When cooking for myself during the week (and on most weekends for that matter) I stick to a vegetarian diet. For one it keeps the calories down, but perhaps more importantly it saves on the budget. Nothing racks up a grocery bill like meat. But for some reason, this week I’ve had a hankering for ground turkey. Don’t ask me why. Perhaps I’m pregnant… Anyhow, as you might suspect, I will not be making burgers or meatballs with my ground turkey. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against a good turkey burger, but come on – this is the starving artist. Surely we can be more creative than that.
Recently my roommate acquired a bunch of random produce from a friend going out of town for a week. Her friend belongs to one of those farmer cooperatives where one gets a mystery box of produce delivered to one’s door once per week. Part of this particular bounty was a bunch of fresh, Roma tomatoes (not to mention 3 giant heads of lettuce that are currently rotting in the fridge). My roommate asked me what she should do with the tomatoes… I looked in the fridge and saw she had a big pack of mozarella cheese from when she made eggplant parm a few days prior… why not stuff them?
And so my first recipe for ground turkey is born: a simple stuffed tomato. Sauteed with ground up veggies and mixed with breadcrumbs and fresh basil, this is a quick, healthy, and irresistible hors d’oeuvre for your next summer gathering. Or, take the starving artist approach and eat a pile of them for your dinner. If you can spread the stuffing to 20 tomatoes, you’re looking at only 51 calories a pop – not bad at all. I highly recommend finding tomatoes that are just small enough to pop into your mouth in one bite. Tremendous. You can also make this with turkey sausage for an even deeper flavor.
My next trick involves a unique twist on chili. Stay tuned!
Simple Stuffed Tomatoes (Recipe PDF)