Ground beef has become one of those ingredients that most people have in the fridge or freezer, ready to create a quick meal. If the ground beef is fried, you can have a meal ready in less than 15 minutes, whether it’s a quick skillet mix or burger patties.
In the recipes that follow, you’ll see how it is prepared as a filling for various vegetables like stuffed onions, peppers or pumpkin.
Then there are the versions that require the savory ground beef mix to be baked in the oven with other ingredients resulting in world famous dishes like moussaka, enchiladas and lasagne.
It can also be baked in pies, and pasties, deep fried as empanadas, shallow fried in wraps, and even formed around a skewer and cooked over a fire.
Mexican Ground Beef Skillet
One skillet, 40 minutes – this should grab your attention! Garlic, bell peppers, onion, cilantro, and taco seasoning bring flavor to the beef.
Every prepper should have a jar of taco seasoning in in the pantry to add zing to meals – that’s if you like Mexican food, of course. Black beans in a can are another essential to stock.
This recipe uses instant rice, either white or brown. Instant rice will save you so much time in survival situations where you may not have a lot of time to cook, or energy supplies are limited. Get the recipe.
Mexican Ground Beef Casserole with Rice
This recipe incorporates similar ingredients to the one above except for adding corn – canned corn kernels, frozen or fresh corn are all fine to use. The difference here is that chopped spring onion and cheese are stirred into the mix for even more of a flavor hit. Get the recipe.
Kofta Kebab
Although these are a Mediterranean/Middle Eastern speciality they are prefect for preppers and can be made over a fire or on a gas grill. The ground beef is mixed with various herbs and spices then formed around a skewer and cooked. Serve with a yoghurt mint sauce. Get the recipe.
Juiciest Hamburgers Ever
The egg, garlic, evaporated milk and spices contribute to making these patties really juicy. And, of course, the breadcrumbs hold it all together so the meat doesn’t fall apart.
After they have been grilled, dress up your burgers with slices of cheese, grilled tomato, onion and fresh lettuce, rocket and spinach, and of course your favorite dressing. Get the recipe.
Caribbean Beef Burgers with Mango Salsa
Caribbean jerk seasoning add to the flavor of the ground beef patties. Then they are topped with a mango salsa made with green onion, lime juice, ripe mango, and cilantro.
How many jalapeno you add depends on the amount of fire you want in your salsa. Get the recipe.
Puffy Tacos with Ground Beef
You’ll need corn tortillas that are ready to fry, spices, onion, the ground beef, garlic, onion and beef stock.
Once you have the mix made, fry the tortillas in hot oil. Serve the tortillas filled with the ground beef mix topped with shredded cheese, and drizzled with lime juice.
A quick pico can be made from onion, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, a little lime juice, salt and pepper. Get the recipe.
Minced Beef and Onion Pies
You can prepare a number of these, and then keep them in the freezer to haul out when you need a quick lunch or supper.
Serve with mashed potatoes and mushy peas. The filling is similar to the way you would make it for a cottage pie. Get the recipe.
Cocktail Meatballs
Homemade tastes so much better than commercially produced and you don’t even need a cocktail party for these – they can be served any night of the week over rice. The kids will absolutely love them. They are baked instead of being fried, and are served with a sweet tangy sauce. Get the recipe.
Meat Stuffed Dolmades
Dolmades are a traditional Greek dish – delicately spiced and herbed ground beef mixed with rice and wrapped in vine leaves.
They are packed together into a casserole dish and baked with a fresh tomato sauce and olive oil. Simple and delicious. Get the recipe.
Beef and Spinach Gozleme
Ground beef mix fried in wraps – this is an easy way to prepare ground beef with some cumin, garlic, cloves and a little chilli. Then, the mix gets placed onto a wrap with baby spinach, and feta.
The wrap is folded over, brushed with olive oil and fried for around 3 minutes, oiled side down, then the other side is oiled and the wrap flipped and cooked for three minutes. Serve sliced into wedges with some fresh garden salad. Get the recipe.
Silverbeet and Ground Mince Rolls
The mince mixture is placed on the spinach leaves which are quick steamed, then refreshed under cold water.
Once wrapped snugly the spinach rolls are packed into a roasting pan, and the sauce poured over before baking. They can be served with rice, quinoa, or a cornmeal mush. Get the recipe.
Mince and Beans on Pap
This is a popular South African recipe. The ground beef and beans mix is pretty standard, but the cornmeal cooked to crumbly perfection is what makes this dish different.
Cornmeal (or pap as it is known in South Africa) is an acquired taste, and people’s preferences vary as to how moist or crumbly they want their cornmeal. Get the recipe.
Classic Beef Stuffed Peppers
Make your savory ground beef mix, then stuff bell peppers with the ground beef and rice before roasting in a conventional oven or in a Dutch oven. They cook up tasty and tender. Get the recipe.
Beef and Vegetable Pasties
These are a prepper’s dream – when you are baking them make plenty so you can freeze some. They are great for lunches, or taking out and heating for suppers when you have had a busy day.
These use frozen shortcrust pastry, but it’s easy enough to make your own. Get the recipe.
Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry
This is a quick and budget friendly meal to make for a family. All the ingredients can be quickly stir fried on a skillet over a campfire or on a gas or electric cooker. Soy sauce, sriracha and brown sugar add a twist to the flavors. Get the recipe.
Savory Stuffed Pumpkin
In fall, when there are loads of pumpkins begging to be eaten this is a great way to use them. Prepare the savory mince mix with rice, and spoon into the pumpkin after removing seeds and loose bits – rub the outer skin of the pumpkin with oil, and bake to perfection.
Serve the mince with some of the roasted pumpkin mix – and if it’s not all finished at one meal, it will still taste great the next day. Get the recipe.
Braised Meatballs in Red Wine Sauce
Preppers are usually advised to stock some red wine – mainly for venison as it helps tenderize the meat, but you can use some of it in this classic dish. The large meatballs are cooked in the sauce, which can be served with spaghetti or mashed potato. Get the recipe.
Beef Enchiladas
Refried beans and black beans, melted cheese, a great mix of enchilada sauce and spices, and you’re set to create a feast with this ground beef recipe. Get the recipe.
Moussaka
The Greek version of lasagna, moussaka, calls for eggplant to be fried, layered between the savory ground lamb and cheesy sauce, then baked to a mouth-watering goodness. You can easily substitute ground beef for the ground lamb of traditional moussaka as this recipe shows. Get the recipe.
Meaty Stuffed Onions
Ground beef, as well as pork sausages, are used to great the filling for the onions, which are roasted to sweet perfection. Get the recipe.
Argentinian Beef Empanadas
The recipe requires raisins and green olives to achieve the unique flavor of these empanadas that are baked rather than fried. Basically they are meat pasties – the dough is cut in a circle, the filling added, and then they are folded into a half circle and sealed. Get the recipe.
Cottage Pie– English Style
This traditional beef dish is hardly a pie in the sense that there is no pie crust, but is a savory mix of ground beef with a topping of mashed potato sprinkled with cheddar cheese, and baked to a golden finish.
An onion and carrots go into the ground beef mix along with fresh parsley, and a few other simple ingredients.
The fluffy mashed potato is spread on top, and sprinkled with cheese before going into the oven. This recipe can also be made in a Dutch oven, with coals underneath and on top of the lid to get the potato topping a little crisp and the cheese melted.
Cottage piece is made with ground beef and Shepherd’s pie is traditionally made from ground mutton, but essentially are similar with a layer of mashed potato covering the meat. Get the recipe.
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Spaghetti is something to keep in the store cupboard along with canned tomatoes, then add some herbs and spices to ground beef with plenty of garlic, and you’ll soon have this classic dish on the table.
As people say, if it’s working, don’t mess with it! Get the recipe.
Mince Curry
Curry and coconut make this recipe a little different from the normal ground beef stews. You’ll need a can of tomatoes and a can of coconut milk, plus fresh produce like an onion, a carrot, butternut or pumpkin, a courgette, and to add the flavor, a mild curry spice mix. Get the recipe.
Vetkoek with Mince
This recipe comes from South Africa where bread dough is formed into balls and deep fried in hot oil, to form a golden crust outside. The vetkoek is split while warm and the soft chewy interior filled with a curried mince (ground beef).
The Dutch settlers journeyed by wagon into the hinterland of South Africa to get away from British rule and establish their own independent state.
As they used hollowed out anthills as ovens, and were often not able to stop for long enough to prepare an oven and bake bread, they developed the vetkoek – fat cakes.
They are also good as a sweet treat – the South African favorite is to fill them with homemade apricot jam, but you can eat them with Nutella, peanut butter, maple syrup, or any other fruit jelly or jam that takes your fancy. Get the recipe.
Bunny Chow with Ground Mince
When the Indians arrived in South Africa as indentured laborers for the sugar cane fields around Durban, they brought with them their traditional curries. Soon, the local population was hooked on the delicious spicy dishes and bunny chow became the street food of choice.
To make is easy for serving customers, the curry was spooned into a hollowed out half loaf of bread, the hollowed out portion of dough being replaced on top as a stopper, and to mop up the extra juice – no plates or eating utensils needed.
As to where the name originated, no one seems to really know as the dish has nothing to do with bunnies. There are quite a few spices used so do check the ingredients list first.
Or you can simply use one of your own favorite ground beef recipes, and serve it in the hollowed out loaf, but of course it won’t have those Indian spices. Get the recipe.
Beef and Bean Burritos
Buy, or make your own flour tortillas. For the filling, you will need a can of kidney beans and a can of diced tomatoes, then for the Mexican flavor smoked paprika, ground cumin, chilli powder go into the mix.
Other than those spices, it’s pretty much the standard onion, bell pepper, and garlic. Don’t forget the cilantro! Get the recipe.
Ethiopian Ground Beef Stew
What makes this stew different is the special Ethiopian spice mix called berberè. Get the recipe.
Chebureki
The trick to this Russian street food that is popular across Eastern Europe is that the ground beef filling needs to be a little moist, and it must be spread thinly on the base so that the filling cooks before the dough burns. Chebureki are deep fried. Get the recipe.
Beef Rissoles
These rissoles have grated onion and zucchini to keep them moist. The secret is not to overcook these plump little bundles of taste. Get the recipe.
Meatloaf
Once a very popular ground beef recipe meatloaf seems to have fallen from fashion. This recipe uses breadcrumbs, seasoned ground beef and crumbled crackers for the meatloaf which is baked to resembles a loaf of bread. Get the recipe.
Spaghetti Bolognese
This classic Italian dish that has become popular all over the world probably has as many versions as people who cook it, but the basic recipe calls for ground beef, lots of tomato, and Italian herbs like oregano and basil.
It’s a great favorite with children as long as you don’t add the chili. Get the recipe.
Russian Kotleti
Think of something that’s a mix of a burger patty, a rissole and a meatball and you have kotleti. They are made with ground beef to which bread soaked in milk can be added, or grated potato. They are usually served with a gravy over mashed potatoes. Get the recipe.
Chilean Shepherd’s Corn Pie
Ground beef, onion and a surprize ingredient of hard boiled eggs form the filling for this version cooked in a skillet.
Instead of the usual mashed potato topping of an English Shepherd’s pie, the Chilean topping is made from fresh, frozen or canned corn kernels that are cooked in some butter, then blended with cornmeal and cream to provide the satisfying finish to this tasty family meal. Get the recipe.
Wrap-Up
So now you have a whole host of recipes to try out that use ground beef. You may want to use the exact herbs and spices as well as the ingredients suggested, but as a prepper you will probably need to use what you have in stock, so feel free to substitute.
On the other hand, going through the recipes may help you plan for extra herbs and spices to add to your stockpile, to ensure you can prepare really exciting meals when times are tough.
I have personally prepared most of the meals on this list, and the few I haven’t are on the “To Try Out ASAP” list.
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April 26, 2021 at 08:41AM
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