Ground Turkey and Sweet Potatoes

Sweet Potato Kale Ground Turkey Pasta Bake: A Comforting and Flavorful Delight

Searching for a satisfying and delicious dinner idea?  Look no further!  Today's recipe will explore a mouthwatering recipe that combines the goodness of ground turkey, sweet potato, kale, and cream cheese.  Our Creamy Turkey Sweeet Potato Pasta Bake is the ultimate comfort food dish that will leave you craving seconds!  Get ready to indulge in a flavorful combination that's easy to prepare and guaranteed to please your taste buds.  

I knew once we had the chickpea pasta there would be more recipes to share with you, I just had no idea it would be so soon.  It was kind of a big hit around here so I thought why not try something new again?  

I opened the fridge and saw I had one bundle of kale that needed to be used and one lonely large sweet potato.  I thought why not try to get both of these items used in one go and so this recipe was created.

Although I wasn't exactly sure how the sweet potato would go with pasta, I thought why not try it?  I knew kale would be wonderful, and I have seen sweet potato and kale together in recipes so I said here we go on the roller coaster that is dinner around here.  I sometimes find eating a Low GI menu is sometimes a stumper, but then I shake it off and say why not give something new and different a try?  Sometimes it works, and other times not so much, but I have to say, this one worked so well!    

What you will need:

1. 1 pound ground turkey, thawed 
2. 1 large sweet potato, chopped into small pieces
3. 1 t minced garlic 
4. 1 T garlic powder
5. 2 T olive oil
6. 1 package pasta of your choice cooked and prepared according to box instructions (I used Chickpea Rotini)
7. 1 bundle kale, washed and chopped 
8. 6 oz cream cheese
9. 1 c shredded cheese of your choice (I used Monterey Jack Cheese)
10. Salt and Pepper to taste 

Instructions:

Preparing the Sweet Potato and Turkey Mixture:

• In a large skillet, add the ground turkey, breaking it up with a spoon, and cook until browned and cooked through
• Season the turkey with garlic powder, salt, and pepper, adjusting the flavors to your liking
• Remove the skillet from the heat and set aside
• Once sweet potatoes are chopped, place in microwavable bowl, add water to cover the bottom of the bowl, place saran wrap over bowl, place in microwave on HIGH for 5 minutes, sweet potatoes will become soft to lessen your cooking time

Add Ingredients to Mixture:

• Add cream cheese, distribute evenly to create a creamy texture 
• Add cooked/softened sweet potatoes
• Add shredded cheese to skillet mixture 
• Add minced garlic, stir well  

Cooking the Pasta and Preparing the Kale: 

• Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the package until al dente (7-9 minutes
• When the pasta has two minutes left to cook, add the chopped kale to the pot and stir
• Remove from heat after two minutes
• Drain and add to turkey mixture
• Add olive oil to mixture, stir well 

Assembling the Pasta Bake:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
• In large baking dish, combine the cooked pasta, kale, sweet potato, and turkey mixture
• Sprinkle cheese on top of the pasta mixture, allowing it to melt and create a golden crust
• Bake the pasta dish in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and bubbly 

Serving and Enjoying:

• Once baked, remove the dish from the oven and let cool for a few minutes
• Serve the Creamy Turkey and Sweet Potato Pasta Bake hot
• Enjoy the delightful combination of flavors and textures in every comforting bite 

Tips:

• Cooking the sweet potatoes separate in the microwave speeds up the process of getting them to a soft consistency 
• Do not add the minced garlic until the end as stated above, it tends to take on a bitter taste if added too soon to dishes, or that has been my experience 
• The olive oil added to the pasta and meat mixture is needed to keep the dish from drying out, if you used beef instead of turkey, it may not be needed
• You can choose ground beef, ground chicken, or ground turkey for this dish, we just prefer turkey these days
• Although I create gluten free recipes due to my food allergies, you can still make these dishes with food items you choose for you and your family.  Substitute the gluten free pasta with pasta of your choice, and you will have yourself a yummy dish to serve
• I set a timer when cooking pasta since I am usually working on several things all at once.  It helps me keep track of when it needs to be removed and drained.  It certainly helped me in adding the kale to our pasta during the last two minutes of cooking our pasta 

We were both pleasantly surprised my concoction was a big hit around here!  My mother used to call my dinners I made up as a teenager concoctions, and so it just stuck.  Now I get to share them all with you.  We will be having this dinner again, can you believe Mr. VS even enjoyed it despite those green veggies.  He's not a fan of much green, me, on the other hand love my greens.  Those sweet potatoes are so good for you too.  I am just glad I finally decided I like them now, I went for a good portion of my life saying no thanks, yuck!  Shame on me, I was missing out.  

Let us know if you give this one a try, I love to hear if you like these recipes of mine.  You never know what I will come up with next.  I enjoy seeing what I can create every night for dinner. 

P.S.  I see I made a mistake on the recipe card, the baking time is 15 minutes, you will need about 35 minutes total to pull this dinner off if your ground turkey is already thawed.  Sorry for the confusion.  

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 Ciao,

Cara