I have a meat share that delivers me a pound of grassfed ground beef as part of my share. I don’t eat a lot of ground beef so these always end up collecting in my freezer and I have to find ways to use up like 5 lbs of ground beef every so often.
I usually will make a few burgers, Japanese wafu hamburg steak (think mini meatloafs), chili, and even mapo tofu (I prefer pork or vegetarian versions) but even those options means eating those dishes a lot! I freeze some foods, so I’m already making batches when I can. I need some inspiration and new ideas. What would you make with a lot of ground beef?
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Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
2
Minced beef is a regular purchase for us, so it doesnt accumulate.
Pasta sauce, chilli, cottage pie, stuffing (with rice) for lettuce or cabbage leaves, rissoles with mushroom sauce, Asian keema curry (traditionally lamb but hey…)
I love ground beef and we have it often. I make this ground beef stroganoff every couple of weeks:
I serve the sour cream on the side so I don’t have to worry about it curdling from the heat, and I use less flour just because I don’t like an overly thick sauce. I like it over egg noodles but my husband likes rice better.
Other uses: Middle school tacos, green chile stew, burgers with fresh herbs mixed it (mint, basil, parsley), meatloaf.
I grew up in 1950s Pittsburgh, so ground beef (we called it ground meat) is definitely a part of my cooking repertoire!
I saw some of my faves below - meatballs, meatloaf. But also combine with gr lamb for gyros. Use it in b’fast hashes on the weekend. You can try it in stir fry instead of sliced beef. I’m sure there are some Persian rice pilaf dishes that might be nice with some gr beef. What about B’stilla? You can make it w/gr beef rather than chicken. Or add chopped pickles and raisins to make a picadillo type of thing and put it in handpies. Empanada style.
I cook minced beef with mashed black beans, garlic, chopped onions chili spices and cubed sweet potato for burritos.
A childhood favorite called many things is American Chop Suey (Johnny Marzetti, Goulash, on and on). But a loose sauce of browned minced beef, onions and tomatoes with add ons depending on your grandmother mixed with elbow macaroni.
Stuffed peppers. Stuffed cabbage.
If your dog is sick, cooked minced beef mixed with white rice will firm up his stool.
Qeema, as others mentioned above, is one of our favorites. I also make American-style taco meat frequently - we’ll have taco bowls for dinner and then DH uses the leftovers for lunches throughout the week (as a filling for quesadillas, lettuce wraps, omelets, etc.). Meatballs or kofte.
I also make a dish I call crispy beef and tofu (for lack of a more creative name). I saute ground beef in a cast iron skillet until it gets very crispy, almost burnt in places. Separately, I fry firm tofu cubes till crisp on the outside, then saute a variety of diced vegetables (peppers, onions, broccoli, bamboo shoots, etc) and aromatics (ginger, garlic, scallions). Once everything is cooked, toss together with a bit of soy sauce, sambal oelek and/or Sriracha - just enough to moisten and season to taste (a little oyster sauce is good too). Garnish with peanuts. Sounds a bit odd but the combination of textures is really great.
For me, a pound of ground beef comes to 3 burger portions, 4 to 6 if it’s used for something like pasta sauce, meatloaf, or chili. It saves freezer space and speeds future meal prep to saute one or more pounds of ground beef along with onion and garlic, then freeze in whatever amounts make sense for your household. Flattening a cup or so in a freezer bag makes defrosting quick, so you can make a pot of, say, homemade spaghetti sauce in the amount of time it takes to cook the pasta.
I’m trying to think of dishes that are not pasta or meatballs…
Stuffed paprika (peppers)
Rice porridge
Deep-fried rice paper rolls
Pasties/empanadas
Cabbage rolls
Sausage rolls
Meatloaf
Dumplings
With beans in a tortilla
With green/snake beans (a pan-Asian home-style dish. Use soya and oyster sauce or fish sauce with a pinch of sugar, Vietnamese-style)
