Ground beef is the main ingredient of many a family favorite dish, but its abundant nature often leaves us with leftovers.
While there’s no shortage of recipes that use ground beef, your cup may not be running over with leftover ground beef recipes.
Well, fear not!
We’re here, as usual, with 30—count them, 30—recipes that utilize your leftover ground beef, whether it’s already cooked or still raw and unused from a previous meal.
Your options for ways to upcycle hamburger meat are pretty much endless and include a variety of cuisines, cooking methods, and paired ingredients.
To that end, the recipes on our list are either easy or quick, or both.
Making them fast favorites for the days when we have meat that needs to be used and not a lot of time to make it happen.
Oh, and did we mention they’re all insanely delicious?
Seriously, there’s something on this list for just about everyone—except for our vegetarian friends, considering leftover ground beef is the focal point here.
There’s no doubt in our minds that once you experience the magic of the Slow Cooker Stuffed Bell Pepper Soup, Ground Beef Gyros, Leftover Cheeseburger Salad, or the Mushroom Swiss Patty Melt.
You’ll be not-so-accidentally prepping more hamburger meat than you need so you can whip up a recipe from this all-star lineup.
See for yourselves.
Leftover hamburger recipes are far and few between, but this One Pan Leftover Cheeseburger Mac and Cheese is all you’ll ever need for flipping those leftover cookout burgers into a brand new crowd-pleaser.
This recipe has all the right stuff – pasta, cheese, and meat.
What more do you need?
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If you’re a fan of Asian cuisine, this Ground Beef and Broccoli recipe will make a great addition to your repertoire.
Aside from the fact that it’s ready in fifteen minutes – yes, really – this recipe is simple, cost-effective, and sensational.
It extends the life of your cooked ground beef and gives you another use for that honey hanging out in your pantry.
Instant pot recipes are notorious for their quickness and ease, but using pre-cooked ground beef with this recipe speeds up the process even more as it allows you to bypass the first step in the instructions.
The homemade sauce you’ll create in record time with this sloppy joe recipe is second-to-none, and you can dress up your sandwich however you’d like.
Sloppy joes in the instant pot – who would have thought?
We love a good pie, and this one is at the top of the list.
The sweet, fruity goodness is replaced by ingredients like bacon, eggs, hamburger, and cheese.
You can eat it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner – and you’ll want to, too.
Anything bite-sized is an excellent option when you’re not sure what to do with extra ground beef.
These Cocktail Meatballs are unlike any other meatballs you’ve ever had, from the meatball composition to the sauce.
Rather than slinging together some barbecue sauce and grape jelly, this recipe calls for ingredients like dark brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, cider vinegar, shallot, and garlic.
Your Cocktail Meatballs will be mouthwatering, adorable, and a terrific use for your leftover ground beef.
Beef Stroganoff is a comfort food classic.
One of the things we like best about this recipe, in particular, is its ability to be customized to your taste.
It’s hearty, creamy, and can be ready in less than 30 minutes—especially since you’ll save time by not having to brown the ground beef first.
You really can’t go wrong.
Have we mentioned that we love pie?
Though this Shepherd’s Pie recipe is vastly different from the cheeseburger pie above, it’s practically perfect in its own special way.
One of those ways is that you can use leftover ingredients for pretty much every piece of the pie–leftover ground beef, leftover mashed potatoes, leftover vegetables, you name it.
Now that’s an occasion that calls for— you guessed it—pie.
In the world of Italian cuisine, lasagna is the gold standard.
While mind-blowingly delicious, traditional lasagna takes forever to prepare; however, this Skillet Lasagna totally changes the game.
You only use one pan, simple ingredients, and thirty minutes or less of your time.
This Skillet Lasagna is one cooked ground beef recipe for the ages.
Speaking of skillet meals, this Tex Mex Ground Beef And Rice are just about as good as it gets.
The recipe uses pre-cooked ground beef and pre-cooked rice, but the bell peppers, onions, spices, corn, Worcestershire sauce, lime juice, and cilantro are so fresh you’d never guess there was anything leftover about it.
Everything from prep to cleanup is fast and easy, and the flavor is off the charts.
11. Taco Salad
Making a Taco Salad is one of our favorite ways to use leftover ground beef.
This particular recipe is unique because it combines the meat with black beans and includes homemade taco seasoning.
You can follow the instructions when it’s time for toppings, or you can follow your heart—or your stomach—and build the rest of the salad using whatever fresh ingredients you’re craving.
12. Beef Pierogies
Making pierogies from scratch is an Eastern European form of art, plain and simple, but it can also solve the problem of what to do with leftover ground beef.
This recipe walks you through the process step-by-step and leaves you with savory, beef-filled pierogies.
You can use leftover uncooked ground beef from another meal, but you can also use leftover cooked ground beef; make as many as you can with what you’ve got, and enjoy.
After perfecting the art of pierogies, you can try your hand at a staple of Greek cuisine and whip up these ground beef gyros.
This recipe provides a Greek yogurt sauce and uses hamburger meat and fresh diced veggies to stuff pitas.
By using leftover hamburger meat, your gyros will be ready in minutes.
14. Moussaka
Since we’re talking Greek, Moussaka is one of Greece’s best-kept culinary secrets.
It’s essentially a Greek version of lasagna that’s layered with veggies instead of noodles.
This Moussaka recipe easily accommodates leftover ground beef and packs a punch with a veggie lineup that includes potatoes, red onion, eggplant, and zucchini.
Next up on our culinary world tour is Korea.
Traditional Korean Beef is prepared in a very specific way, but this recipe takes the flavor profile and applies it to a sauce, which means you can use pre-cooked ground beef if you have leftovers.
It’s an easy, contemporary spin on a classic Korean dish that maintains all the taste and character of the original recipe.
16. Taco Quinoa Bowl
This Taco Quinoa Bowl is a surefire way to use up any leftover taco meat you have after a wild Taco Tuesday.
One of our favorite things about cooked ground beef recipes like this is that you can do the prep ahead of time and serve them chilled, making these bowls great for a busy lunch or supper on the go.
As always with recipes like this, you can customize it to your taste.
We just can’t get enough of these one-pan wonders, and this beef penne is no exception.
Most of the ingredients are things you likely have on hand much of the time, and those that aren’t are easy to get your hands on.
With all the time you’ll save on prep and dishes, you might just be able to enjoy a little extra ‘me’ time.
Acini di pepe sounds fancy and intimidating, but it’s actually just tiny pasta.
This beef, tomato, and acini di pepe soup are refreshingly simple, and you can make it three different ways – instant pot, slow cooker, and stovetop.
You’ll be pleasantly surprised with the big impact such little pasta can make on a soup like this.
Precooked ground beef recipes don’t have to be a dime a dozen, and this Southwest Ground Beef Casserole is proof of that.
While a casserole may seem basic and traditional, the southwest flavor packed into this recipe is anything but that.
Never judge a beef casserole by its cover!
A list of ground beef recipes wouldn’t be complete without a meatloaf, and we don’t intend to disappoint.
If you happen to have some extra uncooked ground beef on hand leftover from another meal, it will become the missing piece of the meatloaf puzzle in this Four-Ingredient Meatloaf.
Ground beef, egg, Stovetop stuffing, and water are all it takes – oh, and the glaze is to die for.
If you’re a big brunch fan who doesn’t know what to do with cooked ground beef, look no further than this Cheeseburger Omelet.
Your cooked cheeseburger patties will never look or taste better than when they’re paired with eggs, cheese, onion, and thousand island dressing.
These omelets are so satisfying you’ll catch yourself grilling extra burgers just so you can use the leftovers for breakfast the next morning.
Beef and potatoes may seem bland and blah, but this recipe makes ground beef and potatoes an exciting culinary creation.
The bell peppers certainly help, and additions like Worcestershire sauce, dijon mustard, and a punch-packing spice blend bring a lot of hype.
The fact that you can use leftover ground beef is just an added bonus.
If you thought the taco salad was a win in the pre-cooked ground beef recipe department, you’ll totally flip for this Leftover Cheeseburger Salad.
We’d never even thought of using leftover cheeseburgers in our salad until stumbling upon this recipe, but the discovery has been life-changing.
It’s almost like eating a cheeseburger without the bun – only better.
24. Thai Basil Beef
This recipe for Thai basil beef is equal parts visually appealing and exotically flavorful.
As excited as we are about the look and taste of the dish though, we’re pretty pumped about the fact that it takes a total of fifteen minutes from start to finish.
It’s savory, spicy, and versatile if you want to sub out the rice – you really can’t go wrong.
Cheeseburgers and quesadillas are two of our favorite anytime foods, so the idea of putting them together has us salivating already.
This recipe utilizes all the best cheeseburger fixings, but we’re particularly excited about the red onion and pepper jack cheese.
You never have to wonder what to make with cooked ground beef again.
Tacos are always a clear choice when you have leftover ground beef to use.
This recipe will help you spice up your pre-cooked beef with a homemade taco seasoning that’s out of this world.
The instructions don’t overwhelm you with toppings, either, keeping it simple while upholding presentation and taste.
Cabbage soup is a cookbook classic, but adding a heaping helping of ground beef to it elevates the dish to a whole new level.
This recipe for meaty cabbage soup is the winter comfort food that dreams are made of.
The option to cook it in the crockpot, instant pot, or on the stovetop makes it easily accommodating to your needs, and the cheddar cheese garnish puts the cherry on top, so to speak.
Who doesn’t love a patty melt?
We’d be willing to bet that you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who wouldn’t melt over this mushroom swiss version of the sandwich.
Patty melts are known for being easy but slightly time-consuming; however, using leftover ground beef can cut down on that some, changing the patty melt game completely.
This Spicy Southwest Butternut Squash Casserole recipe might just be the most unique recipe on this list.
The title doesn’t boast ground beef, but trust us when we say it’s definitely there.
Also, whoever thought to pair black beans and butternut squash has to be a foodie genius!
30. Enchirritos
If you’re trying to figure out what the heck an Enchirrito is, let us save you some time.
It’s half enchilada, half burrito, and all good.
This recipe takes on all the best characteristics of both dishes and gives you an unbelievable satisfying way to use your leftover ground beef.
The bottom line
Leftover ground beef can often stump us in terms of how to best use it.
We hope that these 30 diverse and delectable recipes will alleviate some of that leftover stress.
With everything from gyros to Thai basil beef, there’s truly something on this list that everyone can enjoy.
30 Ways To Use Leftover Ground Beef
30 diverse and delectable recipes that will alleviate some of that leftover stress.
Ingredients
- One Pan Leftover Cheeseburger Mac And Cheese
- Slow Cooker Stuffed Bell Pepper Soup
- Ground Beef And Broccoli
- Instant Pot Sloppy Joes
- Cheeseburger Pie
- Cocktail Meatballs
- Ground Beef Stroganoff
- Shepherd’s Pie
- Skillet Lasagna
- Tex Mex Ground Beef And Rice Skillet
- Taco Salad
- Beef Pierogies
- Ground Beef Gyros
- Moussaka
- Korean Beef Bowls With Veggies
- Taco Quinoa Bowl
- 30 Minute One Pan Beef Penne
- Beef, Tomato, And Acini Di Pepe Soup
- Southwest Ground Beef Casserole
- Four Ingredient Meatloaf
- Cheeseburger Omelet
- Ground Beef And Potatoes
- Leftover Cheeseburger Salad
- Thai Basil Beef
- Cheeseburger Quesadillas
- Mexican Ground Beef Tacos
- Meaty Cabbage Soup
- Mushroom Swiss Patty Melt
- Spicy Southwest Butternut Squash Casserole
- Enchirritos
Instructions
- Skim through our Leftover Ground Beef Recipes list.
- Select the recipe you’re looking for.
- Prep the ingredients as instructed.
- Spill your thoughts on our Facebook page!
seekyum
Thursday 14th of July 2022
I like fried beef too