Today we’re going to talk about all kinds of different meals that you can make from ground beef, or beef mince as some people call it.
Bolognese on pizza is one of my favorite – with pineapple and feta (shocking, I know!)
I’m sure many of these are familiar to you, but others you may not have heard of or tried before. I’m going to get creative myself, and try one of these that I haven’t tried before, because ground beef is a good cheap meat to be able to buy.
I think the most well known meal to make with this is bolognese, which is a rich, hearty, tomatoey ground beef. You would start with some onions and garlic, then you would brown the beef, and you would add salt, pepper, and herbs, then some tomato paste, perhaps some tomato puree or crushed tomatoes, and perhaps some basil. That makes a rich sauce to use over pasta or potatoes. The longer you cook this, the deeper and richer the flavor. I like to add a little bit of fresh garlic and some chopped up basil leaves near the end of the cooking time to really enhance the flavor.
We also make a version of this for nachos, which is very similar, except it has less tomato puree in it, and more spices like onion powder, cumin, smoked paprika to give it a spicier flavour. We also cook it down so that it’s a less saucy meat at the end. It’s more bulky then, so it’s easier to scoop up with the nachos.
A similar thing is chili, if you want to have it with nachos or inside tacos. That would be browned ground beef with cooked beans, tomatoes, and chili powder and other spices added, and then cooked into a delicious chili mix.
I’m sure you’ve done sloppy joes. The meat for those would be similar to the bolognese – sweet and savory tomato based sauce, which in this case is served on a bun or a roll. You can cook your bolognese in the same style as is used for pasta, or if you prefer a spicier version with less tomato, you can do that as well.
Stuffed zucchinis or peppers are always amazing with a mixture of ground beef, rice, and even some vegetables. For these, you pre-cook the bell peppers or zucchini and then stuff them. I like to cut the bell peppers in half, put olive oil and salt on and pre-cook them. Then I cook my mince separately, using onion and et cetera at the beginning.I cook some rice and mix it and the mince with some vegetables like corn, peas, or zucchini – It can even be the same thing as you’re going to be putting them into. If you’re stuffing peppers, chop up some peppers to add to the mix, or if you’re stuffing zucchini, chop up some zucchini to add, and give it a quick cook, or stir fry it with a bit of salt. Then you’re going to have your mix of ground beef, rice, and vegetables, and you’re going to put it in the zucchini or the peppers. As I said, you can pre-cook them, then stuff them with the meat mixture, put some cheddar grated cheddar on top, and then just warm them when you’re ready to eat them.
I’m not really sure what to call this next one, but think of how you can have nachos with various toppings that you scoop up – the ground beef, the guacamole, the salsa, the sour cream or yogurt, the grated cheese, and whatever else you like to have. For this meal you use those to make layers. You make a layered dip that includes the meat. You take the ground beef that you’ve cooked to have with nachos, and you layer it in a dish. You would put a layer of meat, then a layer of sour cream or yogurt, a layer of salsa, a layer of guacamole, and a layer of grated cheese on top. Then it’s something nice that you can scoop out with a big spoon onto your plate, or you can scoop it out with nachos and eat it directly. It makes it a little different for fun.
Then let’s talk about casseroles – ground beef goes well in lots of casseroles. An obvious one is pasta like spaghetti mixed with the meat, then cheese put on top, and the whole thing is baked, or there’s things like a lasagna or a cottage pie with that mashed potato on top. Anything that you can use the ground beef in as a casserole is delicious.
You can make your ground beef into hamburgers or something like them. You season your mince; you add some herbs, some salt, something like paprika, and onion powder, and then you can make it into hamburger patties. Alternatively, you could make it into meatballs. You can make it into koftas, which is when you squish the mince onto a kebab stick and grill it. You can adjust the seasoning in these. You can add breadcrumbs if you like, if you’re not gluten free, or you can add eggs. Sometimes that helps to hold it together, especially with the koftas. You can put a little bit of cheese inside the patty – the possibilities are endless! Hamburgers are a wonderful option, and so are meatballs. You would fry them to brown them, and then cook them in a sauce, maybe a marinara sauce, or a tomato sauce with yogurt, which is very nice. There are many options there as well, for example, you could make Swedish meatballs.
Then there are ground beef empanadas. They’re a flaky pastry filled with a spiced ground beef with onions, maybe olives, and hard boiled eggs. This is a savory pastry from South America. It’s unique but delicious.
You can make a curry with ground beef. Mango goes nicely with it – combine the ground beef with a mango curry sauce.
You can do a hash. Before when I mentioned bolognese on potatoes, you just top the potatoes with the bolognese and cheese, but in this case, you sauté the ground beef, and then you add diced potatoes or sweet potatoes, along with onions and some vegetables like bell peppers. This makes an interesting breakfast or brunch or an easy dinner.
This is an original idea – ground beef sushi rolls. Instead of the traditional sushi fillings, try using ground beef cooked with a touch of soy sauce and sesame, and wrapped in sushi rice.
You could do beef meatball and pineapple skewers. We mentioned making meatballs with ground beef. You can do your meatballs in a sauce, but this way is better for an appetizer or a snack. You make beef meatballs that are a little bit smaller and then put them on skewers. You can put them with tomato and cucumber, like a Greek salad type of skewer, or you can put them on skewers with pineapple red pepper pieces, and grill them. The meatballs have to be well held together in order for this to work, but they’re really nice on skewers. In our new appetizers recipe book that’s coming out soon, there’s the recipe for an appetizer meatball made with chutney or tomato relish. It’s delicious!
Beef wellington is usually made with a fillet cut of beef, but instead of doing it that way, you can try doing mini beef wellingtons. Use the puff pastry, line it with the crepe or the prosciutto, and then use ground beef in the middle. You can even mix the ground beef and the mushrooms in the middle, and then wrap them up and bake them for small pastry beef wellington bites. It’s amazing. The inside layer would be ground beef mixed with mushrooms. Then you wrap that in the prosciutto, you wrap that in a crepe, and then you wrap that in puff pastry, and you bake it.
For ground beef stuffed crepes, use the crepe like a wrap, and fold it around the ground beef. You can add something like pineapple in there if you like, or tomatoes, cheese, or whatever you feel like. You can do the same with puff pastry and mince. You put your ground beef and cheese inside the puff pastry and bake it to make little ground beef bites.
There’s a moussaka, which you can do with eggplant and beef, where you simply layer the ground beef with the eggplant, put bechamel sauce on that, and bake it.
There’s Cornish pasties. A pasty is a puff pastry tart, in this case filled with a mixture of ground beef, diced potatoes, onions, and sometimes peas, corn, or chopped carrots, and then baked. Those are amazing for eating on the go as well.
A homemade ravioli is delicious with mince inside, with cheddar or ricotta. You could also do mince and ricotta cannelloni. Stuff the cannelloni with mince and ricotta, and top it with a bechamel sauce.
There is a German one pan dish which has ground beef in it. You cook the ground beef as usual, and then you add the vegetables to the pan, the potatoes, the carrots, the onions, a little bit of stock, and some seasoning, and then you cook it down, and have a one pot dish.
Then, of course, there’s meatloaf – a well known American dish. You also get an Italian meatloaf, which is similar, made with ground beef, breadcrumbs, eggs, garlic, and herbs. It’s often served with tomato sauce, and it’s homemade, of course. You put the vegetables in the tomato sauce, and then you cover it.
There are Hungarian stuffed cabbage rolls. You use ground beef mixed with rice and spices, and then it’s wrapped in cabbage leaves and cooked in a tomato based sauce.
Lastly, beef stroganoff is traditionally made with beef strips, but some versions use ground beef cooked in a rich sour cream and mustard sauce, perhaps with mushrooms in, and then it’s served over noodles or rice.
These are all inspiring ideas. I’m going to go and try out some of them. I think I want to try the ones wrapped like beef Wellington, and some puff pastry tarts, which are always enjoyed. Go and google some recipes for your favourite ideas and try them, and I hope they turn out great.
