Cuban picadillo
Savory beef simmered with peppers, cumin and tomato, with sweet raisins and briny capers in every bite, spooned over white rice.
- 50 min total
- 25 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $2.67 a serving
- 600 calories
- Good the next day
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1½ cups long-grain white rice
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb 85/15 ground beef
- 1 can tomato sauce
- ¼ cup raisins
- 1 tbsp capers
From your pantry
- 2¾ cups water, divided
- 1¼ tsp salt, divided
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1½ tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 bay leave
Each serving has about 600 calories, 28 g protein, 74 g carbs and 21 g fat, and costs about $2.67 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No long-grain white rice? Jasmine rice or basmati rice works.
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No green bell peppers? Red bell peppers or yellow bell peppers work.
- No 85/15 ground beef? 90/10 ground beef works.
- No tomato sauce? Crushed tomatoes work.
- No raisins? Dried cranberries work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the rice until the water runs mostly clear. Put it in a with 2¼ cups water and ¼ teaspoon salt and over high.
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Saucepan. A saucepan is a pot with tall, straight sides and one long handle. It’s for things that need depth, like rice, sauces or a few boiled eggs.
How you’ll know: The food fills it about halfway, leaving room to bubble without spilling over.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Cover, turn to low and cook 18 minutes.
Low heatTimer: 18 min
the onion and pepper and the garlic.
Dice. Dicing means cutting food into small, even cubes, usually a quarter to half an inch across. Pieces the same size cook at the same speed, so nothing burns while the rest catches up.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are little cubes about the size of a chickpea, and they all look close to the same.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Heat the oil in a large over medium and cook the onion and pepper 5 minutes, until soft.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Medium heatTimer: 5 min
Turn the heat to medium-high, add the beef, and cook 7 to 8 minutes, breaking it up, until no pink is left. Spoon off the fat.
Medium-high heatTimer: 7 min 30 sec
Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
Stir in the garlic, cumin, oregano, pepper and remaining 1 teaspoon salt for 1 minute.
Medium heat
Add the tomato sauce, raisins, capers, bay leaf and remaining ½ cup water. Turn the heat to low and 15 minutes, stirring now and then, until thick.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Low heatTimer: 15 min
Dolly’s tip: Sweet raisins and salty capers sound odd together. Trust it; that contrast is the whole dish.Fish out the bay leaf, taste for salt, and serve over the rice.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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