Keep your dog healthy and fit with this easy peasy homemade recipe - it's cheaper than store-bought and chockfull of fresh veggies!
Prep time: PT10M
Cook time: PT45M
Total time: PT55M
Rating
4.92 stars (646 reviews)
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups brown rice
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 pounds ground turkey
3 cups baby spinach (chopped)
2 carrots (shredded)
1 zucchini (shredded)
1/2 cup peas (canned or frozen)
Steps
In a large saucepan of 3 cups water, cook rice according to package instructions; set aside.
Heat olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add ground turkey and cook until browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the turkey as it cooks.
Stir in spinach, carrots, zucchini, peas and brown rice until the spinach has wilted and the mixture is heated through, about 3-5 minutes.
Let cool completely.
Reviews
Sheryl on 2026-03-02 (5 stars): I have never made dogfood before, as I usually buy it from the pet shop. I didn't quite have enough this morning, so I tried making your recipe. As my dogs are fussy, I thought they would probably turn up their noses because they don't eat veggies much, as bought dog food doesn't include a lot.
They LOVED it! They both polished off their bowls, then came back to the kitchen to see if their was more!
Hyepets on 2025-11-19 (5 stars): This recipe is awesome! Loved how you kept it real and wholesome such a great blueprint for healthy homemade dog food.
Hyepets on 2025-11-18 (5 stars): This is fantastic so many delicious, healthy ingredients you’ve used for the pup! Really makes homemade dog food feel easy and nourishing.
Mark W on 2025-10-28 (5 stars): We have been feeding this recipe to my dog with an additional supplement since she was born and she loves it. Over time with have swapped in sweet potato, broccoli, green beans and substituted quinoa for brown rice because of her allergies and weight.
Jacquie on 2025-09-24 (5 stars): Great recipe! I make this for my dog on a regular basis in large batches and then bag and freeze. I use ground beef instead of turkey, and sometimes add some beef liver which he loves. Much healthier than whatever is in a can or bag. Sometimes I sprinkle with grated cheese for a change.
Kenneth Santiago on 2025-08-21 (5 stars): how do you know how much to give your dog? sorry first time trying to go down this rabbit hole. lol i have 9 pound Maltese and a 19 pound Havanese
Deborah Moidel on 2025-07-27 (5 stars): Made this recipe, and my dogs went crazy over it! I have three little miniature, dachshund. All my girls loved it. I’m always giving him chicken, but I cook ground beef rinse off any of the fat. Put it back in the Dutch pot, and put all the vegetables, including mushrooms, with the shredded zucchini and carrots. It was a big hit. I put it on a big plate for all the try. At first tomorrow, I will use except the bowls for each one of them, but thank you.
Julie Falk on 2025-07-16 (5 stars): . My dog is a little on the heavy side and I want to make sure that these recipes are low in calories
Brian in ATL on 2025-07-12 (4 stars): Highly recommend around 2-3 Tbls of tumeric per batch for reducing inflammation and against some flavor.
Some of the commenters talking about $10 a pound spinach and $10 a pound turkey must be living in a very high cost of living area or outside the United States.
We live in a large metro area in the southeast US and pay about $399 a pound for ground turkey. A pound of fresh spinach is a massive amount of spinach, and if it's frozen, it should cost about $5 bucks max.
We use big bags of Organic Brian Rice from Costco and they're around $10 and last around 3-4 months. Altogether, we're spending a little more than before switching to home made, but only because we still buy kibble, though it's every 3 months vs monthly.
For those asking about serving size our 55-pounder gets a cup of the homemade dog food mixed in with about a half a cup of her Blue Buffalo kibble in the morning and again at dinner time when the family eats. Granted, it's a little more than we should be giving her, but it's healthy and we keep her active.
We use freezer bags and make individual daily portions, wrap 7 of them in plastic grocery bags and freeze them together. Each batch we make is enough for 4-5 weeks, so the rest is stored in our storage freezer until needed.
Anybody can figure out a way to cook the brown rice faster That's the only thing that makes this a big pain once a month. Our rice cooker takes line 2 hours to make a full 8 cup batch.
