Saturday, October 3, 2009

Primal Hamburger Casserole

Raise your hand if you've ever eaten Hamburger Helper. (Yes, I confess that my hand is up. But I haven't touched the stuff in at least 4 years, and I rarely did so before that.)

Because my family lived on a small farm and raised a beef cow every year, I grew up eating a lot of ground beef. Though I never have come around to liking meatloaf, I do have fond memories of meaty spaghetti sauce, thick burgers, and hamburger casserole.

The problem with most hamburger casseroles, however, is that they tend to include pasta and/or beans, either of which renders them high-carb and un-primal. Fortunately, a dose of big flavor (in the form of herbs, olives, and especially sundried tomatoes) can primalize this meal with ease.

I've enjoyed this quick, one-dish casserole several times lately, including once over spaghetti squash fried in butter for a large dinner, and once for breakfast with an egg over easy on top. If you eat dairy, a sprinkle of parmisan or cheddar would make an excellent garnish. I used fresh herbs because my garden is bursting with them, but dried will work too if they're all you have on hand.


Primal Hamburger Casserole

1/3 lb ground beef (not lean -- we want those saturated fats!)
1/3 cup onion, julienned
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 mushrooms, sliced
10 black olives, sliced
10 sundried tomato halves, chopped
1 Tbs each fresh basil and oregano (or 1 tsp each dried)

Pre-heat skillet over medium flame. Add beef, onion, garlic, and mushrooms. Stir to crumble beef, and occasionally until meat is cooked. Add olives, sundried tomatoes, and herbs and cook about 1 minute until heated through. Serves 1.

6 comments:

Rafi Bar-Lev at Passionate Fitness said...

Your family lived on a small farm? That must have been amazing! Really cool recipe as well.

Anyway, you have a great blog here Tamara and I'm looking forward to following it.

Cheers,

-Rafi

Jonna said...

HAH - perfect ! I took hamburger out of the freezer this morning and was trying to figure out what to do with it. For the last week (or maybe a little more) I have really fallen off the wagon with the primal way of things. It finally caught up with me this past weekend when my energy was totally zapped and I felt all over crummy! Today, we are back in business. Thanks for the great recipe. Here is one that you may enjoy that I often eat for lunch

Fresh salad greens
1 avocado
grape tomatoes
cooked cubed chicken
balsamic or red wine vinegar
olive oil
a dash of feta or goat cheese(if you eat diary)
Mix it all up and enjoy

Mena said...

This recipe looks really good! I am going to try it out tomorrow night, see how mi familia enjoys it.

Keep the yummy-ness coming!

Flab to Fab said...

I've got a paleo food blog as well, if you ever want to check out my recipes.

http://paleomama.com

Bert said...

I found this in a google search for "primal hamburger recipe". I used a whole pound of burger and scaled it up. I added some sea salt and a small can of V-8 juice to moisten it. It was fabulous.

We have some stuff in common. My hubby and I have a couple horses, a dog, a cat, and 4 chickens.

We just went primal 3 weeks ago after reading Primal Body, Primal Mind by Nora Gesgaudes (sp?) I plan on ordering the Mark Sisson book on 3/17.

Grok on!

Anonymous said...

Using a pound of meat, could I just brown the meat in the pan and then transfer to a dish with the other ingredients and put it in the oven?

Thanks! Sounds delicious!