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A simple, healthy recipe for Turkey Bolognese, that can be made in a Slow Cooker or on the stovetop. Flavorful and delicious!
This healthy, lightened-up Turkey Bolognese recipe is made with ground turkey instead of ground beef or pork, and instead of the traditional pancetta, I added mushrooms for flavor and depth.
Make this in a slow cooker, or on the stovetop- your choice! There are a few secrets to getting flavor and depth into this sauce without adding the beef and pork, which is a good thing to learn and can be used in many other applications as well. Make a big batch, perhaps even a double batch, and freeze in smaller portions for quick and easy dinners.
Serve with pasta, fluffy quinoa ….or my favorite, over roasted spaghetti squash, keeping it gluten-free.
How to make Turkey Bolognese
- In a very large dutch oven ( medium-high heat) or saute function of a slow cooker, saute the ground turkey and onion in the olive oil, for 7-9 minutes until lightly browned. If there is a lot of liquid, drain. Add the garlic, carrots, celery and mushrooms. Continue sauteing and stirring cooking the veggies until tender, about 5 minutes.
- Add all the spices and salt.
- Make a well in the pan and add tomato paste, saute it for 1-2 minutes, which will give the sauce depth. Mix it all together then add the wine, scraping up all the brown bits.
- Let simmer on medium heat until wine is reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Add the can of tomatoes and their juice, breaking them up with the metal spatula. Stir in the soy sauce. Toss in the parmesan rind (optional) to add even more depth and a bay leaf.
- Place this in a slow cooker on its lowest setting for 6 hours (or medium heat for 3 hours). Adjust seasonings, add more salt to taste, discard parmesan rind and bay leaf. (Alternately you can continue to simmer in the dutch oven on the stove, covered, for 1-2 hours, on lowest heat, adding chicken stock if necessary (if it gets too dry) or uncovering, and cooking off liquid, if it seems too liquidy. Taste, adjust salt to your liking.)
Expert Tips To enhancing Depth of Flavor
- Browning the onions, turkey and mushrooms gives this bolognese added flavor and depth.
- Saute the tomato paste until it deepens in color, also giving depth.
- Add a little miso paste, soy sauce or, (as weird as it seems) a splash of fish sauce.
- Add a parmesan rind to the bolognese.
Ways to serve Turkey Bolognese
- Over pasta
- Over roasted Spaghetti Squash
- Over quinoa
- Over a baked potato!
Store leftover Turkey Bolognese in the fridge for up to 4 days, or freeze for up to 6 months.
Serve with fresh grated pecorino cheese and fresh Italian parsley.
More recipes you may enjoy
- Lentil Bolognese
- Vegan Lasagna Bolognese
- Pasta Fagioli
- 40 Best Pasta Recipes!
- Instant Pot Mushroom Stroganoff
Hope you enjoy this healthier version of Bolognese! Let me know what you think in the comments below.
xoxo
Turkey Bolognese
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 3 hours
- Total Time: 2 hours 20 mins
- Yield: 8 1x
- Category: main
- Method: slow cooker
- Cuisine: Italian
Description
Turkey Bolognese- a lightened-up version that is packed with flavor and depth. Simple easy healthy recipe!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- 1 1/4 pounds ground turkey
- 1 large onion -diced
- 6–8 cloves garlic- rough chopped
- 8 ounces mushrooms- sliced
- 2 carrots- diced
- 2 Celery stalks – diced
- 1 3/4 teaspoons kosher salt, more to taste!
- 1 teaspoon cracked pepper
- 1 Tablespoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon chili flakes
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 3 Tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 1/4 cup Red Wine ( or chicken broth)
- 28 ounce can whole peeled Tomatoes, preferably San Marsano ( or use diced)
- 1 Tablespoon soy sauce (or a splash fish sauce, caper juice, or 2 mashed anchovies)
- 1Bay leaf
- Parmesan Rind (optional)
Garnish: Fresh basil ribbons or chopped parsley and grated parmesan or pecorino cheese
Instructions
- In a very large dutch oven ( medium-high heat) or saute function of a slow cooker, saute the ground turkey and onion in the olive oil, for 7-9 minutes until lightly browned. If there is a lot of liquid, drain.
- Add the garlic, carrots, celery and mushrooms. Continue sauteing and stirring cooking the veggies until tender, about 5 minutes.
- Add all the spices and salt.
- Make a well in the pan and add tomato paste, saute it for 1-2 minutes, which will give the sauce depth. Mix it all together then add the wine, scraping up all the brown bits.
- Let simmer on medium heat until wine is reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Add the can of tomatoes and their juice, breaking them up with the metal spatula. Stir in the soy sauce. Toss in the parmesan rind (optional) to add even more depth and a bay leaf.
- Place this in a slow cooker on its lowest setting for 6 hours (or medium heat for 3 hours). Adjust seasonings, add more salt to taste, discard parmesan rind and bay leaf.
- Alternately you can continue to simmer in the dutch oven on the stove, covered, for 1-2 hours, on lowest heat, adding chicken stock if necessary (if it gets too dry) or uncovering, and cooking off liquid, if it seems too liquidy. Taste, adjust salt to your liking.
- Serve over cooked pasta, quinoa or roasted spaghetti squash with grated parmesan, sprinkled with fresh basil or Italian parsley.
Notes
- TO MAKE IN AN INSTANT POT Follow steps 1-5 using the saute function. Then use the meat/stew setting for 35 minutes (or manual LOW pressure for 35 minutes) followed by a natural release for 15 minutes. Cook off the extra liquid, uncovered, on the saute function, stirring often.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 174
- Sugar: 5.9 g
- Sodium: 259.6 mg
- Fat: 7.1 g
- Saturated Fat: 1.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 11.9 g
- Fiber: 4.1 g
- Protein: 16.7 g
- Cholesterol: 48.9 mg
Keywords: turkey Bolognese, turkey bolognese recipe, slow cooker turkey bolognese, healthy bolognese,
first recipe of yours that I made that tasted great but did not turn out as directions specified. I made it on my instant pot and followed the with the same ingredients and instructions. It came out a bit watery and maybe I could have reduced it some but instead I decided to add a can of cannellini beans in place of the pasta, added a little fresh basil and it turned into a delicious soup! Great flavors and texture.
Thanks Irene; sorry about that and glad you were able to salvage it! Yes, sounds like some of the liquid needed to cook off. I will note the recipe.
And, as some others have mentioned, my turkey did not brown but there was so much other flavor that it didn’t matter.
This is fantastic! I used 1/8 teas. of nutmeg and diced tomatoes. I’ll make this again and put even a little more fennel seeds- they are so good!
★★★★★
Thanks so much Josie!
Another fantastic recipe Sylvia! As I had a parmesan rind in the freezer, and was using Worcestershire sauce, I only used a teaspoon of salt, which was enough. I’ve never come across a recipe where you sauté the tomato puree, but will be doing this in other dishes from now on. Thank you.
Oh perfect- love that you stored one in the freezer!
Approved by my husband and I. Simple to make and very yummy! Love your recipes!
★★★★★
Great to hear Rayanne!
Wow! Took a chance and made this for a dinner party with all spices recommended, San Marzano tomatoes and anchovies. Topped with fresh herbs from the garden. This was outstanding, thank you!
★★★★★
Thanks Linda! Glad you enjoyed this!
Hi Sylvia
I’d like to make this and freeze it for later. Can I take it to step 5 and then freeze for later cooking or, is it better to cook completely and then reheat.
I’m sure it will be delicious.
hi Erik, I would cook it all the way through, freeze and reheat. 🙂
Hi Sylvia,
I have an abundance of tomatoes from my garden. Do you think I could use fresh instead of canned? If so how many and would they need to be peeled first?
I would sub 2 lbs fresh tomatoes (and their juices). If the tomato skin bothers you, you could cut in half, grate all the way down to the peels, leaving them behind? Or could finely dice, leaving the peels on.
I’m about to make this recipe for a family reunion. Do you think it freezes well?
I bet it would freeze great!
The good news is that this was pretty delicious. Lots of depth of flavor. There were several problems with the recipe, though. (1) First instruction is to saute onion and turkey in olive oil — but there is no olive oil in the list of ingredients. (I used about 2 Tbsp.). (2) I used a large pot on the stovetop to make the recipe. The recipe doesn’t tell you what temperature to set the stove at. (I started at medium, then realized it was going to take forever for anything to happen, so I set it to high. (3) Second ingredient is an onion: A small onion? A medium onion? A large onion? (I used a large-ish onion.) (4) Even at a high heat setting, it doesn’t take 3 minutes for the turkey to brown — it takes more like 12 minutes. Adjust your timing accordingly! (5) I used 93% lean ground turkey, and there was plenty of liquid in the bottom of the pot after the first step. I poured off the liquid — and after sauteing the vegetables, it was time to “fry” the tomato paste. But I had the same experience as another reader: there was a fair amount of liquid in the bottom of the pot, so it was more like braising the tomato paste than frying it. (6) Step 4 says to simmer until the wine is reduced — but reduced by how much? Till it disappears? Till you have half the volume you started with? (I got it down to about 1/4 of the original volume of wine.) (7) The recipe tells you what to do if the bolognese gets too dry. I had just the opposite problem. There was lots of liquid in the pot — my recipe wasn’t going to turn out anything like the pictures above — so I turned up the heat and cooked the bolognese uncovered for the last half hour, trying to boil off some of the liquid. I was only partially successful.
So, lots of problems with the recipe and with the timing, but the end product was very good.
Appreciate your notes. I adjusted the recipe to make it more clear. Sorry about that. This started off as a slow cooker recipe, that morphed into a stove-top recipe, but I see how it needed a little more direction. Glad you were able to adjust and come up with something tasty.
what side dish would you recommend with this?
Big hearty Salad and Garlic Bread!
Turkey and onions together won’t brown for me; I need to brown them separately. Should I brown the turkey or the onions first? Do I remove one from the pan to brown the other? Thanks for the tips!
Is your turkey kind of watery? Yes, you can do them separately, I’d do the onions first, then turkey.
A great sauce! Could you suggest a substitute for the fennel? I’d love to make it again but the kids didn’t care for the fennel.
★★★★★
I would just leave it out!
Mushrooms, unless I sauté/fry them in a pan, always turn out rubbery for me whenever I add them to a recipe. Am I doing something wrong? Using the wrong kind (Asian mushrooms)? Thank you.
When you say Asian Mushrooms, what kind specifically?
usually shiitakes
I wonder if you tried a different mushroom like cremini or portobello?
I had some turkey and mushrooms so I googled it, and found this recipe! I was impressed at the intentional ingredients to create that umami flavor. I’m sure it would have come out fantastic, but unfortunately it turned out to be incredibly salty. I felt like 2.5 tsp of salt was kind of a lot with the soy sauce but I followed the seasoning measurements to a T for once. Ultimately it turned out so salty that I had to add a bunch of half n half, more tomato, a teaspoon of sugar, and then made a slurry with cornstarch to thicken it back up. Even with all that, still a bit too salty for my taste. I can’t imagine what went wrong unless my taste buds went awry since no one else seems to have had the same experience. The only thing I did differently was add a quarter pound of ground lamb because I only had a pound of Turkey. I also used a prechopped mirapeaux so it may have had a few less veggies. Otherwise, I know this is a great recipe and it really did taste good once I was able to tone down the salt. I’ll have to go back to the drawing board – but just in case I’m not crazy, I recommend adding salt as needed since the meat is cooked by the time it’s ready to season. Will update when I try again.
★★★★
Appreciate that and I will note the recipe. Sorry it was too salty for you.