Healthy Ground Beef Recipes

By Food & Wine
Updated December 23, 2016
Credit: © Tina Rupp
Ground beef is an affordable and versatile ingredient, that can be incorporated in several healthy recipes. Try some of these easy and nutritious dishes, from stuffed zucchinis to Hungarian beef-and-potato soup.
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Karniyarik

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Like the meatless Imam Bayildi, this Turkish stuffed eggplant dish is rich, vibrant and perfect as a light supper.

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Kurdish Dumplings in Yogurt

Credit: © Madeleine Hill
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This dish, known as kotulk daw is made of three parts: The dumpling dough, the meat stuffing and the soup (which is really more of a sturdy sauce than a soup). Don't be afraid of what seems complex—it isn't—and this is the type of real cooking you need to have in your repertoire.

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Rice-and-Meat-Stuffed Zucchini and Green Peppers

Credit: © Christina Holmes
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These classic Greek stuffed vegetables from chef Scott Conant are filled with ground beef and rice seasoned with onion, tomato, parsley and thyme.

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Hungarian Beef-and-Potato Soup

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Traditionally, this soup would be made with cubes of beef, but when you want a quick weeknight dinner, who can wait for meat to braise? We use ground beef instead. If you like your soup spicy, substitute hot paprika for some of the sweet paprika here.

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Beef Keema

Credit: © Andrew Purcell
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Although this ground-meat curry is often made with lamb, we've found that the distinctive combination of spices tastes just as good with beef. Serve the thick, chili-like keema with warm naan (Indian flatbread), if available, or pita.

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Hummus with Spiced Beef and Pine Nuts

Credit: © John Kernick
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The unexpected topping of sautéed ground beef and pine nuts adds texture and deep flavor to this extra-creamy chickpea spread.

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Grilled Beef-and-Lamb Köfte

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Because they’re small and oval-shaped, Turkey’s köfte are like a cross between a meatball and a hamburger. These köfte, which master butcher Veysel Direk makes at Dükkan butcher shop, are juicy and simply flavored with onion and parsley.

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Cuban Beef Casserole with Corn-Scallion Biscuit Topping

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Inspired by a Cuban picadillo, this recipe perfectly balances savory and sweet with warm aromatic spices, sweet raisins and tangy green olives.

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Keema Beef Curry

Credit: © Tina Rupp
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“I learned to cook Indian food from Julie Sahni, the former chef and teacher who wrote the seminal Classic Indian Cooking in 1980," says F&W’s Grace Parisi. “Her outstanding cookbooks lay out the basics in ways that make so much sense to me. My deeply flavored keema (minced) curry is based on those simple principles.”

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