Sweet potato and ground beef skillet
Caramelized sweet potato, spiced beef and wilted spinach in one pan, a meal-prep favorite that reheats perfectly.
- 40 min total
- 35 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 4
- About $3.11 a serving
- 410 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.
- 2 sweet potatoes
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb 85/15 ground beef
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 1 avocado, sliced (optional)
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ¼ cup water
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 410 calories, 25 g protein, 32 g carbs and 21 g fat, and costs about $3.11 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No red bell peppers? Yellow bell peppers work.
- No 85/15 ground beef? 90/10 ground beef works.
- No baby spinach? Kale or arugula works.
- No avocados? Guacamole works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the sweet potatoes and cut them into ½-inch . the onion and pepper, and the garlic.
Peel. Peeling means removing the skin with a vegetable peeler or a small knife. It takes off tough or bitter skins, though potato and carrot skins are fine to leave on unless the recipe insists.
How you’ll know: The color underneath is even all over, with no patches of skin left behind.
Cube. Cubing means cutting food into chunky, even squares, usually three quarters of an inch to an inch. Same-size cubes cook at the same speed and brown on every side.
How you’ll know: Your pieces look like a handful of sugar cubes, a little bigger than diced, all close to the same size.
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.
Dolly’s tip: Sweet potatoes are hard. Cut a thin slice off one side so it sits flat, then cut.Heat the oil in a large with a lid over medium. Add the sweet potatoes and water, cover, and cook 8 minutes, until nearly tender.
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: 8 min
Uncover, turn the heat to medium-high, and cook 4 to 5 minutes, stirring now and then, until the water is gone and the cubes are browned in spots. Scoop them onto a plate.
Medium-high heatTimer: 4 min 30 sec
Add the beef to the empty pan, press it flat, and leave it 3 minutes, until underneath.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Medium-high heatTimer: 3 min
Break the beef into , add the onion and pepper, and cook 5 minutes, until no pink is left.
Crumble. Crumbling means breaking food into small, rough bits with your fingers or a spoon, like feta or ground meat in the pan. Small bits spread through the dish, so there’s some in every bite.
How you’ll know: The pieces are small and uneven, about pea-size, with no big clumps left.
Medium-high heatTimer: 5 min
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.
Spoon off any pool of fat, then stir in the garlic, cumin, chili powder, paprika, salt and pepper for 1 minute.
Medium heat
Return the sweet potatoes, add the spinach, and stir 1 to 2 minutes, until the spinach .
Wilt. Wilting means cooking leafy greens just until they go soft and collapse. Greens shrink a lot, so a big pile of spinach becomes a small handful, and that’s normal.
How you’ll know: The leaves turn soft and deep green and slump into the pan, usually within a minute or two.
Medium heatTimer: 1 min 30 sec
Serve warm, with sliced avocado on top if you like.
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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