One Pan Ground Beef and Mixed Vegetables

TL;DR

We love this one-pan skillet/wok meal, which is packed with fresh vegetables, ground meat and a selection of warm flavorful spices and herbs.

It's a quick dinner solution if you are out of ideas, and you can use whatever vegetables you have in your fridge. In fact, you are free to use frozen veggies as well.

For the meat, we mainly use ground beef, but occasionally, we switch up things and get a 50/50 mix of ground beef and pork.

Use a large deep skillet or, even better, a wok to make this meal.

Ingredient Notes

• Oil — a neutrally flavored cooking oil such as canola oil, vegetable oil, sunflower oil.
• Ground Beef — can be lean, but doesn't need to. I prefer 80/20 (lean/fat) ratio because fats make foods taste more delicious, and it will enhance the flavor of your seasonings.
• Onion — sliced. You can use pruple, red, white or yellow onions.
• Garlic — chopped.
• Mixed Vegetables — Diced, chopped or roughly cut into chunks. Use whatever vegetables that you like. Suitable veggie choices include, cabbage, zucchini, bell pepper, carrots, peas, baby corn, corn, green beans, other summer and winter squash, gourds, and potatoes.
• Salt & Black Pepper
• Selection of Spices and Herbs — This recipe calls for ground cumin, ground coriander seeds, paprika (sweet, smoked or spicy), Cayenne (optional) and Oregano.
• Water — to allow the dish to cook for a little longer, so that the vegetables and meat get infused with the seasoning.
• Cilantro or Parsley — fresh to top, optional.

Process Overview

Start out by keeping all your ingredients ready, that means cutting your onion, garlic, and fresh vegetables.

Step 1

Heat up the oil and sauté onion slices and garlic.

Stir in your vegetables and cook them along.

Step 2

Season with salt, black pepper, cumin, coriander, cayenne, paprika, and oregano.

Stir cook to mix it all.

Step 3

Stir in ground beef and water and mix it all well.

Step 4

Simmer down the dish until all the liquids have evaporated.

Serve up hot and topped with some fresh cilantro or parsley.

Tips

This dish is a “I-have-to-clean-out-my-fridge” zero-waste meal. That means you can use up all those small vegetable leftovers or fresh vegetables that you have to use before they turn bad.

But we also make this dish with frozen vegetables, which we harvested in the summer months and froze for winter. Using frozen vegetables will reduce your prepping time considerable, assuming your veggies are cut and ready to be used.

You can skip the seasoning and use a seasoning blend instead to switch up things. Try this dish with a Cajun seasoning mix, a creole seasoning blend, or make it all Mediterranean by using an Italian seasoning blend.

Serving & Storing

I prepare this dish with a side dish, such as polenta, grits, steamed rice, couscous or ebly, spätzle or butter pasta.

Occasionally, we just eat this mixed vegetable ground beef meal with bread. A hot fresh from the oven Baguette is our preferred choice.

More recipes to use up vegetables

• Thai Vegetable Soup
• Mixed Vegetable Korma
• Asian Vegetable Stir Fry