These delicious Mediterranean-inspired bowls have ultra-seasoned crispy ground turkey and can be customized how you like. I love that they’re done in under 30 minutes and always a hit with our kids!

Ground turkey tends to be super bland and boring, but not in my house! While on a 15-year mission to make healthy food taste amazing for my family, I created a couple of hacks to make ground turkey so good you’ll be picking the last bits out of the pan with your fingers.

I highly recommend doubling this recipe and saving the leftovers for quick lunches for the rest of the week! It makes a great meal prep option.

Turkey Bowl Recipe

Lean ground turkey has a reputation for being bland and dry and boring, right?

Well. There are a few tricks you can use to make sure your sauteed turkey is flavorful and your turkey burgers and turkey meatloaf will actually get some compliments.

Turkey Bowl Recipe Ingredients

• Avocado oil: I like the Chosen brand in the large bottles found at Costco.
• Ground turkey
• Middle Eastern Seasoning: This spice blend is quick to assemble with easy to find seasonings and breaths life into that ground turkey! It also makes a fantastic grill rub or marinade, so keep a jar handy in the cupboard.
• Cucumber
• Cherry tomatoes
• Feta cheese
• Steamed rice (Optional as the base): Jasmine rice is always my first choice for rice bowls since it’s fluffy and not as starchy as short-grained rice. You can also long-grain white rice or basmati rice. If you use brown rice or wild rice plan on some extra cook time for those because they take twice as long as white rice.
• Salad greens (Optional as the base)
• Lemons
• Olive oil
• Hummus
• Plain yogurt: Feel free to use full-fat or non-fat here. Both work well!

How to make Ground Turkey Bowls

1. Start cooking your rice, if you are using it as a base for your bowl.
2. Warm the avocado oil and cook the ground turkey until it is cooked through.
3. Then add the remaining avocado oil and seasoning. Continue to cook, breaking the turkey into small pieces, until it is very golden brown and crisped up.
4. Meanwhile, prep your bowl ingredients.
5. Assemble the bowls by scooping some rice or salad greens into a bowl. Top with a few spoonfuls of seasoned turkey, cucumbers, tomatoes, hummus, plain yogurt, and feta.
6. Squeeze lemon over the whole bowl and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil or a spicy condiment.

Seasoning the Ground Turkey

My favorite seasoning blend for this particular recipe is my Middle Eastern Seasoning. It has a lot of herbs and a bit of curry. Steve said this turkey tasted a little like falafel — to give you an idea of the flavor.

It doesn’t have any unusual spices or herbs. It’s heavy on the garlic powder, cumin, and dried parsley and all of the ingredients are easy to find in the grocery store. You can also use this seasoning in my Gyro-Inspired Shredded Beef!

My Greek Seasoning is also really good here as well as any other Middle Eastern-ish type of seasoning like Za’atar or the North African blend, Ras el Hanout.

Tips for how to cook Ground Turkey

Here are a few of my best tips on how to cook ground turkey so it actually tastes good.

Add moisture

If you’re making turkey burgers or meatloaf,, add some shredded zucchini, shredded carrots, minced bell peppers, or another type of quick cooking vegetable to the ground meat. It will release some moisture as it cooks and a great way to keep those burgers moist.

Add fat

It seems counterintuitive to add fat to really lean ground turkey because the appeal of ground turkey is that it’s an extremely lean protein.

Some say it’s a healthier alternative to beef, but I’d rather define “healthy” according to the way meat is sourced. Grass-fed beef is far healthier than conventional red meat and poultry you find in the grocery store. I digress….

I’m not saying that you should go nuts here, but a little bit of fat will go a long way. Try adding a little peanut butter along with some Thai-inspired ingredients to your turkey burgers!

Add LOTS of flavor

Ground turkey has a very mild flavor (like chicken) and is an excellent blank slate for bold flavors. Use a heavy hand with that seasoning or other bold ingredients — like soy sauce, chili powder, or worcestershire sauce.

How to serve Turkey Bowls

One of my most favorite meals is my Gyro-Inspired Shredded Beef made into a bowl like this with Tzatziki sauce and Cucumber Tomato Salad with Feta. It’s not a last-minute dinner you can make on the fly in 30-minutes. It’s more like something that I’d cook for company and one of the most delicious meals that my family loves.

These easy turkey bowls are a shortcut version of this made with the same seasoning and most of the same components! It’s literally one of the best ground turkey recipes I’ve ever had.

You can adapt this how you like to fit your taste or dietary preferences, but this is what I used:

• Steamed rice or salad greens as a base
• English cucumbers
• Cherry tomatoes
• Feta cheese
• Hummus
• Plain Full-Fat yogurt (or Greek yogurt)
• Fresh lemon juice
• extra-virgin olive oil

One of my favorite things about this meal is that it allows my kid to assemble their own bowls.

The best way to avoid complaints about dinner is to give your kids some control over what they’re eating. Build your own bowls are PERFECT for this. (And why we have taco salads/bowls so frequently!)

Ground Turkey Meal Prep Storage

This recipe would also make a great meal prep for a week’s worth of lunches or dinners for busy weeknights for one person!

Just store each component in an airtight container or assemble each meal in those meal prep containers — saving the drizzle of olive oil and lemon juice right before serving.

You know…. this technique would make fabulous filling for ground turkey tacos by using your favorite taco seasoning!

Adding a little extra color to your ground meat is helpful when you’re making sloppy joes or turkey chili. Grab a can of tomato sauce and try using ground turkey in my Healthy Sloppy Joe’s recipe! 

If you like this recipe, check out some other easy ground turkey recipes on my site!

More Ground Turkey Recipes on Perry’s Plate

Moroccan Paleo Turkey Chili is a delicious and unique spin on a chili recipe! It’s one of my favorite recipes for fall because it’s light healthy dinner, yet still incredibly filing.

These Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps can be made with ground turkey, too! They can also be made into bowls if you don’t want to bother with lettuce wraps.

Green Chile Turkey Burgers are so full of flavor and adding some guac-ranch and a fried egg gives the burger extra richness and flavor!

Italian Stuffed Paleo Stuffed Zucchini is stuffed with “turkey sausage” which is just ground turkey with some fresh herbs! You can use bulk Italian turkey sausage, too, if you can find it.

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If you make one of my recipes, be sure to post it on social media and tag me at @perrysplate or #perrysplate so I can send you some love!

More Recipes on Perry’s Plate

Ground Turkey Bowl Recipe FAQs