Easy Entertaining With Ground Beef
“Ground beef tops the list of Canadians’ favourite meat, traditionally representing over half of beef sales,” says Caroline Dewar of the Beef Information Centre. “But many people overlook ground beef when entertaining.”
Over the past few months, Canadians have showed their support for the Canadian beef industry, by purchasing, and consuming greater quantities of beef. “Shoppers have been, and are continuing to take advantage of the values in their local grocery stores,” explains Dewar. “We suspect that they are filling their freezers with ground beef specials. So we thought this would be the perfect time to develop a resource that highlights not only the basics of ground beef, but also gives some innovative recipes that are great for easy entertaining.”
Such recipes can be found in the Beef Information Centre’s new resource: “Ground Beef: Canada’s Favourite Meat.” Korean Beef with Lettuce Cups is an Asian-inspired dish that let’s you entertain friends with style and within a budget. It’s easy to prepare and fun to eat, so the recipe also works well for family meals. Both the Korean Beef with Lettuce Cups and the Empañadas de Picadillo make wonderful starters to a meal or can be a main dish. The booklet also has a recipe for lasagna that uses tortillas instead of noodles. Make-Ahead Mexican Lasagna is a delicious mixture of ground beef, flour tortillas, salsa and cheese which lets busy cooks prepare in advance – making cooking for guests even easier.
“Canadians are pressed for time,” says Dewar, “but they still want to spend quality moments with family and friends over a delicious meal. The recipes in our new resource offer some tasty suggestions, from the traditional to the unexpected.”
The booklet includes information on how to buy, store and cook with ground beef along with nutrition facts, food safety information and recipes. The booklet also explains how to “cook up convenience” by cooking ground beef in big batches before freezing so that cooked ground beef “crumbles” are on hand to add to chili, casseroles, and pasta sauces. The section What’s New at the Marketplace introduces Source Grinds – ground beef from a single whole muscle of beef such as round, sirloin or chuck instead of a blend from many sources. These products have unique flavour profiles, ideal for recipes where the flavour of the beef is predominant, such as patties and meatloaf.
“Ground beef is economical and versatile,” says Dewar. “Ground beef doesn’t just have to be for family meals – it can be the basis for delicious, easy to prepare entertaining recipes. We hope to inspire Canadians to explore some different options the next time they prepare a meal using ground beef.”
