25 Tasty Ground Beef Recipes (Cozy Meals) (2024)

Whether you use it in spaghetti, tacos, soups, or burrito bowls, ground beef is a kitchen staple that we’re sure you’ve got knocking around in your fridge. It’s also a crowd-pleaser. If you have ground beef in your dish, you’re sure to win over even the pickiest eaters, and the 25 recipes we selected are no exception.

These dishes are not only tasty but easy and quick to prepare. Win-win! From Irish pies to Greek Moussaka, Mexican tacos to Korean beef bowls, we’ve got it all below! If you’re in search of simple mid-week meals, look no further!

1. 30-Minute Korean Ground Beef and Rice Bowls

Just because a meal takes no time at all to cook, doesn’t mean it’s low on flavor and our 30-minute Korean ground beef and rice bowls prove it. This dish is sweet with a little bit of spice and is incredibly versatile.

If you’re watching your calories, or have a diet that restricts red meat you can substitute ground beef for chicken, turkey, or even a vegan ground beef substitute.

You can also substitute the ground beef for other cuts of beef too, like beef tips. Ribeye, for example, is a delicious substitute. A good tip for cooking this dish with ribeye is to slice it thinly at an angle. This reduces the cooking time and makes it easier to cook while keeping the beef tender.

For a low-carb take, you can also swap out the brown sugar in the recipe and replace the rice with broccoli rice or cauliflower rice. And for a bit different spin, check out this ground beef stir fry recipe.

2. The Best Ever Cheeseburger Soup

We know what you’re thinking - Cheeseburger soup? But don’t let the initial confusion deter you. This meal is delicious! With a richly seasoned hamburger base with creamy cheese and soft potatoes, this dish combines all the much-loved parts of a classic cheeseburger to create a bowl of warm, creamy goodness.

While the lean ground beef balances out the added fat from the cream and cheese, you can swap the ground beef for turkey, chicken, or pork - a good brand of sausage works too!

Cheddar is the ideal cheese to use for this recipe, as it has a nice flavor and melts easily. But you can also go for sharp cheddar cheese or, for a little extra spice, pepper jack cheese.

3. 30-Minute Mexican Beef and Rice Skillet

This easy one-pot Mexican beef and rice skillet is an excellent dish for a busy day. Hearty and fragrant, it’s a perfect single bowl meal for the whole family. Kids will love the taco flavor and you’ll love how easy it is to make!

This dish is also versatile. You can switch ground beef for pulled pork, shredded turkey, shredded chicken, or for a veggie take, substitute beef for black beans, vegetarian or vegan meat crumbles, or even Jackfruit.

You can also mix and match the vegetables in the dish. To change things up you can add red or yellow onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, or jalapenos.

To fill out the meat and make the dish creamier you can even add refried beans, as well as your favorite taco toppings to make the dish your own.

4. Creamy Beef Taco Soup

This rich, creamy soup is full of flavor and ready in no time, whether cooked in a slow cooker or instant pot. The kick of jalapenos enhances the flavor without being too spicy, but you can always add more jalapenos or chiles for extra spice.

You can also further make this dish your own with your favorite taco toppings.

5. Delicious Irish Meat Pie

Looking for a dish to serve on St Patrick’s Day? These pies should do the trick! This is a dish that is traditionally served around the holiday, and if you’re busy celebrating can be made ahead of time.

So all you have to do on the day is eat and enjoy! With a tender crust, stuffed meat, potatoes, cabbage, and a delicious seasoning blend, this pie is sure to be a crowd-pleaser!

This recipe uses ground sirloin, but you can also use shredded pot roast. We do recommend leaner cuts though to keep the filling tasty without being greasy and the crust flaky.

Easy to use, affordable, and tasty, we believe a ready-made pie crust works best for this dish. But you can also use biscuits and even puff pastry sheets.

6. The Best Authentic Shepherd’s Pie

A casserole that originated in the UK, a shepherd’s pie is an all-in-one meal that includes richly seasoned beef, vegetables and a delicious light mashed potato topping.

Some pies have cheese, others have diced potatoes, and some pies use a range of different meats, but whatever you use in your shepherd’s pie it is classic comfort food.

While a traditional shepherd’s pie is made of lamb, it is often confused with cottage pie that is made with beef. But whether you use lamb or beef, this is still a hearty, delicious dish.

7. Delicious Authentic Turkish Pide

A simple combination of dough with meat and vegetables, Turkish Pide is a delicious, flavor-packed dish that is sure to wow any crowd. If you haven’t cooked it before, we urge you to try it. You won’t regret it, and in fact, you’ll wish you had been cooking it for a lot longer!

While this hearty meal is filling enough to stand on its own, if you want to accompany it with a side we recommend a nice, large garden salad or some roasted vegetables.

8. Beef & Quinoa Enchilada Skillet (The Beach House Kitchen)

This incredibly simple beef and quinoa enchilada skillet is full of flavor, low-effort, and is sure to become a new favorite!

But not only is this skillet packed with flavor, but it’s also full of protein. It’s a delicious combination of ground beef, black beans, tomatoes, enchilada sauce, and quinoa with just enough cheddar jack cheese to make it your new favorite cheesy, one-dish kitchen staple!

9. Cottage Cheese Lasagna (Neighborfood)

We know cottage cheese is a divisive ingredient that provokes a strong - usually negative - emotion in some. If you’re one of those people, please hear us out! While the cottage cheese flavor is extremely mild, it gives the filling a more creamy texture without making it mushy.

This lasagna also features Swiss cheese, and while it may not be the traditional cheese you’d find in a lasagna it does work well.

But of course, a cottage cheese lasagna is going to throw out the rulebook! Swiss and mozzarella actually make a great combination for a sweet, nutty, melty lasagna. If you feel like mixing up your usual lasagna recipe, why not try this one?

10. Cornbread Topped Skillet Chilli (Sally’s Baking Addiction)

We can all agree that soul-warming chili and homemade cornbread are beautiful things. This cornbread topped skillet chili combines the two for a superb, delicious result!

This rich, thick, hearty dish hits the spot every time, especially on fall or winter nights when you just want to curl up at home with something warm and filling.

11. Puffy Beef Tacos (How Sweet Eats)

As the name suggests, puffy corn tacos are corn tortillas that are fried for a few seconds until they puff up and hold that shape. This all makes for an incredible texture, which is often as important as the taste.

We recommend making puffy tacos with masa flour and making them from scratch. Not only will this yield the best results, but who doesn’t have fun making tacos?

12. Mighty Moussaka (Jo Cooks)

Considered to be Greece’s answer to lasagna, this Greek Moussaka recipe is packed with layers and layers of eggplant, zucchini, potatoes, meat, and a creamy bechamel sauce. We’re sure you’ll fall in love with this hearty, tasty dish!

13. Beef Enchiladas (RecipeTin Eats)

Made with a simple, quick Enchilada sauce (so much tastier than store-bought), flavorsome ground beef and bean filling, Tex-Mex spices, refried beans, and black beans (because you can never have too many beans, right?), these enchiladas are sure to hit the spot every time.

To make this an economical and time-saving dish, use one base Enchilada spice mix for both the sauce and the filing. Plus, the combination of beans fills out the enchiladas nicely, making them big, and plump.

14. Slow Cooker Cincinnati Chilli (Slow Cooker Gourmet)

You may have heard of Cincinnati chili before, but what makes it so special? There are a few aspects of the dish that set it apart from other, more traditional types of chili.

Firstly, the use of spices such as cinnamon and allspice give it a distinctive flavor. It also has a thinner consistency than other chillis, and the meat is also cooked differently.

This recipe puts yet another twist on this already unique chili by topping it with cheese and serving it with spaghetti noodles.

15. Mexican Fiesta Bowls (Bev Cooks)

Dishes as tasty as these prove the longevity of the food bowl trend. This dish satisfies all of your burrito and taco cravings in one big, convenient delicious bowl.

Not only are food bowls like this easy to make, but this recipe is incredibly healthy too. Topped with Fritos and toasted coconut, how can you turn them down?

16. Korean Beef Bowls (Destination Delish)

This recipe takes all the stress out of preparing dinner on busy nights, or last-minute lunch prep. The easy and versatile ground beef is certainly a lot easier and quicker to cook than hacking away at a big chunk roast.

Cook the beef on the stove, then add a simple sauce to the pan, and let all the flavors marinate while the meat cooks. In less than 10 minutes, the beef will be ready to go!

17. 30-Minute One-Pan Beef Penne (Girl Gone Gourmet)

Not only is this dish quick to make - going from stove to table in 30 minutes - it also goes easy on the dishwasher.

To cook this dish you only need to use one pan! Cook the pasta in the savory tomato beef sauce, before topping with Parmesan and mozzarella cheese. This is sure to be one of your new favorite comfort dishes!

18. Beef Acini di Pepe Soup (Skinnytaste)

Made with ground beef, tomatoes, and tiny pasta, this warm, comforting dish is the soup equivalent of wrapping yourself up in a thick coat on a winter’s day!

This kid-friendly dish is sure to please the whole family. Want seconds? No problem! Make a big enough pot of this freezer-friendly dish and you’ve got tasty soup for days!

19. Cheese Stuffed Meatballs (Little Spice Jar)

This dish works not only as a spaghetti and meatball alternative but also as a tasty appetizer at your next dinner party. These cheesy stuffed meatballs in a homemade sauce are easy to make… but harder to resist!

20. Burrito Bowls with Cauliflower Rice (Spices In My DNA)

These burrito bowls are a healthy alternative to your typical burrito bowls, all the while remaining as delicious as more traditional bowls.

Sour cream is substituted for Greek yogurt to keep things light, while regular rice is swapped for versatile cilantro lime cauliflower rice to lower the number of carbs.

But as you would expect from a burrito bowl, the beef is seasoned to perfection with Mexican spices and topped with guacamole, pico de gallo, and shredded cheddar.

21. Healthier Instant Pot Hamburger Helper (The Girl on Bloor)

This dish is a one-pot spin on a nostalgic, childhood favorite. Whether you use a pressure cooker or a stovetop, just dump in all your ingredients, set it, and forget about it. This easy dish is perfect for all you multi-taskers!

22. The Best Copycat IKEA Swedish Meatballs

We bet you’ve sampled some meatballs from Ikea before, and this homage is as close to the real thing as you can get without a trip to Ikea. These tender, perfectly seasoned meatballs in rich gravy are a perfect weeknight meal that takes no time to cook and is ideal comfort food.

Meatballs come in many forms. Some are made with just beef, while others - such as Swedish meatballs - use a combination of beef and pork. Turkey or ground chicken meatballs make for a healthier alternative, but what sets each meatball apart is the sauce.

What makes Swedish meatballs different is that they are served in a rich gravy similar to brown gravy, but with more dairy.

The creamier the gravy the richer (and more comforting) the flavor. Combine the tender meat and rich gravy with starchy pasta and you’ve got one hearty dish. Of course, you can serve without pasta but who doesn’t love spaghetti and meatballs?

23. Flavor Packed Greek Moussaka Casserole

There are few things more comforting than an authentic Greek moussaka casserole. This layered dish is a traditional meal in the Mediterranean, rich in beef, tomatoes, eggplant, and cheese. With a simple layering process and a handful of herbs, this dish is guaranteed to satisfy.

So what is the exact difference between moussaka and lasagna? While both are layered casseroles, the biggest difference is that lasagna originated in Italy while Moussaka comes from Greece.

While moussaka has a similar meat sauce to lasagna, as well as the layers and tomato element, the Greek spice blend and the addition of potatoes sets it apart and gives it a distinct flavor.

There is also traditionally no cheese, but the roux creates a creamy sauce that gives it texture and creaminess.

You can also turn moussaka into a vegetarian dish. You can substitute the ground beef for vegetarian or vegan meat crumble, or even pecans, walnuts, or mushrooms. These are all great meat replacements that don’t detract from the flavors of the dish.

24. Paleo Shepherd’s Pie with Cauliflower Mash (Heather Christo)

Made from super lean grass-fed ground beef and tons of fresh vegetables, this shepherd’s pie is hearty and nutritious.

This shepherd’s pie mixes things up with a cauliflower mash topping instead of mashed potatoes. But don’t worry, it’s still as tasty as more traditional shepherd’s pie and perfectly mimics the creamy mashed potato feel and flavor.

25. Best Beef, Bean and Cheese Burritos (Carlsbad Cravings)

By browning and sauteing the beef with onions and garlic, these burritos are hearty and packed with flavor.