Ground Beef Curry
This ground beef curry is quick and easy — literally ready in under 20 minutes. If you’ve never thought of using ground beef in a curry, well, I hadn’t either. But necessity is the mother of invention and all I had thawed out was ground beef (bison, actually) and I was doing an experiment with some lentil crepes that needed a filling and so voila.
The crepes sorta worked (more on that another time) but the ground beef curry was SO GOOD. And it’s got a buttload of spinach in it, so you don’t even need to make a separate vegetable side dish unless you want to. This would go well with cauliflower rice or roasted cauliflower; curried potatoes; white rice; rice pilaf. But if you don’t want to mess with all that, the curry is good on its own. And I just had a thought that this mix would make an interesting Sloppy Joe filling, too, wouldn’t it?
I use frozen chopped spinach for ease of prep and because fresh spinach would make this too watery. Just get out the spinach in the morning and by evening it will be thawed enough. Press most of the water out (your hands work fine) before adding to the curry.
This is a small-batch recipe that serves two or three, but can easily be doubled. To stretch the recipe further, add the peas and carrots. To keep this paleo, don’t add peas (but carrots are okay!).
Ground Beef Curry
Ingredients
1/2 onion, diced (about 1 cup)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1/2 teaspoon cumin seed
1/2 teaspoon mustard seed
1 teaspoon curry powder
dash ground cinnamon
1/2 pound ground beef (or bison)
1/2 teaspoon salt
10 ounces frozen, chopped spinach
1 cup chopped tomatoes (fresh or canned)
fresh cilantro to garnish
Optional: 1 cup frozen peas and carrots
Instructions
Dice the onion. Melt the oil in a medium sauce pot over high heat. Add onion and brown for about a minute.
Add garlic and dry spices (except salt) and saute another minute or so until fragrant.
Add the meat and stir to crumble it up.
Squeeze most of the liquid from the spinach and add it to the meat with the salt and tomatoes. Add peas and carrots now, if using.
Cover, bring to simmer and cook 5-10 minutes. (You can simmer it longer if you like, but 10 minutes is sufficient if you’re in a hurry)
Serve with rice, bread, potatoes
Notes
For a spicy curry, add 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper OR 1 jalapeño, minced, sauteed with the onion
11 Comments
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Cool recipe!
I made this last Wednesday and it was even better than expected! In fact, now I’m craving it so much that I’m making it again tonight, 5 days later (much to my husband’s chagrin, he was hoping to use our ground beef for burgers)! Only had fresh carrots and they subbed in really well. Great, easy recipe; I appreciate you for sharing! 🙂
funny! I was just craving this curry the other day, too! Glad you enjoyed!
Thanks for the tip on draining ground beef. That’s the part I hate about cooking bulk amounts of ground beef and I never thought of lining a bowl to catch the grease
Is there a good way to convert those seeds into the ground version?
Hey Natalie!
If you have ground spices, just cut the measurements in half
Anyone know the calorie count per serving?
I’m not seeing the section about the beef so l missed the bowl trick, but I made this for dinner last night , used yellow curry paste, gochuchang and a few dabs if fish sauce and I really enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing your recipe. I used egg noodles instead of serving over rice but I really love it isn’t a soupy dish. I’ll definitely make again. I used ground chuck.
I made this tonight and it was absolutely amazing! Used fresh carrots and spinach b/c it’s what I had on hand. Flavors were incredible, I’m already excited for leftovers tomorrow! Thanks for the great recipe!
So simple so good,served with basmati rice and pita bread,will make often I am sure.I will check out more of your recipes glad I found your site
Great to hear, Margaret! I love this easy recipe, too