It’s fun to design a dish around one specific ingredient. The one ingredient that this dish was based on was a nice roasted red pepper goat cheese I found at the market. Super creamy and flavored with the smoky flavor of roasted red peppers, I decided to stuff a couple of tender turkey tenderloins with the goat cheese and a saute of fresh spinach. With a Mediterranean theme churning around in my head, I decided to serve the stuffed tenderloins with a simple sauce made with sliced shallots, ripe tomatoes, Kalamata olive and white wine. This dish would also work well with plump chicken breasts or even thick, center-cut salmon filets.
(To view this recipe, click on the blue title of the blog post above*)
Roasted Red Pepper Goat Cheese & Spinach-Stuffed Turkey Tenderloins
Ingredients:
- 2 turkey tenderloins
- salt and pepper
- Goat cheese, at room temperature
- olive oil
- 6 oz. baby spinach
- Stock
- For the sauce:
- 2 shallots, thinly sliced
- 2 plum tomatoes, cored and diced
- 1/4 cup Kalamata olive, pitted and chopped
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. To prep the tenderloins, cut a horizontal slit into their thickest side, careful not to cut all the way through the tenderloin to the other side. The pocket should be about 3-inches long and 1 ½-inches thick so that you can stuff the meat adequately.
- Spread 1 ½ Tablespoons of room temp goat cheese into the pocket along with some of the blanched spinach. Season the outside of the tenderloins with salt and pepper; tie some cotton kitchen twine around each stuffed tenderloin so that the filling stays put.
- Bake the stuffed turkey tenderloins in the preheated oven on a baking sheet; pour about ½ cup of stock onto the pan so that the turkey stays moist while baking. Cook for 25 minutes, or until the turkey reaches an internal temp of 165 degrees.
- In the meantime, make the sauce. Heat 1 Tablespoon of olive oil in a saucepan. Add in the shallots and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add in the tomatoes and olives, along with ¼ teaspoon of salt and a big grinding of black pepper. Cook for approximately 10 minutes over low heat, stirring often, or until the tomatoes have begun to soften and break down. Add in the wine and cook for 5 more minutes or until the liquid reduces by about half.
- Serve the warm turkey cutlets over the tomato-olive sauce. Adjust seasonings of the sauce as needed.
Tagged: baked turkey, goat cheese, Kalamata olives, roasted red pepper goat cheese, shallots, spinach, stuffed tenderloins, stuffed turkey, tomatoes, turkey, turkey tenderloins, white wine
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