The holiday season is full of high salt, high fat dishes, that applies girth and weight. Now, I’m not complaining, nor do I suggest you dispense with your favorite dishes. But if you are interested in adding something with minimal fat, but still packs a very tasty punch, try my curried turkey endive salad bites. They are delicious.
I like this dish for two reasons. It’s low fat, and flippin cheap. Yippee! A true holiday gift from the recipe fairy.
You need ground turkey for the dish, which takes little cooking, but a lot of seasoning. The most work to be done for this dish is making the pickled red onions. If you like you can dispense with the picked red onions, and as an alternative serve with a pre-made chutney or onion jam. This substitution will change the flavors, compared to the recipe I’m sharing, but it will still be great.
If you are looking for something low in calories, then I suggest you stick with the pickled red onion which is a great surprise to the palate, and balances out the curry flavor.
Appetizers should be full of flavor. They should impress your senses at the first bite, as there will be very little after. Curried turkey endive salad bites do just that, but the flavors will linger. To combat the lingering flavors, I would suggest you also serve a palate cleansing mini cocktail. Shot glasses of rum and coconut water, or gingered vodkas, are perfect, and both are really easy to make:
Rum and Coconut Water – 1 part white rum to 3 parts coconut water
Serve with or without lime
Gingered Vodkas – 1 part vodka to 2 parts Ginger Canton
Serve with 1 piece of candied ginger
Each palate cleansing cocktail should be a little sweet to taste. If you and your guests are sensitive to sugar, then you can serve as is, but if you are serving to guests who enjoy a sweet cocktail, you should add a teaspoon or two of simple syrup.
Your friends will love your curried turkey endive salad bites, but after one of these mini cocktails I suggest above, their palates will forget they ever happened and set them up ready for whatever is next on the menu. But remember curried turkey endive salad bites, is a two bite sensation that shouldn’t be missed.
Curried Turkey Endive Salad Bites
Ingredients
Pickled Red Onion
- 1 cup rice vinegar
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp dried cranberries
- 1/2 tsp allspice whole
- 1 small red onion sliced thin
- 3 cups boiling water
Curried Turkey Endive Salad
- 30 Belgian endive leaves approx. four endive bulbs
- 1 1/2 tbsp turmeric
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/4 tsp cumin
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 3/4 tsp kosher salt
Equipment & Utensils
- Air tight/sealable container
- Large colander
- Large bowl
- Large two-pronged fork
- Large skillet
- 1 or 2 large plates / platters
Instructions
Pickled Red Onion
- Cut off base of endive bulbs and peel away the larger endive leaves. Save the center leaves for another dish.
- Place in colander and rinse with cold water then allow to drain.
- Pour rice vinegar, sugar and salt into sealable container.
- Stir until salt and sugar dissolves.
- Add cranberries and allspice
- Place onion slices into a colander then pour boilng water over onions to blanch them.
- Allow to drain then drop onion slices into sealable container with pickling solution, stir up to combine and seal.
- Let onion slices sit in pickling solution for at least 30 minutes but ideally for 2 hours.
Curried Turkey Endive Salad Bites
- Shake of excess water from endive leaves,. Dab with a paper towel if needed.
- Place endives leaves on a plates or platters in a decorative shape or shapes.
- Combine turmeric, garlic, coriander, salt, cayenne, and cumin in a small bowl.
- Whisk up to make sure the ingredients are completely combined.
- Place turkey into large bowl then pour spices over turkey.
- Combine thoroughly using a large two-pronged fork to mix ingredient thoroughly.
- Heat oil in skillet on high until very hot, then add seasoned turkey to skillet.
- Cook while continuously turning over to make sure all parts of the ground turkey is cooked.
- As soon as turkey forms into small clumps remove from heat - do not over cook.
- Season with kosher salt to taste (approx. 3/4 tsp salt)
- Use a small spoon to scoop cooked turkey into endive leaves.
- Top with pickled onions and serve.
