This Ground Turkey Sweet Potato Skillet will be ready to eat in less than 30 minutes, and you will be amazed by how flavourful it is. It’s a perfect ONE-PAN meal for your family to enjoy!
When I first made this recipe back in November 2014, it was a chilly Sunday, and I was in search of comforting food. I was thinking of making my zucchini lasagna or my eggplant lasagna.
But I decided to make something using sweet potatoes because I had a lot of sweet potatoes in my kitchen and I also love the flavor of sweet potato. I thought about making my favourite sweet potato soup, but my husband said he felt like eating something with meat.
So, I decided to make this gluten-free, one-pan Ground Turkey with Sweet Potato Skillet to warm us up a bit.
This sweet potato skillet meal is so easy and quick to make and the best part: it’s healthy. In half an hour, this dish will be ready to dig into, and you will be amazed by how flavourful it is. It is definitely a delicious comfort food to share the joy.
I seriously love my cast iron and one-pan meals, like this one or this Shrimp Vegetable Skillet. You can’t go wrong with one-pan meals when it comes to effortless clean up and cooking convenience!
- Extra virgin olive oil — or neutral oil of your choice such as avocado oil.
- Free-range extra-lean ground turkey — you also can use grass-fed ground beef or even ground chicken. Just keep in mind that chicken might cook quicker so it might be drier. Add extra moisture like broth to keep it moist.
- Garlic cloves — I prefer freshly minced garlic to pre-minced garlic.
- Onions — you only need to dice half an onion.
- Yellow pepper — or your choice of pepper. Red and orange peppers are great too.
- Large sweet potato — be sure to dice it small enough that it’ll cook evenly.
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Red chili flakes — optional for a bit of heat.
- Shredded mozzarella cheese — If you’re doing Whole30 or following Paleo diet, don’t add cheese. Feel free to change up the cheese! Make this spicier with some Pepper Jack cheese, Habanero Cheddar Cheese, and more!
- Fresh parsley — for garnishing!
Saute the Ingredients
- In a cast iron skillet ( a large pot works as well), heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.
- Add the ground turkey and garlic. Use a wooden spoon to break up the ground turkey as it cooks. Stir occasionally, and cook for about 5 minutes.
- Next, add the onions and yellow peppers, and cook until the onions are soft.
- Then, add the sweet potato, red chili flakes, salt, and pepper.
Cover and Cook
- Cover the large cast iron skillet, and cook until the sweet potatoes are tender, stirring occasionally. If necessary, add more olive oil or a little bit of water to cook the sweet potatoes faster.
Add the Cheese and Melt It
- While the sweet potatoes are cooking, preheat the oven to 400ºF.
- When the sweet potatoes are tender, add the shredded mozzarella cheese, and put the skillet in the oven to melt the cheese. When the cheese melts, remove the skillet from the oven, and garnish with parsley. Since we are going from stovetop to oven, it’s important to use a cast iron skillet!
If you have followed Primavera Kitchen for a long time, you probably know that I love cast iron skillet recipes, which are staples in my kitchen. I even have a round-up of Cast Iron Skillet Recipes and Skillet Dinner Recipes. But you probably are wondering why I love them so much. Here are the reasons:
- These types of cast iron skillets are well-seasoned and have a naturally nonstick surface that makes all the difference when cooking.
- They also are safe to use on all cooking surfaces, such as on a stovetop, in the oven, under the broiler, or on a barbecue.
- Also, cast iron skillets are great to retain the heat and distribute it evenly for optimal cooking results.
- They are very versatile since you can use them for sautéing, searing, pan-frying, baking, broiling, roasting, and more.
- And last but not least, they are easy to clean. Here is a post where I explain more about cleaning your cast iron skillet without damaging it.
Cast iron skillets are the best cookware to have in your kitchen, and I truly could not enjoy cooking with cast iron any more. Please, give it a try and once you do, you won’t regret it. I promise! You can find lots of good options at Amazon.
Recipe Tips
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- Don’t overload your skillet with sweet potatoes because this veggie takes forever to cook, and you may burn your food. If your cast iron skillet is 9-10 inches, the ideal amount of diced sweet potato is between 2-3 cups.
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- Cover the skillet with a lid and reduce the heat to medium to cook the sweet potato faster.
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- Or, you can first cook the sweet potato and add it into the pan when the ground turkey is cooked.
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- You can also add another spice that you have in your kitchen to make this recipe even more flavourful. According to some readers’ reviews, this recipe is also good with cumin, curry, paprika, sage, chili powder, onion powder, thyme, rosemary, and hot sauce.
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- And, some readers said that they added kale, spinach, and mushroom as well, which make this recipe even more delicious. I’ve already made this recipe with broccoli and green beans, and it worked very well, too. So, be open to adding more veggies if you wish.
- Make sure to store all your portions in an airtight container and, if you prefer, you can also add some rice to the container to serve with. I use glass containers as they don’t hold onto any smells and are easier to clean.
- Be sure to keep the meals refrigerated until you’re ready to eat. When ready to eat, cover it with a damp paper towel when microwaving to keep the moisture in.
- This meal prep will last for up to 4 days when properly stored.
- Before serving it, top with some fresh cilantro, sour cream and even Greek yogurt for an extra protein boost.
- Ground Beef Zucchini Sweet Potato Skillet: It’s very flavorful, easy, quick-to-make, healthy, a one-pan meal and gluten-free! It’s great as leftovers to take to work for lunch.
- Ground Turkey Skillet with Green Beans: A recipe that is definitely easy to make and a tasty meal for your family dinner.
- Ground Turkey Sweet Potato Lettuce Wraps: Fresh and flavourful, this recipe can easily be prepared in just 20 minutes.
- Ground Turkey Cabbage Skillet: An easy recipe that is perfect for a quick dinner during the week. It’s made with ground turkey, cabbage, cheese, and spices.
- Sweet Potato, Kale and Shrimp Skillet: You need only 4 ingredients to make a quick, easy, and healthy dinner meal.
- Asparagus Sweet Potato Chicken Skillet recipe: Another one-pan meal that takes only 30 minutes to be on your table for dinner.
As a memory, I kept this original photo from 2014!
Ground Turkey Sweet Potato Skillet
Video
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 pound free-range extra-lean ground turkey (you also can use grass-fed ground beef)
- 1 teaspoon garlic clove minced
- ½ cup onions diced
- ½ cup yellow pepper diced
- 1½ cups sweet potato diced
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- A pinch of red chili flakes optional
- ½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese (If you're doing Whole30 or following Paleo diet, don't add cheese)
- Fresh parsley for garnishing (optional)
Instructions
- In a cast iron skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.
- Add the ground turkey and garlic. Use a wooden spoon to break up the turkey as it cooks. Stir occasionally, and cook for about 5 minutes.
- Add the onions and yellow peppers, and cook until the onions are soft.
- Add the sweet potato, red chili flakes, salt, and pepper.
- Cover the skillet, and cook until the sweet potatoes are tender. Don’t forget to stir occasionally. If necessary, add more olive oil or a little bit of water to cook the sweet potatoes faster.
- While the sweet potatoes are cooking, preheat the oven to 400ºF.
- When the sweet potatoes are tender, add the shredded mozzarella cheese, and put the skillet in the oven to melt the cheese.
- When the cheese melts, remove from the oven, and garnish with parsley.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did You Make This?
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Yummy!
Thanks for your feedback and for stopping by 😉
I made this recipe today. It tasted very good. I used white sweet potatoes instead (it’s what I had). I also seasoned the ground turkey with Mrs. Dash Garlic & Herb, seasoned salt, ground pepper, and cayenne pepper. I will definitely make it again using the other sweet potatoes.
That’s awesome. Thanks for your feedback 😉
I love the simplicity of this recipe! My husband and I do not have any special diet, and I wasn’t planning on making it, but had all the ingredients and decided to wing it! It was super delicious and we both loved it. I would probably put closer to two cups of sweet potatoes in, just because I like them a lot! I also added some garlic powder because I didn’t feel like mincing another clove, but wanted more flavor. I’m excited to try more recipes from primavera kitchen!
That’s awesome to hear that. Happy you enjoy this recipe. And yes 2 cups of sweet potato works great in there 😉
I made this tonight, I added some left over rice and cooked white potatoes. Because I didn’t have any sweet potatoes available. I also added acup of chicken broth with a heaping tsp of curry. It was awesome. Very moist and tasty!
That sounds delicious. Have to try it with rice and curry next time 😉
This was such a delicious meal! I also added mushrooms to the recipe and my family loved it!
Awesome. Mushroom is a great addition to this recipe for sure 😉
Great recipe! I made a few minor changes (for my own preferences) 🙂
– I put on a pot of water to boil and added the cubes sweet potato. Cooked until just before tender. (To save a bit of time – one extra fish to clean though lol).
– I sautéed the onion (I used red onion bc it’s what I had) until soft then added the garlic and cooked for another minute or so. I added the peppers to the onion and a bit of salt pepper and thyme and cooked another few minutes.
– I transferred this to a bowl then added the turkey to he skillet to cook – I added taco seasoning. I added back in the peppers and sweet potato once the turkey was almost done. I added some spinach when I went to top with cheese!
It was fantastic! Will make again!
Thank you for all your tips and suggestions. And I’m really glad that you enjoyed this recipe 😉
So GOOD!!! Super easy and tastes great! Made for food prep and it warmed up deliciously!
Amazing!!
This is really good and very easy! It did take me longer than 30 minutes, but it was worth it. I recommend adding the turkey to the hot skillet BEFORE adding the garlic, otherwise the garlic can burn very quickly. Since my garlic overcooked, the meat didn’t benefit from the full flavor of the garlic, so I added more spices as I went. With a little extra seasoning, this was very good. My husband commented that it would make a good taco filling between corn tortillas with a little spiced sour cream. A good idea for leftovers. 🙂
Absolutely it would be a great taco filling. Glad to hear you both enjoyed this recipe 😉
Just made this with a little extra crushed pepper (I love spicy food!) and used green pepper instead of yellow because that’s what I had on hand. I served it with some earned sweet Hawaiian rolls and a side salad. It was SO YUMMY! Thank you for this awesome recipe, will definitely be a go-to from now on!
You’re very welcome. And I love the sides you just suggested 😉
Really enjoy this recipe, super tasty and high protein alternative to eggs. I used cheddar instead of mozzarella, and used a lid to melt it because I don’t own a cast iron. Has a permit spot on my Pinterest healthy recipe board!
Conversions (I’m not great at guessing how much a vegetable is diced)
1/2 a standard size bell pepper = 1/2 cup diced
1 small onion (about the size of a wet beauty blender)= 1/2 cup diced
1/2 sweet potato (the length of just the screen (so mince the white part) of my ipad pro 9.7″) = 1 1/ 2 cups diced
That’s awesome, Teddy. Happy to know you enjoy this recipe and thanks for the conversions too 😉
This was delicious! I added black beans, and a smokey chipotle spice, and substituted cheddar for the mozzarella.
Sounds delicious 🙂
I noticed many people commenting about adding the sweet potatoes before the onions, and I wondered about that too, but my kids don’t like harsh, onion-y flavor, so I went ahead and followed the recipe exactly, cooking the onions and garlic first, and adding the sweet potatoes later. Having the onions and pepper well cooked was definitely a plus for my family. Everyone loved it! Excellent!
I am so happy to hear this! Thank you so much for trying the recipe and taking time to leave your positive review.
Do you recommend any other cheese options besides mozzarella?
Actually you can use any type of cheese you prefer (feta cheese, goat cheese or even brie). It will be delicious with or without cheese 😉
We love this dish! I have found roasting the sweet potatoes first easier and we also used ground chicken to change it up….I like how flexible it is to change the seasonings too. Tonight is green beans, yellow pepper (no onion or garlic☹️), chili powder, thyme and cumin! Topped with almond cheese! (Can you tell I have food issues? Lol)
hahahahaha You’re a foodie like me 😉
So good, easy, and simple! Have made it 3 times now
Awesome!!!
How long do you cook the potatoes and what level of heat?
It’s about 7 minutes if the skillet is covered on medium heat.
Just made this exactly as written except I added a little bit of cumin as well. I also had to add a little bit of water twice so it wouldn’t burn. This is a delicious dish! Thank you!
So happy you liked this recipe. And thanks for your feedback 😉
One of my favorite new recipes. Easy, fast, and delicious!
This recipe is always my favourite recipes to make when I am in a hurry 😉
My family loves this! My daughters requests it frequently!
That’s awesome to hear that. Your daughter has good taste 😉
This recipe recipe is in the rotation at my house and my college kid requests it when he’s home.
That’s fabulous, Heather!