Ground meat has long been a hero of the weeknight dinner. While ground pork may be the tastiest ground meat, ground turkey is actually my preferred ground meat of choice. It’s healthier than pork and more affordable than beef. And thus I am always in search of a solid ground turkey dinner. And this has recently become one of my favorites. It’s loosely based on the many egg roll bowl videos I have seen on the internet. Although in my case I think it’s very literally a deconstructed egg roll in a bowl. At least the egg rolls my mother used to make in the 1990s, which came from a Better Homes and Gardens Chinese cookbook from the 1980s. So to be very clear we are not claiming authentic Chinese food here. But very authentic 1980s American Chinese home cooking? Absolutely.
My mother’s egg rolls had ground beef, shredded cabbage, carrots, zucchini, soy sauce, ginger, and garlic. That’s it. They were rolled in wrappers and fried and they were genuinely delicious. What I’ve done here is skip the wrappers entirely and let each component shine on its own. The cabbage gets roasted in the oven until the edges are crispy and a little bit charred. The carrots and zucchini get a quick stir fry. The turkey cooks down with plenty of ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and sesame oil until it’s saucy and caramelized. And then a fried egg goes on top because a fried egg goes on top of everything in this house in the dead of winter.
The key to this recipe is that it’s a three-station operation. Cabbage goes in the oven first because it takes the longest. While it roasts, you’ve got the turkey going in one pan and the veggies stir frying in another. When the veggies are done, you slide them out and fry your eggs right in that same pan. Everything comes together at the same time and it feels very orchestrated and impressive, even though you’re really just cooking three simple things simultaneously.
I like to roast my cabbage in the oven while my ground meat is cooking in one pan, and carrots and zucchini are stir frying in another pan. If you make this with white rice it truly is a 30 minute meal.
A note about the ginger: be generous. This is not a dish where you mince a shy half-teaspoon and call it done. The ginger should be forward and present. It’s doing a lot of the heavy lifting here, alongside the soy sauce and sesame oil. If you love ginger, add more than I’ve listed. I usually do.
Ingredients
Method
- Roast the cabbage. Preheat your oven to 425°F. Spread the slivered cabbage on a sheet pan, toss with oil, salt, and pepper. Roast for 20-25 minutes, tossing halfway through, until the edges are golden and crispy. The crispy edges are the entire point here. Don’t pull it out too early.
- Cook the turkey. While the cabbage roasts, heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the ground turkey and break it up, cooking until browned with some crispy spots, about 5-6 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and cook another 30 seconds until fragrant. Stir in the soy sauce, sesame oil, and sugar. Let it cook down until it’s saucy and a little caramelized. Keep it warm.
- Stir-fry the veggies. In a second skillet over medium-high heat, add oil and the carrots first since they take a bit longer, about 2-3 minutes. Then add the zucchini, garlic, and ginger and stir-fry until everything is tender-crisp, another 3-4 minutes. Season with salt.
- Fry the eggs. When the veggies are done, remove them from the pan and add them to the roasted cabbage. Fry your eggs in that same pan, one per person.
- Assemble. Roasted cabbage and veggies on the bottom. Saucy turkey on top. Fried egg. Green onions, sesame seeds, and as much sriracha as you can handle.
This is one of those dinners that looks like it required real effort but is actually just three pans doing their thing at the same time. The flavors are big, the crispy cabbage is addictive, and the runny egg yolk ties it all together. My kids love this dinner over rice with lots of chili crisp!