Greek Ground Turkey (Great Meal Prep!)

Greek Ground Turkey: Flavorful seasoned turkey with sun-dried tomatoes and kalamata olives, served over lemon-parsley rice with fresh veggies and tzatziki sauce.

Greek Ground Turkey

These Greek Ground Turkey bowls are the perfect way to stay on track with any healthful eating goals you may have coming into the New Year. They’re loaded with good-for-you ingredients, but we are not skimping on any flavor!  From the lemon-parsley rice to the deeply flavorful ground turkey and the myriad fresh topping options — what’s not to love?! And it all starts with Greek Ground Turkey.

Below I’ll break down all the components of this meal, as well as how I like to meal prep with this recipe. 

Lemon-parsley rice

The base of these Greek Ground Turkey bowls is herby lemon rice. It’s not much more work than making regular rice, but you’ll be amazed just how deeply flavorful it is.

We use a lot of the same ingredients in the rice and the ground turkey, so it makes sense to start by prepping everything together before starting: dice the onion, mince the garlic, zest some lemons, and juice some lemons.

A few prep shortcut suggestions:

• Buy pre-diced onion from the produce section of your store or use frozen diced onions.
• Use jarred minced garlic or a garlic press.
• A microplane (like this one) makes zesting the lemons quick and easy.
• And if you juice a lot of citrus, this citrus juicer will transform your lemons to lemon juice in seconds!

Greek-seasoned ground turkey

While the rice is cooking, I like to prepare the ground turkey and toppings. The ground turkey cooks fairly quickly; it’s a meat we want to avoid over-cooking since it can become and dry and flavorless when even slightly over-cooked.

The seasoning mixture may seem like a lot, but it works with ground turkey and ensures there is plenty of flavor — no dry flavorless turkey in this dish! 

The finishing touches to this cooked Greek ground turkey include lemon juice, lemon zest, kalamata olives, and sun-dried tomatoes. The meat does end up pretty intensely lemon-flavored (which we love), but feel free to cut back on the lemon if desired. The olives and sun-dried tomatoes can also be left out, but they add a nice flavor and texture to the meat.

Tzatziki Sauce

I like making this sauce in advance because it becomes more flavorful as it sits in the fridge. It sure makes dinner assembly that much quicker later on.

A few quick notes on this sauce:

• Make sure to use good full-fat, plain Greek yogurt.  We want a full-fat yogurt to avoid watery or bland tzatziki. (We love Greek God’s® plain Greek yogurt best!)
• Squeeze liquid out of the cucumber. Cucumber has very high water content and will water down the sauce or make it bland. Wring out excess liquid a few times with paper towels or cheesecloth before adding to the mix. (See “quick tip” below.)
• Use real lemon juice. Bottled lemon juice won’t quite cut it here, because the sauce also relies on the zest of the lemon. When zesting the lemon, avoid the white pith of the lemon — this is very bitter. Using a microplane, zest only the very outside yellow part of the lemon.
• Don’t forget to season. A little bit of salt and pepper goes a long way in intensifying flavors and pulling everything together.

Greek Ground Turkey Toppings

Pita Bread or Chips.

My husband and boys love this meal with charred pita bread or pita chips on the side. (Either whole wheat or white pita bread works great in this recipe.) Alternatively, store-bought pita chips add a nice crunch!

To char pita bread: Spray both sides of the pita bread with olive oil cooking spray and “grill” the bread on the stovetop over the open flame (on medium-low heat) until slightly charred, flipping with tongs as needed, about 10-15 seconds per side. Alternatively, warm (covered with a damp paper towel) in the microwave.

Veggies.

We love the combo of cherry tomatoes and Persian/English cucumber to top these Greek ground turkey bowls. 

Red onion is another topping that would be great (either pickled or raw). Additional kalamata olives would also be nice if you really love them.

Fresh lemon, fresh herbs, and feta cheese.

These three ingredients pull everything together. The feta adds a nice tang and saltiness to the bowls, the lemon adds a hit of freshness and acidity, and we’ll sometimes add some fresh chopped parsley for additional freshness.

If you don’t choose to use the feta cheese, you may want to add an extra pinch of salt to the finished bowls.

Meal Prepping this Greek Ground Turkey

To meal prep this recipe, divide the rice equally among four containers. Top each container with equal parts of the Greek ground turkey mixture.

In a separate container or small bag, add the chopped veggies, feta cheese, and lemon wedge if using. Add the tzatziki sauce to another separate small container.

When ready to eat, warm the rice and ground turkey mixture. (I do about 45 seconds, covered with a damp paper towel in the microwave. Don’t heat too long or it will dry out the turkey.) Top the warmed mixture with the veggies and feta, squeeze lemon over everything, and add a few spoonfuls of tzatziki sauce.

More ground turkey recipes

• Turkey Chili the best ever, made with sweet potatoes
• Turkey Bolognese over spaghetti
• Ground Turkey Sweet Potato Skillet with black beans
• Turkey Meatloaf with loads of “hidden” veggies
• Turkey Picadillo with potatoes & Mexican-inspired seasoning blend