Tarragon chicken with creamy white beans
Tender chicken in a creamy white bean sauce with fresh tarragon.
About 30 min · 375 kcal · 43 g protein per serving
One pan
Turkey and courgette koftas with tahini yoghurt
Spiced turkey koftas with grated courgette, and a loose tahini yoghurt.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 20 September 2026; not yet cooked in a test kitchen or photographed, so the times and yield are estimates. How we develop our recipes
What still needs a real kitchen
- Confirm six koftas from 300 g cook through in 10 to 12 minutes
- Confirm the courgette stays bound after squeezing
- Photograph the finished plate
- Time
- About 27 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 2
- see below
- Energy
- 575 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 43 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 2 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains gluten, milk, sesame. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- dried breadcrumbs. Breadcrumbs can contain soya or milk; check the label.
- pitas. Pita can contain soya or sesame; check the label.
Cooking steps
Grate the courgette, pile it into a clean cloth and wring it out hard over the sink until it stops dripping.
Mix the squeezed courgette with the turkey mince, cumin and breadcrumbs, then shape six koftas around the length of your palm.
Warm the oil in a frying pan over medium heat and cook the koftas for 10 to 12 minutes, turning every few minutes so they colour on all sides.
Cooked when: 74°C / 165°F in the thickest part. A food thermometer is the reliable way to tell.
Whisk the yoghurt, tahini and lemon juice together, adding cold water a teaspoon at a time until it pours.
Warm the pita and serve with the koftas and the tahini yoghurt.
The useful detail
Wring the courgette out until it stops dripping. Left wet, it releases water into the pan and the koftas steam grey instead of browning.
Make it work for you
One serving is Three koftas with a pita and half the tahini yoghurt. You can switch to a smaller portion in the ingredients above; it is three quarters of this, and it contains correspondingly less energy and protein. It is an option, not a goal.
Chicken mince instead of turkey
Softer and slightly richer.
Per serving: about 10 kcal less, about 2 g less protein, about the same fat.
Flatbread instead of pita
No pocket, so roll rather than fill.
Per serving: about 15 kcal more, about the same protein, about 2 g more fat.
Leave out the tahini
A plain lemon yoghurt. Much lighter.
Per serving: about 60 kcal less, about 2 g less protein, about 5 g less fat.
Allergens: Removes sesame.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
A dinner where a vegetable is worked into the protein rather than served beside it, which is useful when a full plate is more than you can manage.
| Energy | 575 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 43 g |
| Fat | 25 g |
| of which saturates | 6 g |
| Carbohydrate | 48 g |
| of which sugars | not calculated |
| Fibre | 5 g |
| Sodium | 460 mg |
Show calculation notes
Each ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g. The whole recipe is added up and divided by 2. Raw weights are used for meat, fish and vegetables; beans and lentils are drained weights. All of the oil is counted as eaten. Added salt is not included; sodium from stock, bread, cheese and tinned food is.
| Ingredient | Weight used | Source | Energy | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| courgette | 150 g | FDC 169291Squash, summer, zucchini, includes skin, raw | 26 kcal | 1.8 g |
| turkey mince | 300 g | FDC 172850Turkey, ground, 93% lean, 7% fat, raw | 450 kcal | 56.2 g |
| ground cumin | 2 g | FDC 170923Spices, cumin seedFoodData Central records cumin seed; ground cumin is the same seed, milled. | 8 kcal | 0.4 g |
| dried breadcrumbs | 20 g | FDC 174928Bread, crumbs, dry, grated, plain | 79 kcal | 2.7 g |
| olive oil | 9 g | FDC 171413Oil, olive, salad or cooking | 80 kcal | 0.0 g |
| Greek yoghurt | 100 g | FDC 170903Yogurt, Greek, plain, lowfat | 73 kcal | 9.9 g |
| tahini | 20 g | FDC 168604Seeds, sesame butter, tahini, type of kernels unspecified | 118 kcal | 3.5 g |
| lemon juice | 15 g | FDC 167747Lemon juice, raw | 3 kcal | 0.1 g |
| pitas | 120 g | FDC 174916Bread, pita, whole-wheat | 314 kcal | 11.8 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 2 | 1152 kcal | 86.3 g |
Per serving the energy is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal, grams to the nearest whole gram and sodium to the nearest 10 mg. of which sugars could not be calculated, because one ingredient’s record does not cover it; the row above says which. Calculation method 1.0, September 2026. How the calculation works.
Storage and reheating
- In the fridge
- Cool, cover and refrigerate within 2 hours of cooking. Eat within 3 to 4 days. The tahini yoghurt keeps 3 to 4 days in its own container and thickens in the fridge.
- In the freezer
- The FDA chart gives cooked poultry dishes 4 to 6 months in the freezer for best quality.
- Reheating
- Reheat until it reaches 74°C / 165°F, steaming hot throughout.
Checked against US Food and Drug Administration, Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, FoodSafety.gov, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures and FoodSafety.gov, Cold Food Storage Chart. UK guidance from the Food Standards Agency is shorter, at two days for most leftovers.
Try another recipe
Turkey meatballs with roasted pepper sauce
Tender turkey meatballs in a smooth pepper sauce, served with orzo.
About 40 min · 585 kcal · 42 g protein per serving