Ground Beef 5 Ways
Folks may warn you away from red meat, but don’t believe them. Beef can be part of a healthy diet and provide good amounts of iron and protein. The trick is to choose the right recipes, use lean cuts and stick to smart portions. Here are five easy ways to enjoy ground beef guilt-free.
Sloppy Joes
Okay, so Sloppy Joes are an obvious one, but still a beloved classic. Forget the canned stuff (and lose all the extra sugar and salt that comes along with it) and make your own. It’s pretty easy to make your own sweet and sour sauce and mix it in with ground beef and veggies (more fiber). We serve ours up whole grain rolls or over brown rice or quinoa with a fresh garden salad on the side.
RECIPE: Sloppy Joes
Stuffed Peppers
To keep the calories and fat in balance, make ground beef a smaller part of the meal, not the main attraction. With all the peppers in season right now, I’ve been playing with some different versions of this basic stuffed pepper recipe.
RECIPE: Greek-Style Stuffed Peppers
Taco Salad
Ground beef in a salad? Absolutely! All you need is a mix of veggies, beans and a sensible portion of ground meat for this easy weeknight dinner (leftovers make a tasty lunch, too). Beans add fiber and energy-boosting B-vitamins, thiamin and riboflavin. Beef also contains two different B-vitamins (Niacin and B12) that helps with energy and healthy red blood cells.
RECIPE: Tex-Mex Taco Salad
Mini Burgers
We can’t skip burgers on this list. Get the flavor for less calories and fat by downsizing. These little sliders work as fun finger food for guests or can be a complete meal along with green beans or potato salad.
RECIPE: Mini Memphis Burgers
Bolognese
This thick, flavorful meat-and-veggie sauce goes great with pasta or slices of bread. This recipe, from Food Network’s Giada de Laurentiis, does it right — one pound of meat for six people, not two! I like to serve my Bolognese with small portions of whole grain pasta (about 1.5 cups cooked per person) and a big salad.
RECIPE: Simple Bolognese Recipe
Is lean ground beef better than ground turkey? We are ground turkey eaters. Should I switch to ground beef? Or just buy it occasionally to mix things up a bit??
I like ground turkey as well. I think they're both good, and our family eats both (more turkey than beef.) I know that poultry (chicken and turkey) is better than red meat. Something like… lots red meat is proven to cause heart problems and cancer and all sorts of other problems. But they say that about everything these days… I think having red meat every once in a while is alright, but every night is unhealthy.
Hi Alicia –
I would recommend mixing it up. Turkey breast does tend to be lower in fat than lean beef but they can both fit into a healthy diet. Make sure to always get ground turkey breast meat, "ground turkey" is much higher in fat and calories.
I made tacos last night with 96% lean ground beef and they were SO good!! Sometimes beef is underrated.
I found a recipe where shredded purple cabbage was added to the Sloppy Joes. I tried it, and it is great. Cabbage adds fiber, vitamins and minerals, plus also adds a crunch. Kids love them just as much as the regular ones. I always reduce or eliminate the salt in recipes, and let people add their own. Many recipes are plenty salty without adding what is specified, as the dish gets salt from other ingredients.
The comments they made in the article are true. Ground beef is an excellent source of protein and vitamins and is healthy when consumed as part of a healthy diet. Aside from lean ground beef there are also 29 other lean cuts of beef available to consumers.
be careful to read the turkey packaging, you may very well be surprised the amount of skin used in some, making it just if not more fatty so than very lean ground beef!
If you read the ingreints on turkey and chicken products you may change your mind and use more beef.
Thanks! I'll start mixing it up a bit then!
So 96% lean ground beef is the best kind out there? Sorry, I'm not used to buying red meats, so I have no idea what to look for.
My husband's cholesterol has gone up recently so we are eliminating anything that thinkmis high in cholesterol and adding in more whole grains. We hope this can keep it at a level where he doesnt have to go on medications. Because of this, we eliminated beef. Are we doing the right thing?
Hi Alicia –
The type of ground beef to use may vary depending the recipe you're preparing. I typically like to use the 90% lean – in some recipes the 95% or higher can get a little dry.
My favorite store carries a 93% lean ground beef which I find to be a great compromise between taste and healthiness for ground beef. Just switching from a 80% to 93% beef is a big fat difference…
Is it lean ground turkey? Watch your fat content on some ground turkey! It can be just as high as beef!
Ladies I’m on a low-fat, low sodium diet and Boars Head puts out a low sodium ham that really is low sodium & low clostoral. I have the blood work to prove this. switch over to Mrs Dash seasonings and you’ll be fine. we prefer to use table blend in place of salt. Ground turkey brest 99% lean or 96% ground beef is good use your imagination on spices its not all in the printed recipies
I use the lean ground turkey as well as grounf beef occasionally. To add some moisture to either one, I'll saute shallots and garlic in a small amount olive or grape seed oil and put it all into the meat I'm using. It helps keep it moist. I've also added a little wine to the onions and shallots which adds flavor to the meat.
I didn't know that "ground turkey " is much higher in fat and calories???? Is it really?? I would think that the ground beef would be higher in fat and calories. Right?? or not? Thanks for someone to set it straight for me.
Another way to make it a little healthier is to add a little cooked bulgar. You cant tell the difference and it gives you extra fiber.
I don't trust ground turkey. I feel like I don't know what they are griding up and calling "turkey" but I guess the same can be said for ground beef. We purchase large cuts of meat from Costco (turkey and chicken breast included) and grind the meat ourselves using the Kitchen Aid food grinder attachment for our stand mixer. This way we can monitor the amount of fat but also flavour the meat at the same time. We freeze the ground meat in portions and always have some ready for whatever week-day meal we're cooking. If I do have to purchase ground beef from the grocery store, I always cook it down and drain the fat into our grease can using a large spoon.
Bison Meat is learner and more healthy.
shouldnt matter i use both in some recipes it one will taste better than the other but i use a lot of turkey for like tacos and other recipes even make it on pizzas as a diffrent fix instead of burger .
Hey Becca it depends on the type of "ground turkey"…if it's ground turkey breast, than yes it would be lower in fat & calories. However most ground turkey products that do not specify on the label that it is made from breast meat are usually full of the turkey parts that are very fatty, including the skin. This type of ground turkey is usually higher in fat and calories than very lean ground beef. Just be sure to read the labels so you know exactly what you're getting.
It really doesn't have to do so much with the source of the meat, its the amount of saturated fat that causes heart problems. If you're buying quality ground turkey it is NOT going to have the fat content of beef. That's just silly.
We buy whole sirloin tips, have them remove fat and grind it for us . .. Can’t get it much leaner than that. Have the
pkg it for you or do it yourself.
if you read the ingredients on most of the products you buy at the grocery store you will probably change your mind on a lot of things. beef has higher bad saturated fats there fore causeing your arteries to clog more quickly leading to much more damaging affects on your body.
Sounds interesting. Can you add the recipe to a post?
On “Diners,Drive-Ins and Dives” twice I have seen episodes where the cook was preparing a dish with ground beef, and he adds a large amount of water to the beef then mixes it in, then uses the beef to make burgers, etc. Why add water?
Turkey burgers are great if you mix a little bit of hashbrowns in with them. Gives them moisture and holds them together
Susan,
In your husband's case I would go light on beef, maybe 95% lean when you do have it. Salmon and tilapia might be better choices for a low cholesterol diet. Something else he might try is a dose of metamucil (psyllium fiber, ground) in the morning and night. Adding whole grains is great but psyllium really soaks up cholesterol. I would make that change before anything else.
-Jeff
When using leaner meats, try adding a little Worcestershire sauce to the meat – it will add nice flavor and keep the meat juicier to make up for the lesser amount of fat.
As far as turkey vs. beef, ground turkey is not always the answer! As someone mentioned already, ground turkey can contain fattier dark meat and thus is a higher fat version of the ground turkey BREAST meat. Fatty ground turkey can be as low as 80% lean and is very similar to ground beef at this concentration. I never purchase less than 93% lean turkey, and if I'm really looking for a healthy alternative, 99% lean turkey breast is the way to go – if you add it to a sauce, etc. you won't notice the dryness of the meat – just be careful not to overcook it when browning.
Beef gets a bad rap, but it can be a part of a healthy diet if used correctly! And don't be afraid to splurge for a nice, juicy 85% lean beef burger every once in a while!
I like stuffed recipes very much. Thanks for sharing different delicious recipes here. I will make one by one. It is nice to visit this recipe site.
No matter what percentage of fat in ground beef, I always put the meat into a strainer after I brown it. It's amazing how much fat drains off.
I've been buying 95% lean ground beef lately and cooking a burger or two under the broiler and I was quite surprised that there was almost nothing in the bottom of the pan after a thorough cooking. Very tasty and a great source of protein.