Turkey breast with broccoli and wax beans

If the Meta bar hadn’t been so packed today, this recipe for turkey with broccoli and beans might never have seen the light of day. Luckily it was. There wasn’t even anywhere to park my bike. And that’s how I avoided eating black pudding two days running. They do brilliant grilled black pudding at Meta, although, as you know, I prefer pan-fried black pudding, but after 40 km on the bike nothing beats a beer and a sausage at Meta 🙂

That turkey breast had been waiting for me since Friday. I meant to cook it on Saturday, but that plan went the way of the sausage. Had the same thing happened today, I’d probably have had to dispose of it by some means other than eating it. Anyway, I marinated it late on Friday night. A very simple marinade: garlic, spring onion, soy sauce, ginger, a little salt and black pepper, and olive oil.

I have to admit I’d never cooked turkey this way before. As usual, it happened more or less by accident. The beans and broccoli had been in the fridge for a few days, and I decided their time had come too. The result was a mild dish with crunchy vegetables. As you’ll see below, neither the beans nor the broccoli were boiled beforehand. They weren’t tough at all, just wonderfully crunchy. Give it a try.

At a glance: 

Prep time: 15 minutes

Serves: 2 hearty portions

Calories: enough

Ingredients for tasty turkey with crunchy vegetables:

• about 250 grams of turkey breast fillet
• 1 red pepper
• 1 fairly large head of broccoli
• a handful of yellow wax beans (about 10 decagrams)
• 1 onion
• a 2 cm piece of fresh ginger
• dark soy sauce
• half a bottle of hot sesame sauce
• 1 piece of spring onion
• ground black pepper
• Sichuan pepper
• 1 good-sized garlic clove
• olive oil

How to stir-fry the turkey:

I started two days ahead by marinating the meat. I cut the turkey into small pieces, put them in a plastic container and added a finely chopped 1 cm piece of ginger, the chopped spring onion, a good-sized garlic clove, finely chopped, a tablespoon of dark soy sauce, ground black pepper and a pinch of salt. I poured two tablespoons of olive oil over the lot and gave it a good squish with my hand. Lid on and into the fridge.

Two days later I got round to cooking the dish itself. You can start sooner, even after 12 hours.

First I trimmed the broccoli and beans and washed them thoroughly. You only want the broccoli florets, so off come the stalks. Now for the important bit. After washing the broccoli and beans, I poured boiling water over them and left them in it for about 2 minutes. I moved the broccoli to a bowl and the beans to a colander, then poured boiling water over the beans once more. That way the vegetables stay crunchy.

I diced the red pepper and cut the onion into thick strips.

I got the olive oil really hot in a wok and fried the marinated turkey pieces, stirring constantly with a spoon and adding about two tablespoons of dark soy sauce. After about 3 minutes I added the thickly sliced onion. I stir-fried it for another 2 minutes, then added a finely chopped 1 cm piece of ginger. I seasoned generously with Sichuan pepper and stirred.

I added the cut-up beans and stirred. After about 1 minute of frying I tossed in the broccoli.

Since I’m frying in a wok over fairly high heat, I stir the dish practically the whole time.

Finally, after another 2 minutes, I added the red pepper and stirred. Right at the end, after 2–3 minutes, I added half a bottle of hot sesame sauce (don’t worry, the dish won’t be terribly hot). I turned down the “flame” (from 8 to 5 on my induction hob’s scale of 1–10). I gave it all a good stir. Dinner’s ready. Serve it with rice or, of course, on its own. Enjoy!