when i lived with my friend emily in berkeley, we divided up the week and took turns making dinner. we also made lunch items to share, like large batches of hummus, grain salads, etc. we did most of our shopping at monterey market on saturdays together, which is one of my favorite places to grocery shop. it was right by our house, and was mostly fresh produce, with a small dry and canned good section and some dairy and cheese cases and a wine section. it was so cheap, most of you who don’t live here would probably faint at the prices. 

the other reason we liked this market so much, was that it was directly across the street from a sustainable butcher, a cheese and coffee/tea shop, and a fish monger. and for awhile there, when we were still trying to make great meals and really cut cost, so we were eating quite a bit of ground turkey. it was ridiculously cheap ($2.49/lb) and pretty healthy, but i got bored with turkey burgers and turkey chili really quickly, and so i was searching for a way to make it more exciting.

this recipe i came up with is easy, delicious (i think, anyway) healthy, and feeds several people for under $10 — probably even in other parts of the country. the ground turkey is seasoned with cumin, curry, cayenne pepper and fresh garlic and shallot, and is then wrapped in a tortilla with fresh mango, mixed greens, cilantro and a cumin-yogurt sauce.

there are several adjustments you could make to this, (yes, i mean you, you cilantro haters out there) and you could even use lamb, i suppose, rather than ground turkey, but i’ve stubbornly stuck to what i first came up with, and finally made it again after a year or two of it falling by the wayside, and it still surprised me how much i like it.

spicy and flavorful from the cayenne and curry, sweet from the mango and fresh from the cilantro, it’s a pretty healthy, easy and balanced thing to make, and it’s easy to throw together as leftovers. i generally make the ground turkey into little medallions and cook them in a little bit of olive oil, but i’ve also baked them in the oven on a little rack. then it’s just as easy as stirring a little cumin, lime juice and salt into some plain yogurt, slicing up some mango and warming up some tortillas. dinner in 30 minutes of less, i promise.

curried turkey and mango wraps.

1 lb ground turkey

1-2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp curry powder

3 tsp cumin

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 small shallot, minced

1 tsp cayenne

1 large mango

mixed greens

juice of 1 lime

1 c. plain yogurt (greek or european styles both work)

fresh cilantro

tortillas (i like the thicker, homemade style, but any work)

salt to taste

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cut off the fleshy part of the mango on all four sides, and then score the flesh and invert to pop out the fruit, as pictured above.

mix 1 tsp of the cumin, the juice of 1 lime, 1 clove of the garlic, half of the cayenne (optional) and a little salt in the yogurt. set aside.

mix the curry, shallot, the remaining cloves of garlic, 2 tsp of cumin and the other 1/2 of the cayenne in with the ground turkey, and use your hands to form little flat medallions. brown and cook through in a bit of olive oil in a sauté pan, and set aside on a plate with a paper towel to drain. 

warm the tortillas, and set a few turkey medallions on a bed of mixed greens. add mango, top with the yogurt sauce and add a few fresh sprigs of cilantro.