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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 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.
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.
Authentic Sloppy Joes
This from-scratch, saucy sloppy joe recipe with a kick is a leveled up classic! The next time you have friends coming over, give yourself a little extra time and make these homemade sloppy joes from scratch!
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Taco Soup
Nearly a one-pot dish, just brown the ground beef and then let the soup ingredients simmer for 30 minutes. Taco soup is what it sounds like—all of the ingredients of a taco but in a soup instead of a taco shell.
Beef Taco Salad
This hearty salad is made with all your favorite taco ingredients, including ground beef, beans, corn, tomatoes, sturdy lettuce, and shredded cheese. Beef taco salad is a great way to use up leftover taco meat, and it’s also a great meal to make for a crowd.
Tater Tot Casserole
The usual Tater Tot Casserole is made of ground beef, a canned soup or two, cheddar cheese, seasonings, and frozen tater tots. I used to eat this a lot in my 20s; now it’s a family favorite.
Skillet Bacon Cheeseburger Tortellini
This Skillet Bacon Cheeseburger Tortellini is proof that weeknight cooking doesn’t have to be complicated. The beef browns and lends its juices to the tomatoes, the pasta soaks up flavor, and the cheddar melts into a gooey layer that kind of makes life worth living.
Mild 3 Bean Chili
This very mild and flavorful 3-Bean Chili Recipe is one of those comfort foods that just warms the belly and the soul too.
Sloppy Joe Casserole
You’ll stretch that pound of ground beef even further, too, with this tasty Sloppy Joe Casserole recipe with just five ingredients! But this 9×13 casserole is heavy with tangy, sweet sauce, melted cheese, and cooked pasta.
Beef Enchiladas With Homemade Sauce
These homemade beef enchiladas are full of flavor and actually easy to make. You can prep these in 15 minutes, which makes them a perfect Tuesday night dinner or a weekend treat.
Korean Ground Beef Rice Bowl (Bibimbap)
This easy dish is tangy with fresh ginger and white wine vinegar, sweet, and just a little spicy that you can customize in so many different ways. If you’re trying to meal prep or get food on the table on a busy weeknight, prepare the sauce, rice, and pickled red onions in advance.
Sheet Pan Ground Beef Nachos
Sheet pan nachos come out of the oven ready to feed a crowd with just a handful of easy ingredients. With melted Colby Jack layered over everything and protein-rich refried beans anchoring the layers, this comfort food makes a hearty and satisfying dinner.
Homemade Meat Sauce
A slow-simmered Homemade Meat Sauce transforms humble pantry staples into a rich, savory sauce that tastes like it’s been on the stove all afternoon. Serve it generously over spaghetti, or spoon it between layers of lasagna noodles for a deeply flavored Sunday dinner.
Enchilada Tater Tot Casserole
My Enchilada Tater Tot Casserole is packed with savory ground beef, seasoned with taco spices, and mixed with black beans, corn, green chiles, and a rich red enchilada sauce. All that goodness is topped with crispy tater tots and a generous layer of melted cheese.
Ground Beef Casserole With Potatoes
We decided on a ground beef casserole with potatoes and oh my was it delicious.
Sheet Pan Tex Mex Quesadillas
Sheet Pan Tex Mex Quesadillas bake into one large, bronzed slab of crispy tortillas with a filling that stays hearty and well-seasoned: browned beef, softened onion, sweet bell peppers, earthy black beans, and pockets of melty cheese.
Greek Baked Ziti (Pastitsio)
Meaty, creamy, and beautifully scented with popular Greek seasoning, this is a perfect cold weather dinner-time treat for the whole family. With hearty layers of pasta, the white sauce cooks on the stove and then everything bakes in the oven, creating a melting pot of Mediterranean flavors.
Taco Casserole
A taco casserole is essentially a deconstructed taco. This casserole has cooked ground beef with sauteed onions and garlic.
No-Rice Stuffed Bell Peppers
What’s unique about this version is its Italian touch and absence of the rice. It’s a perfect dish to satisfy your cravings for stuffed bell peppers while you’re on a low carb diet program.
Spaghetti Bread
This spaghetti bread takes everything good about a bowl of spaghetti and tucks it into crisp, golden bread. Serve these hot from the oven with extra sauce on the side — a fork is optional.
Easy Mexican Tortilla Casserole
This Mexican Tortilla Casserole is a beautifully layered casserole, nearly cake-like—stacked to the heavens with a combination of corn, rice, ground beef, and cheese. Except for the ground beef, everything in this casserole is pre-cooked or pre-packaged to make assembly fast and easy.
Stuffed Spaghetti Squash with Meat Sauce
This stuffed spaghetti squash recipe, with its savory meat sauce tucked into tender, buttery strands of squash, fits that bill. It’s an earthy, comforting alternative to traditional pasta, and one I know you’ll want to make on repeat.
The bottom line
Leftover ground beef can often stump us in terms of how to best use it. We hope that these diverse and delectable recipes will alleviate some of that leftover stress.
I like fried beef too