Our scotch bonnet and coriander turkey breast recipe is juicy and flavourful, and will set your heart reeling on new and delicious ways to cook healthy.
Healthy eating (as in not wolfing down copious amounts of sugar and cream laced toffee desserts) used to be easy for me but this is one area where I am currently struggling. I have always said, “If you are going to cook something and eat it, it must be worth your while.” Otherwise, you would have just eaten a whole lot of unnecessary calories, what a waste! This is what I do. Therefore, I find ways to incorporate the flavours I want into a dish.
Recipe Inspiration
Last weekend I was good. I saw a few turkey breast steaks while I was out shopping and bought them, knowing that I would challenge myself into cooking them. I don’t usually cook turkey. There is something I don’t like about turkey. It has a subtle scent and taste that requires it to be seasoned very well if I am to enjoy it. But that may just be me. I looked up a few recipes online but in the end I decided to make something intuitively African flavoured.
Family Cooking, And Getting It Done Fast
I remember this night, as with many nowadays since I expanded my family, again. I am usually too busy or tired to go all out and slam dunk it with an authentically African meal my mom would have made, so I just picked up where I left off from making my children’s dinner. It involved sweetcorn and broccoli. This may be why I am so busy, cooking 2 dinners but it is not always the case. The side was not going to be a carbohydrate packed potato gratin or jollof rice, but a warm sweetcorn and broccoli salad. I can’t remember what I dressed it with but it tasted good and might have involved a hint of butter. Just a smidge. And Aromat (shake shake!)
Add Some Low Carb But Filling Sides
I wanted to add a bit of root vegetable to replace the potatoes so I grabbed some carrots and parboiled them. Seeing as I had the griddle pan out, I thought, “why not char them a little bit?” A thought that took too long in the end as I was famished, they were only slightly caramelised. I grilled the turkey breasts in the pan though, 4 minutes each side but in hindsight, I think I would use a normal pan to avoid all the honey burning into charcoal. After grilling/searing the second side of the turkey steaks for a minute, I poured in the marinade so it could cook and thicken.
If you are inspired to go the extra mile and masterchef your way through the presentation of your dinner, go ahead and make a puree out of the sweetcorn then lay a blob of it on one side of the plate (after assembling everything else of course) then run the back of a teaspoon into the blob and across the plate to make it look gourmet. Of just throw the lot onto your plate and eat.
And this is what I ended up with, scotch bonnet and coriander turkey breast.
Recipe
Marinade
1 scotch bonnet pepper
2 cloves of garlic
1 lemon, for juice and zest
1 teaspoon of freshly grated ginger
A bunch of celery
1 tablespoon of honey
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Season with salt and pepper
1 tablespoon sunflower oil
4 turkey steaks (300 to 400g)
Method
1. Place all the marinade ingredients into a blender and blitz together to combine. Pour over the turkey breasts and leave to marinade for at least 20 minutes. If you can make it ahead of time, do so.
2. Grill the turkey breasts in the pan though, 4 minutes each side. After grilling/searing the second side of the turkey steaks for a minute, poured in the marinade so it can cook and thicken.
3. Serve them with caramelized carrots on a bed of steamed broccoli and sweetcorn.
4. As an optional extra you can puree the corn.
Bon apétit!
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