Grilled turkey breast with spinach

A grilled turkey breast on a bed of wilted spinach: plain, very lean and fast. 37 g of protein for 276 kcal and 11 g of fat. It is the reliable cutting plate when inspiration runs low — the kind of meal you can make with your eyes closed, ticking the protein and vegetable boxes with no effort or excess calories.

Spinach wilts dramatically when cooked: 300 g raw becomes a small portion, but brings iron, magnesium and vitamins for almost no calories. It is the ideal green to serve with lean meat without weighing the dish down. For more substance, add a starch portion (rice, sweet potato).

Turkey breast is lean and dries out fast. Grill it over high heat for 4 to 5 minutes per side, no more, and let it rest a minute before slicing so the juices redistribute. A quick marinade (lemon, garlic, herbs) tenderises and flavours it. Wilt the spinach in the same pan to pick up the browned bits.

The knock on grilled turkey is its blandness — but a marinade fixes everything, for zero or almost zero calories. Lemon, garlic and herbs for a Mediterranean profile; soy sauce, ginger and garlic for an Asian touch; paprika, cumin and chili for a spicy version. Thirty minutes of marinating is enough to flavour and tenderise the meat.

Spices are cutting's secret weapon: they turn a lean, repetitive dish into a meal you enjoy, without adding calories. Keep a few ready-made blends and rotate them from one meal to the next. It is often this detail, more than willpower, that makes the difference between a cut you stick to and one you abandon.

Grilled turkey and spinach both lend themselves well to meal prep, as long as you handle them separately. Grill several breasts at once at the start of the week, let them cool, then slice and store them in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 to 4 days. Cooked spinach, on the other hand, quickly loses texture and flavour: it's better prepped fresh each day, which only takes a few minutes. Reheat the sliced turkey in a pan or microwave, avoiding a second overcooking, which would dry it out even more.

For a packed lunch, layer cold sliced turkey with warm or cold spinach: both eat well at room temperature. Bring the lemon separately and squeeze it just before eating to keep its aroma. Raw turkey freezes well for up to three months: marinate it before freezing so it absorbs the flavours as it thaws. Always thaw it in the fridge, never at room temperature, to limit bacterial risk on such a lean meat, which is also more prone to drying out during cooking. Label the container with the date so you always use the oldest portion first and nothing goes to waste.