High Protein Turkey Tomato Pasta Bake
Protein pasta, ground turkey, and cottage cheese are combined with diced tomatoes, pasta sauce, and lots of veggies to create this healthy pasta bake that’s delicious, cheesy, and offering 39 grams of protein per serving!
A Perfect Blend of Nutrition and Comfort:
My ultimate comfort meal is a creamy, cheesy pasta dish. As a Registered Dietitian, I’m even more excited about it if we can pack some nutrition into our pasta recipes, too. And that’s exactly what I’ve created with this cozy, creamy high protein ground turkey pasta bake.
Not only is it protein-packed so you’ll feel fuller for longer and recover well from exercise, but it’s also loaded with vegetables that you can’t even really notice. Mushrooms, peppers, spinach, and two types of tomatoes (canned diced and pasta sauce)! These add nourishing vitamins and minerals as well as fibre – of which there is 6 grams per serving of this pasta.
The Protein Comes From a Few Places:
- Ground turkey: Similar to my healthy turkey spinach lasagna recipe, this adds a healthy bulk of the protein in our pasta bake without contributing much saturated fat. That’s a win!
- Cottage cheese: One of my favourite protein boosters! Like in my high protein cottage cheese pasta sauce, it helps make the pasta so crave-ably creamy, and I promise you’ll barely notice it. My husband – a cottage cheese texture hater – devours this pasta.
- Protein penne: Using a protein pasta is a key to the high protein content, and you really can’t tell the difference between it and a regular pasta. I use penne, but elbow pasta would work too.
- Cheese: No, it’s not just delicious! The mozzarella and parmesan cheese on top of the pasta bake also contribute quality protein to our recipe.
Make it & Bake it:
The steps are very simple for this ground turkey pasta bake, but here are a couple of helpful things to note:
- Before cooking the ground turkey, place your pot of salted water on the stove to boil. This way it can come to boil while the turkey cooks, and you can boil the pasta while the sauce simmers.
- We will boil the pasta noodles until just partially cooked – about 7 minutes – as they will continue to cook and soften while baking in the oven.
A Great One to Freeze:
This is a great meal to prep and freeze for those crazy busy weeks, or for a freshly postpartum friend. If you know you’ll be freezing it, do so unbaked for best results. If already baked, make sure to cool it completely, then seal tightly in a freezer-safe container. Defrost in the fridge before reheating (ideally take out the night before!), then bake in the oven at 350F for 30-60 minutes.
Connect with Hannah Magee, RD!
I hope you love this recipe as much as I do. If you try it, let me know what you think by leaving a rating and a review in the comments below.
Oh, and be sure to take a photo and tag me at @hannahmagee_rd so I can re-share on my stories!
Don’t forget to follow me on Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest so you never miss a new recipe or blog post.
High Protein Turkey Tomato Pasta Bake
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 lb lean ground turkey
- 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 cup white mushrooms, diced
- 14 oz. canned diced tomatoes
- 1 660 ml jar pasta sauce, about 2.5 cups
- 1 tsp italian seasoning
- 2 heaping cups baby spinach, chopped
- 1 340g box protein penne
- 1 cup cottage cheese, I use 2%
- 1/4 cup light cream cheese
- 3/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
- 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
- fresh parsley or basil, optional, chopped, for topping
Equipment
- 9×13-inch baking dish
Instructions
- In a large frying pan or skillet, warm the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the turkey, onion, garlic, red pepper, mushrooms, and cook, browning the meat. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the protein pasta just until firm/very al dente – about 7 minutes.
- Stir in the diced tomatoes, pasta sauce, and Italian seasoning. Mix in the chopped spinach and allow the mixture to simmer.
- Stir pasta into the pan, along with the cottage cheese and cream cheese. Mix everything together until well-combined.
- Transfer the pasta mixture to a greased 9×13 inch baking dish. Sprinkle with the cheeses.
- Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes, until the cheeses are melted and bubbly.
Great recipe, but just FYI–the recipe ingredient list doesn’t have ground turkey on it!
Thanks Dawn! Updating this now!
I made this the other night for the week of lunches for my son and daughter. Big hit. did not have cream cheese but used sour cream instead.