Thursday, January 22, 2009

Quick and easy Turkey Breasts and Veggies, enhanced with Champagne

I have just returned from a 10 day cruise of the Caribbean (an eaters paradise) so, not surprisingly, I have been craving some lighter, healthier foods this week. I realised that I don't often cook turkey for myself, which is somewhat ridiculous as it is easily accessible, very lean, and has a deeper flavor than the dreaded chicken does. I've been playing with some recipes for turkey burgers in my head recently, but decided instead to have just some turkey breasts for dinner the other night.

Loving the flavors of turkey and sage together, I picked up some nice looking turkey breasts, a little carton of sage and lots of veggies at the store. As an aside- it is very weird for me to have an empty fridge-but that is what I came home to on Monday evening-I also learned that it is very fun to fill it up again :-). Anyway, back at home I trimmed any "nasty bits" off of the turkey (tendons, extraneous fat), and then marinated it briefly in a mix of sage, garlic, salt, pepper, oil and some left over champagne that I had left out of the fridge, but had been able to re cork so still had a nice fizz to it. I let them rest for about 15 minutes as I prepared some veggies for dinner as well. I chopped up some garlic, onion, baby portobella mushrooms, zucchini, and red bell pepper. I got both my grill pan ready as well as my saute pan, in which I melted a teaspoon of butter into an equal amount, maybe a bit more, of extra virgin olive oil. The turkey breasts got laid into the grill pan, 7 minutes a side and they were done. Easy as that. In the saute pan I added the garlic and onion first-with some salt and pepper, then the mushrooms, then the zucchini and allowed those to soften slightly. Once they were at the desired consistency, I added just a bit, maybe a 1/4 of a cup, of champagne to the pan for a little bit of a sauce effect. This reduced quickly and I was able to add a few heaping handfuls of spinach. Right as that wilted down I added in the red pepper so that those pieces would be warm, but still crispy. Veggies finished, I poured a little ginger based salad dressing on to the middle of my plate and placed a turkey breast on top, and then spooned the veggies over the top.

I have to say this was an incredibly satisfying, easy and quick meal. The varying tastes and textures of the vegetables were filling, as well as delicious, and I loved that little hint of sweet champagne. The turkey was very moist, though I wish I had had a bit more time to marinate it. Unfortunately the really beautiful flavor of the sage wasn't quite as present as I would have liked, though I did get that nice flavor of light champagne.

All in all, Id say that this was a perfect week night meal- healthy, fast and delicious.

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