Not Your Mother’s Hamburger Casserole

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It’s October, and it seems that rather suddenly, we’ve gone from warm to cool nights. A couple weeks ago, we were eating hamburgers grilled outside, and now, we’re planning soups, stews, and casseroles using that same ground beef.

Many of us grew up in households that regularly ate ground beef dishes. Whether spaghetti and meatballs, American chop suey, chili, or your own family casserole – maybe one of those concoctions with ground beef, onions, and a can of condensed mushroom soup, topped with Tater Tots – ground beef was a staple. And we’ve often continued to make the same type of dinners for everyday. We learned those recipes, they’re easy to make, and we probably have the ingredients in our pantries with ground meats as the cornerstone.

Quick and easy, but not ordinary

How about something new and different – but familiar? Your ingredients can be repetitive, but your recipes don’t need to be. What if we look at the ways that other food traditions fashion ground meat dishes? Like ours, most are quick and easy to make, but they offer interesting flavor profiles.

So instead of your usual pasta with a tomato-meat sauce, how about Picadillo? This Cuban classic mixes ground beef, tomato sauce, fried potatoes, raisins, and green olives with a dash of hot sauce that you can serve over rice or even stuffed into roasted peppers.

Flavors from Japan, India, and the Middle East

If your heritage was the northern U.K. or Scotland, you might have fond (or not so fond) memories of mince and tatties, that mix of braised ground beef, carrots, and onions, covered with homemade gravy and served over mashed potatoes. Filling and satisfying on a fall night. But how about a different twist from Japan? Gingery Soboro Donburi (pictured above) is a hearty rice-bowl meal made with ground beef and frozen peas flavored with soy sauce, sake, and ginger.

On fall days in my youth, one of the most frequent family meals was beef stew, usually made with stew meat, but sometimes with ground beef. It included peas and potatoes and a gravy made from the rendered meat juices, flour, and water. It was one of the first meals my mother taught me to make. I haven’t made it in years, and these days, I’m more likely to try something like India’s Beef Keema, a ground meat curry that takes the pea and potato stew to new taste levels.

And of course, there’s the good old meatball dinner, whether on spaghetti or a sandwich roll – another satisfying meal that will likely keep your family happy. But how about trying grilled meatballs with mint and za’atar? This Middle Eastern dish produces cumin-spiced meat that you wrap in lettuce leaves and dab with a tangy yogurt before popping them in your mouth. Though the recipe calls for the spice blend za-atar, you can substitute equal parts thyme, oregano, marjoram, cumin, and coriander. Your family gets a new set of flavors plus the fun of making their own lettuce sandwiches.

Some of your hamburger recipes probably have a Mexican/Southwest influence – probably chili or tacos. But for a change, how about meat-stuffed poblanos? It’s a healthful alternative that might be popular around your dinner table.

You get the drift. You can get these on the table just as quickly as the old standbys. These easy changes might spur your family to think about branching out into other uncharted waters.

What do you think? Worth a try? Please click on the headline to view the blog on the website. You can log in and comment at the end of the blog to share your thoughts and start a discussion, or suggest a topic for Farmboy in the Kitchen.

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