Roast Duck with Paleo Plum Turmeric Sauce – Why haven't we made this before?! Yuummmmm-mmmmy!
Have you ever seen turmeric in its original form? I hadn't actually thought about what it looked like in its unprocessed form. Previously I had bought turmeric that had already had “work done”: powdered and packaged. I was interested to find it at the local health food market in its glorious original packaging. It feels like ginger (tuberous roots) but looks a little like fat mealworms. It smells great.
My deep freeze is full, and I was assessing what I could eat to make room for the fall harvest. A whole duck was taking up space. I pulled it out along with a brine and started thinking about a sauce. I will spare you the details, but I came to some fresh plums and turmeric for the delicious roast duck.
Yes, those are potatoes on the plate with my roasted duck in paleo plum turmeric sauce, please don't call the paleo police on me. There were a few purple potatoes as well. You, of course, can substitute any one of a number other paleo approved veggies.

Paleo Plum Turmeric Sauce
Ingredients
- 12 plums pitted and quartered
- 2 turmeric root “fingers” peeled (they will leave color on your hands; maybe use gloves)
- 1/8 cup ghee or butter
- 1 cup water
- 1 tsp honey
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 3 pearl onions, chopped
Instructions
- Put plums into a saucepan.
- Add ghee and sauté
- Add grated turmeric, garlic and pearl onions.
- Sauté until everything is soft (~4-6 min).
- Add honey and water, simmer for 60 min (until sauce thickens to a ketchup-like texture).
- Serve over roasted duck.
- Category: sauce

Roast Duck with Paleo Plum Turmeric Sauce
- Total Time: 2 minute
- Yield: 4-6 servings 1x
Description
First appeared on the primal desire: Roast Duck with Cherry Rosemary Sauce.
Ingredients
Brine
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 4–6 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup salt
- 1 duck
- The brine was adapted from Scott Leysath
Instructions
Roasted Duck
- Remove organs, if any are included. (These can be kept for duck stock)
- Rough up the rosemary to release the oils (I used a rolling pin) until you can smell the rosemary explosion.
- Combine olive oil with orange juice, rosemary, and salt in a Ziplock freezer bag large enough to hold the duck.
- Shake it up a bit and then add the duck. Squeeze out extra air, seal bag, and put in the fridge for 1.5-2.5 hours.
- When ready to cook, preheat oven to 325 F. In a roasting pan, line the bottom with the sprigs of rosemary from the brine, and place duck on top, breast up.
- Use a meat thermometer (make sure it's an oven-safe one, not a digital one that you have to keep reaching in to use. That's just a pain). This will save you from guessing if our bird is done – duck is just too good to mess up. Internal temperature should be 165 F. This should take around 60-80 minutes (depending on your bird) – until the skin is brown and crispy.
- If you need to brown up the skin a little more, use the broiler, but for the love of everything good, do not forget about it and burn the skin! If you're busy with side dishes, set a time for every few minutes to check on it. Seriously.
Notes
Do not throw any piece of this bird out! I highly recommend making duck stock from the bones and organs, and you must render the fat and try duck cracklings.
- Prep Time: 1.5-2.5 hours (brine)
- Cook Time: 60-80 min
- Method: Oven
Oh yum! Love roast duck soooo much! The superfood sauce sounds divine.
I have a Tumeric plant growing in a pot. Want me to start you one? They take about 10 months to grow so growing it in a pot is more logical in Canada.
Yes, that would be great! Thanks Mom!
Did you ever grow that tumeric? How big did it get? What was done with the root?
I did grow some! It’s a lovely leafy plant right now, I killed some with overwatering but tried again over the summer,haven’t yet gotten to harvest!