, green onions, and sauce mixture. (Sometimes, I also throw in a handful or two of spinach if I have some on hand. Because more greens certainly doesn’t hurt). Saute until the zucchini softens. Season with salt and pepper to taste and remove the mixture from the heat. And now you have your protein base for the bowl.
Assemble your rice bowls
Then you can poach your eggs – be sure to refer to my “how to poach an egg” post for more details on how. Assemble your bowl with brown rice as the base, followed by the turkey and zucchini mixture, and then topped with avocado and a poached egg. A sprinkle of green onions and sesame seeds are optional, but are a nice touch to complete the dish. Enjoy your healthy brown rice bowls!
Asian Ground Turkey and Avocado Brown Rice Bowls
Print RecipeIngredients
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 tbsp brown sugar, packed
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger, or 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
- 1/4 tsp chili flakes, more or less to taste
- 1/4 cup chicken broth
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 2 tbsp water
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb ground turkey breast
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- 3 green onions, white and green parts, finely chopped
- 1 zucchini, sliced into 1 inch strips
- For assembling the bowls:
- 3 cups cooked brown rice
- 1 avocado
- 4 poached eggs
- for garnish: green onions and sesame seeds
Instructions
Make the sauce: In a small bowl, whisk together chicken broth, brown sugar, soy sauce, chili flakes, and sesame oil. Set aside.
Make a cornstarch slurry: In a separate bowl, combine cornstarch and water and mix to form a slurry. Set aside.
Heat the pan: Heat cooking oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add garlic, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Brown the turkey: Add ground turkey to the pan, breaking it up along the way, and cook until browned, about 5-6 minutes.
Add veggies and sauce: Mix in the zucchini strips and most of green onions (leave a small handful for garnish), along in soy sauce mixture. Sauté until zucchini softens, about 3-4 minutes.
Thicken the sauce: Add in the cornstarch slurry and stir for 1 more minute until sauce thickens.
Season: Season with salt and pepper to taste as necessary. Remove from heat.
Assembling the bowls
Place about 3/4 cup of brown rice at the bottom of each bowl
Top rice with a healthy scoop of the ground turkey and zucchini mixture (approx. 1/2 cup)
Add 1/4 of an avocado, sliced, to each bowl. I recommend adding a small pinch of sea salt on top of the avocado to enhance the flavor.
Top off with a poached egg.
Garnish with green onion and sesame seeds, if desired.
Notes
This recipe will make 4 bowls, but you can easily just assemble 2 bowls with half of the ingredients instead. We love leftovers so I'll often just create 2 bowls, but still make the same amount of turkey mixture and rice for future meals.
Feel free to substitute and/or add in additional vegetables, such as spinach, kale, mushrooms, etc.
It's best to cook the brown rice first since it takes the longest to cook (about 50 minutes, with 10 minutes rest time). I recommend that you read my "how to cook brown rice on a stove" post if you don't have a rice cooker or frozen rice. You should have all of the vegetables chopped up and ready to go before sauteing/stirfrying. You can poach eggs after the turkey and zucchini mixture is fully cooked, but I recommend getting the water boiling by the time the turkey is browned, before you add the zucchini and sauce mixture. It's easy to have the water ready to go in a pot before turning on the heat at that juncture. The avocado should be sliced at the very end as you're assembling the bowl to prevent browning.
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