If you're looking for an easy ground turkey recipe to keep weeknight meal planning simple and delicious, you've come to the right recipe. This recipe for healthy ground turkey stuffed sweet potatoes is hearty, healthy, and comes together in no time. You'll be hoping there's enough leftover for lunch the next day.
While this recipe is a comforting dish, it can be made all year round! Making sweet potatoes isn't just meant for the holiday season.
I love making turkey recipes like my Italian baked turkey meatballs, and so many more to come. There's something about making a skillet of ground turkey in a deliciously thick sauce stuffed into freshly baked sweet potatoes.
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What are the ingredients for this recipe?
This recipe calls for standard ingredients, but will also ask for a thickening starch like cornstarch or arrowroot, my favorite kind. If you've got a cabinet of seasonings, some ground turkey, and celery and carrots, you're already halfway there!
- Sweet Potatoes - I like to use standard sweet potatoes here
- Ground Turkey - I like to visit my local butcher for a combination of fresh ground dark and light meat turkey, as the dark meat adds a lot of flavor.
- Carrots
- Celery
- Shallot
- Broth - I use chicken stock, but you can easily use vegetable stock.
- Butter
- Arrowroot - this is what thickens the ground turkey as it simmers. If you don't have arrowroot, you can use corn starch.
- Paprika - this gives the turkey a beautiful color, and adds great flavor.
- Garlic Powder
- Salt
- Pepper
See the recipe card below for specific information about quantities.
How do you make this recipe?
The ground turkey is done in just one pan, while you bake the sweet potatoes. So, although the sweet potatoes take some time to bake, you'll be cooking the ground turkey as you bake, so no time is wasted.
Start by preheating the oven to 375º and prepare the sweet potatoes by rinsing, pat drying, and poking a few holes in each of the potatoes. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes or until tender.
In a medium-sized frying pan, add the butter and begin to sauté the mirepoix (carrot celery, onion) until fragrant and soft, approximately 5-7 minutes.
Add in the ground turkey, season with paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper.
Once the ground turkey is mostly cooked, add in the potato or arrowroot starch and broth.
Turn to a low flame and cook until thickened.
Hint: If you're looking to save some time with this recipe, buy the pre-chopped carrots and celery at your local store. You can also swap out the shallots if you can't find any for regular onion.
Recipe Swaps and Substitutions
Here's a few different suggestions for swaps and substitutions that I recommend for this recipe, without fully compromising the fidelity of the entire recipe.
- Turkey - not a turkey fan? Use ground chicken, or even ground lamb! The fat from the lamb would be exceptional here... mmm.
- Potato- if you're not a big sweet potato fan, you can absolutely make this recipe with regular baked potatoes.
- Arrowroot - as I mentioned, if you don't have arrowroot, cornstarch works great too!
Recipe Variations
I love giving a variety of options with serving and pairing for my recipes, so this one has a few that are listed below:
- Spicy - add red pepper flakes to the ground turkey to kick it up a notch.
- Mashed Potatoes - boil the red bliss potatoes for 30 minutes, and with the skin on, mash with some butter and heavy cream. This goes so well with the ground turkey and the sauce that the turkey simmers in.
- Ground Turkey Pasta - make the ground turkey and serve with pasta instead of with potatoes. I recommend a spaghetti or fettuccine with this recipe.
Kitchen Equipment and Tools
I love making this dish because it really only takes one pan from start to finish, and the baking sheet for the sweet potatoes. Here's the entire list:
- Medium frying pan
- Cutting Board
- Sharp Knife
- Baking Sheet
How do I store this recipe? Can I freeze it?
All leftovers can be placed in a tightly sealed tupperware and placed directly in the fridge. This will be good for up to five days.
This recipe is also freeze friendly, so if you want to make this dish for another day, simply prep the veggies and ground turkey, place into a tupperware and into the freezer it goes. When ready, you can defrost the ground turkey, bake the sweet potatoes and enjoy.
PRO TIP:
Add a touch of Worcestershire sauce for another added layer of flavor.
Hungry for more?
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
Healthy Ground Turkey Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
Equipment
- 1 frying pan
- 1 cutting board
- 1 sharp knife
- 1 baking sheet
Ingredients
- 4 large sweet potatoes
- 1.25 lb ground turkey
- 2 celery stalks finely diced
- 2 carrot stalks finely diced
- 1 large shallot minced
- 2 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon arrowroot or cornstarch
- ½ cup broth or stock
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- salt
- pepper
Instructions
- Start by preheating the oven to 375º and prepare the sweet potatoes by rinsing, pat drying, and poking a few holes in each of the potatoes. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 40 minutes or until tender.
- In a medium frying pan, add the butter and begin to saute the mirepoix (carrot celery, onion) until fragrant and soft, approximately 5-7 minutes.
- Add in the ground turkey, season with paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper.
- Once the ground turkey is mostly cooked, add in the potato or arrowroot starch and broth.
- Turn to a low flame and cook until thickened.
Andrew G.
I'm always looking to find ways to make ground turkey taste delicious, and this recipe is perfect. I also liked that there was no cheese added, even though I could have thanks to your suggestions. I had this for leftovers at work last week too, and it was very tasty.
Rosa V
My husband and I try to keep as low carb as we can, so this recipe is exactly what we are looking for. The turkey was very flavorful. We opted to dice up the sweet potato instead of stuffing them, but the turkey on top of the sweet potato was great!
Lauren Scott
Protein-filled carbs?! Sign me up! Can't wait to make this.