Spicy Ground Turkey & Cabbage Stir Fry Meal Prep

This Spicy Ground Turkey & Cabbage Stir Fry Meal Prep is a flavorful mix of ground turkey, ginger, garlic, chili sauce, fresh cabbage, and carrots. Served over your favorite kind of rice for the one of the easiest meal preps ever!

Before I started really cooking for myself at home, I would have never guessed ground turkey could be so versatile. I wasn’t a beef eater and somehow I was still oblivious to the fact that ground turkey worked for more than just a ground beef substitute in tacos.

Turkey burgers are a great idea too. One of the very first recipes on Project Meal Plan were these Feta Basil Turkey Burgers. After that came the Smoky Green Bean Turkey Skillet, and then later, some Spicy Baked Turkey Spinach Meatballs.

Ground turkey is incredibly easy to cook with. For example, these Homemade Ground Turkey Sloppy Joes or Best Ground Turkey Breakfast Sausage Patties are so easy and delicious. Have I blown your mind with all the ground turkey possibilities?? Okay I’ll stop – after this new stir fry recipe!!

This is the Spicy Ground Turkey & Cabbage Stir Fry Meal Prep. No special equipment is required for this easy dinner recipe – anyone can make this with just a big pan on the stove!

Watch how to make Spicy Ground Turkey Stir Fry Meal Prep (1 min 30 secs):

Ingredients in this Spicy Ground Turkey & Cabbage Stir Fry Meal Prep

The ingredients in this recipe are relatively simple – I bet you can find most of them in your pantry, and the rest easily at your regular grocery store. 

Here are the ingredients I used, along with possible substitutions and options:

• rice + cooking liquid – For this meal prep, I like to pair with white rice and let it cook in the Instant Pot while I’m working on the rest of the dish!
• soy sauce – This is the base of our sauce! You can use low sodium if you’d like.
• sesame oil – I love the taste of sesame , and the background nuttiness it brings.
• chili garlic sauce & sriracha – These are what make the spicy stir fry spicy! I love using chili garlic sauce because I love the added garlic flavors with the spice.
• avocado oil – I prefer to use avocado oil for most of my cooking, but you can use olive oil.
• ground turkey – I use 93% lean, but you can use any ground meat you have. I’ve heard success with ground pork and ground beef as well.
• onion powder – You can use onion powder or cut up a little bit of fresh yellow onion and stir fry with the carrots and cabbage.
• fresh garlic & ginger – Using fresh garlic and ginger for this recipe really help give the best flavor! 
• small head of cabbage – Look for the smallest head of cabbage you can find, or a half! The easier alternative is grabbing a big bag of shredded cabbage and carrots so you can skip the shredding. I’ve done both and each method works great!
• carrots – I love adding additional carrots for a little more bulk here. 
• salt & pepper – Season as you go with fine sea salt and fresh ground black pepper.

Do I have to chop up a whole head of cabbage?

No, you totally don’t. If you’re feeling lazy, buy a 16 ounce bag of shredded coleslaw mix with green cabbage, red cabbage and some shredded carrots, OR just plain shredded green cabbage.

This tends to be a bit less cabbage than a small head shredded, but it works just as well. I would still add the extra carrots even if you buy a mix with some inside.

I’ve done both methods, and you can see photos of both pre-shredded and whole head cabbage in this post!

How much shredded cabbage is in one head?

For this recipe, I recommend purchasing the smallest head of cabbage you can find – generally around 28 ounces is considered a small head of cabbage (32 ounces is medium, 39 ounces is large).

According to the How Much Is In produce converter, one medium sized cabbage gives you about 8 to 8.5 cups of shredded cabbage. A smaller cabbage would give you maybe 7 cups of shredded cabbage. Anywhere from 6-7 cups of shredded cabbage would work for this recipe.

The cabbage will reduce down to about half the size when cooking is complete.

How to meal prep it:

1. Before you get going with this recipe, make sure you’ve got some reliable meal prep containers. They should be airtight, and preferably glass.
2. Decide how much rice you want in your meal prep. Rice generally triples in volume when cooked. 1 cup of dry rice will equal about 3 cups cooked. This recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of dry rice, equaling 4 1/2 cups of cooked rice. Each serving will have just over 1 cup of rice. If you want less calories, reduce the amount of rice included with each portion of meal prep.
3. After all the components are cooked, let them cool separately, then add an equal portion to each meal prep bowl. This recipe makes four generous helpings of the cabbage stir fry, so be sure to use containers that will fit all ingredients (the containers linked above work very well). Make sure all lids are secure and airtight.
4. Keep refrigerated and eat within 4 days. I think this meal prep tastes better as leftovers! Do not freeze this meal prep, as the cabbage would not do well after being thawed.

How to store this stir fry meal:

Store pre-portioned meal prep meals in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 4 days.

How to freeze this stir fry meal:

I would not recommend freezing this meal, as the cabbage will most likely lose it’s texture upon reheating.

How to reheat this stir fry meal:

Reheat loosely covered in a microwave on High for 90 seconds to 2 minutes. Alternatively, this meal would be delicious reheated with a HotLogic Personal Portable Oven.