Ground beef is ideal for preparing nutritious dietary meals. It is useful for soups, homemade pies, casseroles, cutlets, stuffed vegetables, stews. To enhance the taste, add fried or raw onions, garlic, herbs and spices.
Rules for the selection and preparation of minced meat
Minced beef is a healthy, easily digestible product with high nutritional value. It is rich in proteins, valuable amino acids, B vitamins. The calorie content depends on the parts of the carcass that were used to prepare the minced meat. If chunks with fat are added to lean meat, the mixture will be more juicy, but such a product can no longer be considered dietary.
You can buy ground beef at the store or cook it yourself. The last option is preferable: the hostess will be able to control the quality of the meat and the amount of additional ingredients. Another option is to order the preparation of minced meat in a specialized store, the seller will grind the selected piece of beef in the presence of the buyer. A little trick: at home, the purchased minced meat needs to be minced again, it will become more tender and airy.
If you use a finished product, you need to buy packages with the "A" marking. This means that the meat of the highest quality was used for rolling, without extraneous additives. To make the dishes tasty, it is important to use fresh, not aerated minced meat. The ideal product has a uniform deep red color with a slight sheen. If the minced meat is dull, gray, watery or excessively dry, it is better to refuse the purchase. When choosing a package, you need to pay attention to the date of packaging and the implementation period. It is preferable to buy not frozen, but chilled products, if there are suspicions that the minced meat was subjected to secondary freezing, it is better to refuse to purchase.
To prepare minced meat at home, it is not necessary to use fillets, any parts of the carcass are suitable: shanks, peritoneum, neck. The meat is passed through a meat grinder, for splendor, you can add a little white bread soaked in milk or warm water, raw egg white makes the minced meat denser. Required ingredients are salt and chopped onions, black pepper, garlic, fresh or dried herbs are added to the minced meat if desired. Ground beef can be mixed with other types of meat: pork, chicken, turkey. The finished product with spices is not stored in the refrigerator, but the formed products (cutlets, meatballs, cabbage rolls) can be frozen.
Meatball Soup: Step-by-Step Preparation
A classic dish for dietetic and children's cuisine is a low-fat but very nutritious soup with meatballs. In addition to meat, the composition includes vegetables and tender, quickly boiling noodles. To keep the broth transparent, it is better to cook the noodles separately and add to the soup just before serving.
Ingredients:
- 200 g of purchased or homemade ground beef without additives;
- 50 g vermicelli;
- 1 carrot;
- 1 large potato;
- 1 onion;
- 1.5 liters of filtered water;
- salt to taste;
- Bay leaf;
- black peppercorns;
- refined vegetable oil for frying;
- fresh herbs (parsley, dill, celery).
Prepare the minced meat by mincing the beef or scrolling in a blender along with half an onion. It is better to turn the finished product bought in the store through a meat grinder: the meatballs will turn out to be more tender and homogeneous, without hard veins. Roll the same medium-sized, but not too small balls from minced meat. It is worth considering that when cooking, the meatballs will decrease in size. Boil the vermicelli in salted water, discard it in a colander.
Pour water into a saucepan, bring to a boil, add salt, black peppercorns, bay leaf. Pour in the peeled and diced potatoes. Boil until half cooked root vegetables. In a frying pan, fry the thinly chopped half of the onion and the carrots, grated on a coarse grater. Put the frying in the broth along with the meatballs, cook for 10 minutes until the potatoes are soft. Let the dish brew for another 5-7 minutes under a closed lid, add pre-boiled noodles and pour the soup into warmed-up plates. If desired, add chopped fresh herbs to each and put a spoonful of thick sour cream.
Meatloaf with egg: a step by step recipe
Ground beef can be used to make a simple but very interesting dish - meatloaf. The product, cut into pieces, looks very impressive in photographs; it can be prepared 1-2 days before the celebration and stored in the refrigerator, warming up before serving.
Ingredients:
- 1 kg of beef;
- 4 eggs;
- 1 large onion;
- 1 egg white;
- dried or fresh herbs;
- salt and ground black pepper;
- bread crumbs (if necessary).
Hard-boiled eggs and pour over with cold water for easy and neat cleaning. Scroll the meat twice in a meat grinder, mix with beaten egg white. In order for the minced meat to become dense and keep its shape better, it is rolled into lumps and sharply thrown into a bowl. A roll made from such minced meat will not fall apart when cutting and will easily be divided into neat chunks.
Chop the onion, add to the minced meat along with salt, pepper, dry herbs. The proportions of spices can be varied as desired. If the semi-finished product is too liquid, you can stir in some bread crumbs into the minced meat.
Line a rectangular baking dish with cling film. Lay out a layer of minced meat with a thickness of about 1.5 cm, smooth out with a wide knife or culinary spatula. Peel the eggs and lay them at an equal distance from each other. Cover with a second layer of minced meat. Wrap the roll tightly with minced meat and place so that the seam is at the bottom.
Put the meatloaf in the oven, preheated to 200 degrees, bake for 1 hour on a medium level. The finished product acquires an appetizing golden brown crust. Remove the roll from the oven and cool slightly right in the fore. If you cut it hot, the minced meat will fall apart under the knife. Serve the roll warm, garnish with cherry tomatoes, fresh herbs, pickled vegetables. You can arrange the slices on separate plates, pouring tomato or cream sauce over each portion.
Steam cutlets at home
A delicious and very healthy dish - fluffy minced beef cutlets, steamed. From the specified number of products, 13-15 products are obtained. They contain few calories and a lot of healthy protein, are easy to digest, and are suitable for baby food. Those who don't like garlic can exclude it from the ingredient list. The best side dish for steamed cutlets will be assorted vegetables, boiled rice or tender mashed potatoes.
Ingredients:
- 700 g of beef;
- 50 g butter;
- 3 slices of white bread;
- 100 g bread crumbs;
- 100 ml of low-fat milk;
- 3 cloves of garlic;
- 1 egg;
- 1 medium onion;
- salt and ground black pepper to taste.
Wash the meat, dry it with a paper towel, cut off the films and excess fat. Mince the beef or grind it in a blender. Finely chop the onion and garlic, add to the minced meat along with the bread soaked in milk. Put salt, pepper, egg, knead the cutlet mass thoroughly, first with a spoon, and then with your hands.
Leave the minced meat for 15 minutes, then form oblong or round cutlets, roll them in breadcrumbs. Put the products in a steamer bowl greased with butter, pour water into the tank, set the cooking time - 30-50 minutes, depending on the size of the cutlets. Close the lid and cook until the end of the cycle, after the signal, leave the products in the bowl for another 7-10 minutes.
