Spicy Ground Turkey and Green Bean Stir-fry

This easy Ground Turkey Green Bean Stir Fry takes only 20 minutes to make and is the perfect quick dinner for a busy night. Plus, it's low-carb, Paleo, gluten-free, and Whole30 friendly. Serve it with Asian Zucchini Noodles, Cauliflower Rice,  or Sesame Edamame.

I don't know about you, but schedules feel so busy right now. All I need is a week full of clean, quick, and easy meals.  It's time for some simple, fast recipes that the whole family will happily eat. Stir fries are at the top of that list.

This meal is just the thing. Packed with green beans, lean ground turkey, and a simple spicy Asian stir-fry sauce, it's ready in no time and so easy to adjust for all tastes and preferences.

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The key to making this dish stand out from a typical stir-fry is broiling the green beans until crispy and caramelized. This adds so much flavor to the green beans and ensures they aren't mushy. It's the key to making this stir-fry extra tasty.  

From there, it is just a simple sauce of coconut oil, garlic, ginger, soy sauce (or coconut aminos), rice vinegar, and some Asian garlic chili paste if you like things spicy.

Are you worried about kids or picky eaters? It's easy to adjust the spice level and sweetness of the sauce—just skip the child paste and add a touch of brown sugar or honey. Stir it into the soy sauce before adding it to the pan.

Served with some brown rice, quinoa, or cauliflower rice, this is a healthy, easy, delicious meal. Looking for more healthy Asian recipes, try this Spicy Thai Basil Ground Turkey or Healthy Mongolian Ground Beef.

Key Ingredients and Easy Swaps

Here is everything you need for this tasty turkey stir fry. 

• Ground turkey: This recipe will work with any ground meat, including turkey, chicken, beef, pork, or vegetarian crumbles. You can also make it with thinly sliced chicken, turkey breast, pork tenderloin, beef, or tofu. 
• Green beans: You can make this with any fresh veggies, just adjust the roasting time. It's delicious with broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, asparagus, snap peas, carrots, zucchini, or bok choy. You can also use a combination of veggies. 
• Coconut oil: Coconut oil adds a delicious flavor to this dish, but any oil you like will work, including olive oil or avocado oil.
• Sesame oil: Regular or toasted sesame oil adds a nutty flavor to this stir fry. If you don't like sesame oil, swap it for another oil. 
• Garlic and ginger: Fresh garlic and ginger will always give your stir-fries the best flavor. Frozen cubes are the next best option if you don't have fresh. 
• Soy sauce: To add that salty, umami flavor to your stir-fry, use soy sauce, tamari, or coconut aminos. 
• Chili paste: My favorite chili paste is sambal olek, but you could also make these with Sriracha, chili crisp, gochujang, or red pepper flakes. Skip this or serve it on the side if you don't love heat. 
• Optional: There are many ways to add even more flavor to this dish. To sweeten the sauce, add honey or brown sugar. Finish the dish with fresh herbs like basil or cilantro. Add some crunch and texture with sesame seeds, cashews, or sliced almonds. 

Recipe Tips for Spicy Green Bean and Turkey Stir Fry

There are lots of ways to customize this recipe to work for any tastes and preferences. 

• Non spicy: Almost every time I post a spicy recipe, I get asked if it can be made without the spice. In this case, absolutely! It is still really tasty without the spice and if anyone wants it spicy, you can serve it on the side.
• Change the veggies: This recipe will work with all kinds of veggies, not just green beans. However, no matter what you choose, I recommend sending it for a quick trip to the broiler so that you can create some char and smokiness. Broccoli, sugar snap peas, asparagus, and cabbage all are great options.
• Lower sodium: For Paleo and Whole30 diets or anyone looking to lower the sodium count, I recommend using coconut aminos instead of soy sauce. It has the same salty, savory, umami flavor but with about 65% less sodium than standard soy sauce.

• Make it sweet: Some people need something sweet in their Asian stir-fries. If you are one of them, you can add brown sugar, honey, maple syrup, agave, or coconut sugar to the stir-fry sauce. Just taste as you go to achieve the sweetness you like.
• Change the protein: If ground turkey isn't your favorite protein, you can substitute in ground beef, chicken, pork, or even vegetarian crumbles instead of the turkey. I imagine it would be delicious with shrimp as well but I haven't tried it yet.
• Extra saucy: Double the stir fry sauce ingredients and add some cornstarch to thicken things up if needed.

Meal Prep Ideas for this Ground Turkey Stir Fry

I love making stir-fries on Sundays and packing them for easy lunches all week. This recipe is great to prep beforehand since it reheats well and keeps well in the fridge. Here are some ideas and tips for meal prep.

• Fully cool: Always let it cool completely before packing it up for meal prep. Let the dish cool completely, and then divide it.
• Use frozen grains: For quicker meal prep, reach for frozen brown rice or cauliflower rice. Add it frozen right to your container, and then add the stir fry. This works with frozen rice, veggie rice, and quinoa. 
• Serve it in different ways: If you get bored easily, consider prepping the meal slightly differently every day. Pack it with rice one day, carrot noodles the next (the frozen ones from Trader Joe's are great), lettuce wraps for the third day, and Asian salad with crunchy coleslaw mix and peanuts for the last day. 

What's the best ground turkey to buy? Is it healthy?

Looking in the meat section at your local store, you probably see a few different options for ground turkey. You can buy 99% lean, 93% lean, 85% lean, and ground dark meat turkey. You also may be able to buy an organic ground turkey or a seasoned ground turkey option. It can be tricky to know what to buy.

For this recipe, I wanted to keep it light and lower in fat, so I reached for 99% lean ground turkey. This option is made with almost all-white meat turkey and is the leanest option. It works great for this recipe since there is plenty of added flavor and sauce. If this recipe didn't have a flavorful sauce, I would probably have reached for a more flavorful blend with a bit more fat.  

Regarding health, ground turkey is a great lean protein with lots of vitamins and minerals. It can be a great alternative to ground beef with lower levels of saturated fat. We love using it as a protein source for healthy dinners.