I cooked a turkey roast instead of a whole turkey to simplify the prep and cleanup… admittedly I’ve never shoved a whole bird in the oven so maybe I’m just avoiding that experiment. In any case, the dinner turned out beautifully, and the cleanup was minimal. If you haven’t cooked one of these before, it’s basically turkey breasts tightly bound in string, in the shape of a roast.

I originally wanted to stuff the turkey breast with the “topping”. But the turkey was so perfectly bound together, I didn’t want to dismantle it then string it back into a roast. Using the topping instead made the presentation really nice! But I do want to try it as a stuffing sometime – buying the turkey breasts whole and then wrapping them up with the mixture inside. Anyhow this version is less complex, and turned out great.

Turkey Roast with Cranberry, Pistachio and Goat Cheese

I bought a 1.25kg turkey roast to serve 4, and we have some leftovers (but not much)! It was extremely simple to cook.

Preheat the oven to 350F
Place turkey roast in roasting pan (I actually used a casserole dish because I need a roasting pan)
Season turkey roast with oil, salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme (chopped fresh)
Make sure the skin side is up (if the roast has a skin-side) to preserve moisture
Cook until center is at 170F, this took ~50 minutes
Remove from oven and let site for 20mins. Put the lid on to keep in warm.

Tips

I put the lid on the roast after 20 minutes to seal in some juices. The turkey roast is really lean, you need to be conscious of not drying it out.

Topping

In a pot/pan you can fry in, but have a lid for…
Olive oil (~2 tbsp)
1 small red onion or shallots, chopped fine
2 cloves of crushed garlic
Salt to sweat em’
Cook until softened
Add 1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup white wine
Add lid and simmer
1/2 cup pistachios, smashed lightly to break into halves. Add to pan.
Chopped fresh rosemary and thyme… lots of it!
Cook until nuts have softened and wine has been absorbed by cranberries / evaporated.

Add to turkey roasting pan when turkey has about 10 minutes left. The turkey gets steamed with some of the flavour and the topping picks up a bit of the juice.

Miso White Wine Gravy

A turkey roast doesn’t give you squat to make real gravy, so I made one up.

2 tbsp butter, bring to heat in pan
1 tbsp flour, add to butter, let it dissolve and thicken
1/2 cup white wine, stir in
2 tbsp miso, stir in til dissolved
Simmer til til wine has lost alcohol
Add water as needed if the consistency it too thick. It should be about like regular gravy.

How to Serve

Get a platter.
Slice turkey roast into 1/2-3/4 inch slices, to your taste
Arrange on platter like dominos
Pour white wine gravy over (don’t drench em, just a little sauce for flavour and effect)
Spoon cranberry topping overtop
Spinkle goat cheese (about 3 tbsp) over mixture

Side Dishes

Yams

I made the same roasted rosemary yams… delish.

Brussel Sprouts with Sesame Seeds

My sister in law made these once and I lifted the idea from her.

Brussels sprouts
Olive oil, salt and pepper
Sprinkle sesame seeds
Stir together and roast til softened

I also made mushrooms and a bell pepper salad. I’ll post those separately!