Healthy Ground Beef Recipe | Spinach Picadillo
Picadillo is a Spanish dish made with ground meat and other ingredients. It’s popular in many Latin American countries, each having their own variation. Living in Miami, I grew up with Cuban picadillo. Cuban picadillo is a mixture of ground beef, onions, garlic, oregano, olives, raisins and a touch of tomato sauce. It’s a hefty meal, usually served with a big portion of black beans and rice, and some sweet plantains, or plantanos maduros.
I love the rich flavor of picadillo. It’s an easy, one-pot dish that feeds a whole family. I don’t love how heavy it is, almost completely lacking in vegetables. Instead, I make a healthier spinach picadillo, packed with spinach, green pepper, celery and peas. It’s loaded with flavor and something every member of the family will love—even the picky little ones. You can serve it with white or brown rice and even substitute the ground beef for turkey.
Feel free to play around with this recipe. It’s very forgiving and you can add or substitute your favorite ingredients. I’ve made it with ground turkey instead of ground beef and it’s just as good. Lately, I make it with grass-fed organic ground beef, which is lower in saturated fat and contains 2-3x the amount of Omega 3, CLA, beta-carotene and lutein than regular beef.
I hope you enjoy this recipe for spinach picadillo as much as we have. It’s one of the few dishes I make again and again and I’m so happy to finally share it with you on Love and Duck Fat!
Healthy Ground Beef Recipe | Spinach Picadillo
Spinach Picadillo Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 pounds lean ground beef
- 1 cup onion, chopped
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon salt (plus more to taste)
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 cup pitted Manzanilla olives with pimento, sliced
- 2 tablespoons olive juice (the liquid in the jar of olives)
- 3 stalks celery, finely diced
- 1 dried bay leaf
- 1 cup tomato sauce or puree
- ¼ cup raisins
- ½ cup dry white wine or water
- 1 cup beef or chicken broth
- Juice from 1 lime
- 1 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
- ¾ cup frozen peas, thawed
Method
Heat the oil in a large saucepan on medium-high heat. Add the ground beef. Chop up the beef with a spatula as it cooks, turning often. Add the onion, garlic, salt, pepper, cumin, oregano and cayenne pepper. Cook about 8-10 minutes, until the onions are soft but not brown.
Add the olives, olive juice, celery, bay leaf tomato sauce, raisins, white wine and broth to the pan and bring to a simmer, stirring to combine. Cover and reduce heat to low. Cook for 30 minutes.
Uncover and increase heat to medium. Add lime juice and spinach. Cook for another 5-10 minutes uncovered or until mixture reduces to desired consistency. Stir and season to taste. Add peas just before serving. Remove bay leaf and serve with rice and an avocado salad.
http://loveandduckfat.com/healthy-ground-beef-recipe-spinach-picadillo/
That looks good and HEALTHY…and I’m fairly certain that Raef will eat all the ingredients listed in the recipe!! We have a Filipino version too…but not so healthy!
Oh boy, that sounds really delicious. I love meals like this & it is relatively easy to make. It’s perfect for a cold winter night for dinner!
I might have to try this with turkey or chicken. I stopped eating ground beef a long time ago and no longer eat it now for religious and health reasons.
That looks soooooo good; I love ground beef and just drowning in ketchup! Sometimes I wonder if I need more ground beef with my ketchup. 😛
That sounds so simple, easy and healthy. I wonder if I could get my kids to eat it?
This would be a great dish for the family. Seems like an easy recipe to make.
yummy and healthy two things I adore together. thank you for sharing.
I don’t think I’ve ever had this but it looks and sounds delicious! Pinning to try sometime soon. 🙂
I love coming across new recipes that I haven’t heard of but sound great. Thank you for sharing this one!
I would have to either blend in the raisins or leave them out but for me it sounds amazing. My husband swears he hates raisins but if I blend them into sauces he does not notice them there.
I wonder if this would taste as good if I substituted the beef for turkey? I am on a gall bladder diet, so I cannot eat beef.
I love one pot dishes! I think my brother would absolutely love this.
Oh yum that sounds delicious, sadly I can’t eat beef I wonder how it would be with Quorn :/x
That looks so good! I know my brother would love this so I need to save this recipe for him to try.
This looks really good. This looks like a really easy and great meal.
It’s nice to try dishes from other cultures. We might try making this one night with grounded turkey. I think my family might like it.
I love anything with ground beef/pork. So I bet this would be something to add to foods I’d love!
That looks like a pretty hearty meal, and I love that it’s healthy too! It’s so hard to stick to healthy eating, so I love when I find new recipes to try.
I’ve never had Picadillo but it certainly looks yummy! I may have to try to make this. Thanks!
This actually looks really good. I have just recently tried spinach.
This not only sounds great but looks great too! I will have to give this recipe a try, I’m always looking for new things to try even if I’m not good at cooking. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing this recipe. I have found so many things that I have never tried, just like this one.
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