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Old lady at the farmer’s market taught me how to stretch a pound of ground beef
I was buying a single pound of 80/20 at the Saturday market in Portland and this older woman next to me said “grate a zucchini into that and you’ll get two meals instead of one.” I tried it with a cup of shredded zucchini last Tuesday and my tacos were actually bigger and juicier. She said she’s been doing it since the 70s to save on meat costs. Has anyone else tried bulking ground meat with veggies like that?
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briannguyen2mo ago
This is how my grandma stretched everything during the 90s recession.
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wren3012mo ago
OH man, YES. This is a PRO tip right here. I do the same thing but I grate a CARROT into my ground beef too. The carrot adds a little sweetness that cuts the savory, and when you shred it fine enough it basically disappears into the meat. I also sneak in some finely chopped mushrooms sometimes - they soak up all the beef fat and taste just like meat. Between the zucchini and mushrooms you can easily get 3 meals out of a pound. Your tacos were juicy because the veg holds moisture that the lean meat would just lose.
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miles_roberts2216d ago
Alright, you guys have officially changed my mind on this. I used to think adding veggies to meat was just a way to make it taste worse and stretch it out. But the carrot trick is genius, I never thought of that sweetness cutting through the savory like that. And the mushrooms soaking up the fat makes total sense, I always hated how my lean beef turns into dry crumbles. I'm trying this with my next batch of tacos, gonna grate a whole zucchini and carrot and see if I can get an extra meal out of a single pound.
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