Turkey Fajtikkas! Fajitas with a turkey tikka twist

Turkey Fajtikkas! Fajitas with a turkey tikka twist.

Summer is (supposed to be) here! Well today the sun was shining so we took the opportunity to get a bit experimental and cook up a quick healthy summery dish with a turkey twist for a spot of alfresco dining.

Now if I told you that swapping chicken for turkey when making fajitas would be a healthy and budget friendly option, I'm sure you would agree but we wanted to try something a bit more exciting than just a simple swap.

We are all big fans of indian food in this family - even the kids love their curries. But indian food often gets a bad press for being seemingly unhealthy and we more often relate to eating a nice warming curry through the winter months. So we wanted to create a recipe that uses turkey, but also has an indian twist to it that is ideal as a summer recipe. On top of that we were aiming to prepare and cook it in less than 30 minutes.

Meet....the Turkey Fajtikka! A fajita-style meal using turkey pieces marinated in tikka paste.

Ingredients (makes at least 8 'fajtikkas'):
540g fresh turkey breast - diced (you can use turkey thigh fillets instead if you want an even lower cost option that tastes just as great).
1 onion - sliced
half a green pepper - sliced
around half a jar (approx 140g) of tikka massala paste
8 soft tortillas
A selection of chutneys and / or pickles such as lime pickle, mango chutney, brinjal pickle etc
Home-made mint-raita (greek yogurt, grated cucumber, chopped fresh mint, sliced radish and a handful of salted peanuts)
home-made quick salsa (finely chopped spring onions, red onion, tomato and a little fresh coriander).
Fresh coriander to garnish

Method:
1. Simply mix the tikka paste into the diced turkey, along with the sliced onion and sliced green pepper. Leave to marinade for a few minutes whilst you prepare the other parts of the dish. Here's a top tip - if you or your children prefer the tikka to be milder, then just add a few spoonfuls of plain greek yogurt to the marinade and / or use less tikka paste. The really great thing about this recipe is that you can tweak it to your tastebuds.

Marinade turkey in tikka paste.

You can also add yogurt for a milder version.

2. Put together the most amazing mint raita (cue name-drop...) which Anjali Pathak of Patak's fame introduced us to by mixing plain yogurt with grated cucumber, sliced radish, chopped fresh mint and a handful of salted peanuts. (If very young children or anyone with a nut allergy is going to be eating this meal then omit the peanuts for obvious reasons!)

Home-made mint raita.

3. Put together a quick home-made salsa-style topping by simply finely chopping a spring onion, half a red onion and a couple of tomatoes and mixing together with a little chopped fresh coriander.

Home-made quick salsa-style topping.

4. By now, your turkey should have had a few minutes to marinate in the tikka paste. Now simply fry it in a saucepan until cooked through. This should take around 5-10 minutes.

5. Now for the fun part. Get friends and family together around the table and get stuck into filling your fajtikka wraps.

 

Whereas in an ordinary fajita you may use creme fraiche, salsa and guacamole on your tortilla, with the fajtikka, you can use your selection of chutneys, pickles and of course the freshly made raita. Top with the turkey tikka you have cooked, and a spoonful of your home-made simple salsa, a couple of pieces of coriander, fold and fill your mouth with it!


Indian-inspired fillings for your Turkey fajtikka.

To cater for everybody's tastes, you could also have a selection of the more traditional fajita ingredients (grated cheese, guacamole, sour cream, lettuce, salsa etc.) as these combine well with the tikka flavours too.

Or you can use traditional Mexican-style fillings.

 

You can serve these with a simple side salad of lettuce and red and yellow peppers look really summery and taste so sweet and fresh too.

The thing we really love about fajitas, and now fajtikkas too, is that they are a perfect meal for having fun and sharing for all the family as everyone loves getting involved in putting their own fajita / fajtikka together and folding it up. It is great if you have any fussy eaters as they can simply leave out any parts of the filling that they don't like and all those fresh summery colours make it a beautiful meal to look at too!

This meal takes about 15 minutes preparation time and 10 minutes actual cooking time. If you have longer and are planning a barbeque why not put the marinated turkey tikka pieces onto skewers and barbeque them to cook them. Then complete the rest of the recipe in exactly the same way as described.

Now all we need is more summery weather for some alfresco dining.

  

This post is an entry for BritMums’ Summer Turkey Recipe Challenge, which is sponsored by Lean On Turkey. If you have a quick and tasty turkey recipe, why don't you pop over to BritMums and join in!