Healthy Ground Beef Recipes

Mushrooms, garlic and oats sneak some extra nutrients into this hearty and easy meatloaf. Serve with sweet potatoes and your favorite green vegetables for a super-satisfying comfort food dinner.

Slow-cooked onions add moisture and flavor to these lean beef burgers. A quick blend of mayonnaise, ketchup, relish and vinegar makes a perfect tangy, sweet and creamy “special sauce” for this burger. We love the dill relish here, but use sweet relish if you prefer it. Serve with sweet potato fries.

This wholesome sweet-and-sour soup combines beef, caraway seeds, sweet paprika and cabbage--ingredients that star in a number of German dishes. It is particularly nice served with crusty rye bread. For an even heartier soup, add diced cooked potatoes along with the cabbage. Recipe by Nancy Baggett for EatingWell.

Make this entire meal in one skillet! The beef soaks up the flavor from the vegetables and herbs, making it juicy and full of flavor.

No more half-eaten lunches--this taco-inspired bento box lunch is a healthy and portable meal your kid will love.

While meatloaf purists focus on the meat, we like to look at meatloaf as a way to pack extra veggies and whole grains into a meal, as we do in this healthy, classic meatloaf recipe.

A combination of lean ground beef and ultra-lean ground turkey breast makes a less-greasy filling. Bypass taco-seasoning packets in favor of making your own full-flavored filling.

Save on meal prep time by making a double batch of these delicious meatballs. Freeze them to have on hand for lunches and dinners.

Building the perfect taco is a very personal task--cheese under meat, cheese on top, no cheese at all? This is just our recommendation.

Meatballs, green beans and potatoes happily coexist while roasting together on a large sheet pan. Seasoned with fresh rosemary and Italian seasoning and served with pasta sauce and Parmesan, this one-dish meal is one you'll want to make again and again.

Kefta, seasoned ground meat, is one of Morocco's most popular street foods. Traditionally, kefta is washed down with a glass of sweet mint tea. It's delicious served with ratatouille.

In this Tex-Mex-seasoned stuffed delicata squash recipe we swap out half of the ground beef you'd normally use for bulgur to reduce saturated fat without skimping on the amount of stuffing. Serve with a mixed green salad with cilantro vinaigrette.

Here's a traditional recipe for a family favorite. Buy the leanest ground beef you can find for this home-style meat loaf.

This healthier beef taquitos recipe calls for baking instead of deep-frying. One order of these little deep-fried, rolled-up tacos at a restaurant can set you back almost 1,000 calories and 60 grams of fat! Don't worry if some of the taquitos crack open while baking—they're still crispy and delicious. Serve with your favorite salsa, guacamole and reduced-fat sour cream.

Here's a fun way to serve chili and cornbread together. Don't let the ingredient list intimidate you--this casserole is easy to make and a real crowd pleaser.

These juicy mozzarella-stuffed meatballs are filled with ooey-gooey melted cheese. The simple spice mix combines with fresh herbs to flavor them nicely. These crowd-pleasing meatballs are perfect for potlucks or family gatherings.

Why put the cheese on top of the burger when half of it just melts off? Instead, form the burger around the cheese so you can char the meat and safeguard the more delicate flavors. Use any mixture of hard or semihard cheeses--Emmentaler and Gouda or Asiago and Parmigiano-Reggiano also pair well.

Ground beef cooked with tomatoes and briny olives can be found all over Latin America. This is a favorite Cuban variation served over plantains, starchy vegetables that look like giant bananas. You can also serve the picadillo over rice or potatoes, so this easy dinner recipe is versatile too.

Break out of your pasta routine by subbing in a baked potato in this simple and satisfying dinner for one.

Anything but dainty, this healthy cowboy beef and bean chili recipe is hearty with the addition of mushrooms and beer. To keep the saturated fat low, we use one pound of ground beef and add whole-grain bulgur to boost the volume and fiber in this chili recipe. After all the ingredients are added to the pot, we like to slowly simmer our chili for close to an hour to develop the best flavor, but if you're in a hurry, reduce the liquid by half and simmer for 20 to 25 minutes.

Ground beef cooks quickly and is a budget-friendly protein that can be used with a variety of spices and flavors.

This fabulous meat loaf is moist, tender and colorful. Keep the fat content low in this recipe by using lean ground beef and refrigerated egg product.

Slow-cooked onions add moisture and flavor to these lean beef burgers for two. A quick blend of mayonnaise, ketchup, relish and vinegar makes a perfect tangy, sweet and creamy “special sauce” for this burger. We love the dill relish here, but use sweet relish if you prefer it. Serve with sweet potato fries.

This is a version of the famous meat sauce of Emilia Romagna, of which Bologna is the capital. Giuliano Hazan's family is from Emilia Romagna, and he learned to make Bolognese sauce from his mother, Marcella, who learned it from her grandmother, Mary. Its classic pairing is with homemade tagliatelle or pappardelle but it's also very good with rigatoni, shells or any substantial pasta shape, preferably one with ridges, that has nooks and cavities to trap the sauce. Adapted from How to Cook Italian by Giuliano Hazan; Scribner, 2005.