Tonight I am going to a friends house to watch a movie and was asked if I could bring the protein part of dinner. I have been told they will provide salad, potatoes and wine so I had to think of something easy that I didn’t need to cook once there.

Thai Bang Bang Turkey is my low calorie, totally delicious and easy dinner protein option!

Bang Bang Turkey uses a peanut thai flavoured sauce which you can basically put on anything, I would even have it on toast. That is perhaps as I am obsessed by anything that contains peanut butter. This is also a great dish if you have a few things lying around in the fridge to make a salad and you want a change from a normal chicken salad.

I tend to have this cold as I think the sauce works best cold or at room temperature.

Ingredients:
Turkey/chicken – 400g
1 garlic clove crushed
1 thumb sized grated fresh ginger
1 large bag lettuce
2 carrots
1 cucumber/courgette
5 tbsp peanut butter (crunchy is best)
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 lime (juice of)
1 tsp honey

Optional:
1 red chilli (seeds removed)
1 bunch fresh mint or coriander
lime wedges
rice noodles

First of all get your protein and place into a pan of boiling water (or stock if you have it). I used turkey as it is a lean meat with very little fat. I then poached for about 8-10 minutes cutting open one of the turkey escalopes to check it was cooked through. Once cooked remove and set aside to cool before cutting into thin strips.

To make the sauce, mix together the peanut butter, sesame, soy, honey, rice wine vinegar, lime juice, crushed garlic and grated ginger. Once mixed, add 4 tablespoons of water/stock to loosen the mixture. Add more if you don’t like it too thick.

On a large serving plate, lay out your lettuce of choice, then julienne carrots, cucumber (or courgette) and a red or orange pepper and layer on top of the lettuce. Toss the turkey through the sauce and then pile on top of your salad.

For extra garnish, add finely chopped red chilli, lime wedges and either fresh mint leaves or coriander. You can also add some carbs to this dish by making some rice noodles and once cooked run them through cold water before adding to the salad leaves.

If you don’t like peanut butter, you can use cashew or almond butter too. Most health food shops have these in jars.