Such deep, delicious flavor. Warm spices. Tender textures. Curried Turkey and Cauliflower is perfect for a late-winter afternoon.
Most of the work is automated and/or unattended.
Ingredients
- For the Rice
14 oz. (2 cups) rice
16 oz. (2 cups) water
¾ tsp salt
- For the Turkey
2 Tbs butter
1 onion, finely chopped
4 Tbs flour, divided
2 Tbs yellow curry
½ tsp cumin
1 can (14.5 oz.) of coconut milk
½ cup chicken stock
½ tsp salt
1½ tsp ginger or maple syrup
2 dried Thai chile peppers, deseeded, and minced or crushed
1½ lbs turkey breast tenderloins, sliced into bite-sized pieces
1 head of cauliflower, separated into florets
1 lemon, cut into wedges
Chopped parsley, for garnish
Directions
- Rice
- Place rice, water, and salt in Instant Pot. Use the “rice” function, set to 12 minutes (normal), low (pressure); natural release for 10 minutes. Find a lidded container that will hold the finished rice and run it under very hot water to warm it. Dry the container, place the finished rice into it, put the lid on it, and place it in an oven that’s been heated to its lowest setting and then turned off. Wash and dry the Instant Pot’s inner pot.
- Turkey
- Place the butter in the Instant Pot. Set the sauté function to normal, 8 minutes. Once the butter has melted (2½-3 minutes), add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft (3-3½ minutes). Add 2 Tablespoons of the flour. Add the curry and cumin. Continue to cook for 1 minute, or until the pot shuts off.
- Add the coconut milk, stock, syrup, salt, and chiles to the pot. Stir thoroughly, making sure to scrape any and all fond off the bottom of the pot and into the sauce. Add the turkey; toss to coat. Set the poultry function to Less, 7 minutes; set the pressure to High. Natural Release for 10-20 minutes.
- Place the cauliflower and 1 cup water in a large, covered pot over high heat until the cauliflower is just barely al dente, 17 minutes. Strain out the water; leave the cauliflower in the pot with the lid on.
- Thoroughly combine the remaining 2 Tablespoons of flour with 2 Tablespoons water to make a slurry. Pour the flour mixture into the curry, and activate the sauté function. (It should automatically recreate the setting from Step 1.) Cook the sauce until it thickens, 1-2 minutes. Cancel the sauté, and activate the “keep warm” function. Add the cauliflower to the curry and give it all a good toss. Accompany each serving with a lemon wedge, and garnish with parsley.
Notes
- I developed this recipe for a six-quart Instant Pot. If using a different size or type of pot, you may need to make modifications.
- You have to get any remnants of the rice out of the pot before cooking the turkey, otherwise you’ll get sticking which will turn to burning.
- Two chiles gives this dish a pleasant tingle – just enough to register as spicy, but not so much that I’d call the dish “spicy.”
- Turkey tenderloins are new to me. I was recently looking for a pork tenderloin, and found turkey in the same cooler, packaged in a similar manner. Substitute turkey or chicken breasts. (Or any sort of protein you want. I’ve tried it with pork, and although I like it, I miss the tenderness of the poultry.)
- If you prefer, you could chop the cooked cauliflower before adding it to the curry. Or, when you add it to the pot, you could stir rather deliberately in order to break the cauliflower down somewhat. This gives the curry more of a stew texture, instead of a chunks-with-sauce texture. (In that case, though, you might also want to cut the turkey into deliberately small pieces.)
- The lemon isn’t just for show. Squeeze the wedge over your portion at the table. It adds the perfect touch to the curry.
The Backstory
I have a friend who moved to Estonia to apprentice as a jewelry maker: such a bold move that I very much admire! In a second bold move, she decided to save precious few of the possessions that she had curated over the years, and simply put the rest of the contents of her apartment up for sale online. People just came over, and made offers on everything … just as it was … sitting there in her apartment. Another bold and smart move. I came away with many things that I cherish, among them a huge jar of yellow curry powder.
I know almost nothing about curries, and even less about the one I got from my friend. I’m pretty sure it’s got ginger in it, and maybe mustard, but those are just guesses. It’s mild, but deeply flavorful. What I do know is that if you go out into the world looking for “yellow curry,” you’ll find Thai curries that go by that name. Find one that smells irresistible to you, buy that one, and use it for this dish.
Given that yellow curry blends may differ, you may not want to add additional spices (like the cumin), or you may want to add more or different ones, and/or you may want to omit the syrup or substitute sugar.
Social Learning
This dish is good leftover. Store the curry ladled over the rice, with leftover lemon wedges tucked into the corners. (Remove the lemon before reheating.)
Curried Turkey and Cauliflower in an Instant Pot
Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. Thanks, Kesor. Thanks Prosper Circle.
Keep up with us on Bloglovin’
I love anything curry! And, I love and admire the story of your friend – those would be bold moves for me, for sure! I’ve never curried turkey, but I imagine it would be somewhat similar to chicken curry. And another great cauliflower recipe! Im always looking for new ways with cauliflower. I use my InstantPot quite a bit, but for some reason have never used any function other than “Pressure Cook”. I almost forget there are others!
Laura recently posted…Key Lime Pound Cake
I’m sure you could swap out chicken for the turkey. I used the turkey only because I had stumbled onto it, and I like variety in any way that I can find it.
It looks so warming and tasty! I have never used IP to make curry…definitely something I need to try.
angiesrecipes recently posted…Arugula Spiced Spelt Soda Bread
The only drawback to making an IP curry, is that the sauce won’t thicken as it cooks, and from what I can tell, you can’t really start off with a thick sauce, or it will burn. (If anyone knows that there’s a way around that, I’d love to hear about it.) But it was easy to thicken the sauce afterward.
This looks and sounds good. I should be able to ketofy it fairly easily. Thanks!
anne recently posted…We Ate and We Didn’t
Cool! If you do, I’d love to hear about it!
Love this! I’m guessing this is a Thai inspired curry, and not Indian. I’m only familiar with curry powders because I used to make them from scratch. No mustard in them, but lovely spices like cumin, cardamom, coriander, white peppers, black pepper, turmeric, allspice, cinnamon, and so forth. Is your curry a paste? Or a powder?
Chef Mimi recently posted…Guiso de Carne
It’s a powder, and I agree with you in thinking that it’s Thai. The friend who gave it to me couldn’t remember the specifics. I distinctly taste ginger, and I’d be surprised if there’s no turmeric … but beyond that, I’m just not sure.
I haven’t succumbed to the Instapot rage yet but I suspect I will at some point. Coconut milk curries are absolutely wonderful and I imagine this one made your home smell amazing as it cooked. What a lovely, warming meal for a brutally cold winter’s day.
Eva Taylor recently posted…Sticky Dulce de Leches Cakes
You know what? I wasn’t interested in getting aboard the instant pot train, but my neighbor gave me one! Turns out, I’ve found it to be pretty useful.
Wow, that’s so awesome that your friend just up and moved to Estonia – I envy that! I’m not gonna lie…it actually makes me a little jealous to do that. Ah well! Sounds like you made it pretty well with that jar of curry powder though. Laura loves making curries, and this one does sound pretty fantastic. I think our curry stash is a bit low right now, and we’ve been talking about making a restocking run – I’ll put yellow on the list now!
David @ Spiced recently posted…Pistachio Muffins
Yeah, that kind of move takes guts, and I admire it. Years and years ago, I fell in love with Munich, and I with I’d have had the guts to just up and move there. Even though I love my life as it is now, it would’ve been such a remarkable experience, I’m sure.
i am so in awe of your friend The bravery of it all. This curry sounds like a winner. i tend to go for red curries and i bet you could do that here. Delish!
sherry recently posted…Maple-Candied Bacon
I’m sure you could!
Looks yummy, and a big wow to your friend! I sadly would not be that bold.
Iris Flavia recently posted…Being In Love
History has proven that I am also not that bold, but I wish I were.
One of these days I really need to get an Instant Pot. I can totally see how useful they’d be. But since I don’t have one, I’ll just have to make this using normal pots. I think I can figure that out. 🙂 This looks really good — love any and all curries. Thanks!
John / Kitchen Riffs recently posted…Bacon-Braised Potatoes
You’ll figure it out easily, John, I’m sure!
This sounds fantastic, Jeff. I just made a batch (well, several weeks ago) of yellow curry paste and it is waiting in the freezer for a dish just like this. One problem… not instapot. But as I read through I realized it will be easy to adjust for traditional methods. It is early in the day and I am craving something with this intense and warming flavors.
Totally easy! Hold off on the flour. You may not need it at all. If you do, add it in at the very end.
Thanks – made a note of that!
This dish looks so good, beautiful curry color and using cauliflower is great idea, and with rice is a perfect combination! I love the flavors of coconut milk and yellow curry paste in this curry, I cannot wait to try your version of this curry!
Thank you, Aarthi!
That’s a delicious and comforting bowl of curry.
Easyfoodsmith recently posted…MALAI LADDU – मलाई लड्डू (Creamy Paneer Ladoo)
Thank you!
A nice recipe Jeff and one that’s I can enjoy these days, however, I’ll have to go with the light coconut milk. Turkey is about twice as expensive as chicken here, so I might go with chicken tenders.
Great backstory as it reminded me of our move across the pond almost five years ago. Similar to your friend, once we had our 20′ container stuffed, everything else was for sale to whoever for whatever.
Lastly, I’ve had a 6qt Instant Pot for a few years, but never knew you could use the timer for the sautee function. I guess I should have read the instructions.
Ron recently posted…Four Years Blogging, a look back…
You surely could use tenders. You could also just cut up some chicken breast. Or use pork loin. Kind of funny about the Instant Pot, I somehow came to a snap decision NOT to read any recipes, but instead just to read the manual and see if I could figure out what to do with the pot. (I’ve always been a manual reader. It’s almost a fetish. No surprise I ultimately became a college professor.) So far, it’s been pretty fun. I’ve sort of hit upon the skeleton for producing sauce, meaty, rice-y things and I’ve been sort of churning them out in different flavors.
Oh, by the way, coconut milk! Yes! And yikes! I always just assumed it was somehow “good for you” because it’s so often promoted by people who use words like “healthy.” I just discovered that it has the fat equivalent of f’ing heavy cream! Saturated and all! Jesus! Which just goes to show you, people are infintely gullible.
Curries have been more common in my repertoire of dishes since we decreased our meat consumption. Curried cauliflower in coconut milk is fine with or without pork or turkey! And curry is one of the most widespread flavors in global cuisine, so it could have notes of many places from the Caribbean to Southeast Asia and from Australia to England.
be safe…mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Good points all, Mae.
This looks fantastic! Hadn’t thought about adding turkey to a curry, but this recipe sounds delicious. I look forward to trying it when I get back to the Instant Pot we left in the States when we moved to France!
Thanks, Molly!
I don’t have an Instapot, but I am sure I could figure out how to tweak this to make it work in my pressure cooker. It looks scrumptious!
I’m sure you could!
Quite a score to get the jar of curry! This sounds so delicious — and so warming. An ideal meal for a winter day! 🙂 ~Valentina
Thanks, Valentina!
On first read I saw “hurried” curry in and instant pot and laughed at the redundancy. On second read I’m thrilled by the deliciosity! GREG
Thanks, Greg! 😉
Love the story behind your pot of curry. The color alone makes me want to try your flavorful curry.
Karen (Back Road Journal) recently posted…Pork Chops with Brown Butter, Garlic And Sage
Thanks, Karen!
looks delicious
Thank you!
So far i have not tried this combination. But turkey and cauliflower combination dish looks great. Also rice match it well. Thank you for recipe.
bread&salt recently posted…Super Easy Carrot Balls Recipe
You’re welcome!
Look at that GORGEOUS color! Yellow curries are my absolute favorite, and your recipe here Jeff sounds and looks perfect. And the lemon at the end is the perfect complement, YUM!
Shannon recently posted…They Say She’s a Has-Been: Katharine Hepburn & Bringing Up Baby
Thank you, Shannon!