I’ll let you in on a secret…
Most of my best ideas happen when I’m in the kitchen, looking in the fridge, trying to think of what to cook.
And that’s exactly how this speedy little number was conceived.
I had mince (ground beef).
I always have mince.
I had some Stilton which needed using up.
And I had rocket and chives in the garden.
Add in my soft spot for alliteration…
You beaut! (As any self-respecting Australian would say).
But just in case you’re not familiar with Aussie slang…’Beaut’ is short for beautiful. And is usually used to describe any highly positive situation.
Such as when one creates a very easy and delicious dinner.
Beaut Beef & Blue Cheese
Ingredients
- 500 g ground (minced) beef (1lb)
- 1 bunch chives chopped
- 2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 100 g blue cheese (3.5oz)
- 1 bag baby spinach leaves (150g / 5oz)
Instructions
- Heat a little oil in a large frying pan on a medium high heat. Add beef and cook, stirring to break it up with a spatula or spoon.
- When the beef is well browned, remove from heat. Add chives, soy sauce and blue cheese. Taste and season with more soy if needed.
- Divide baby spinach between two bowls. Top with beef mixture and serve.
Nutrition
Variations & Substitutions
pantry-friendly – chives = onions (diced and softened in oil before cooking the beef). frozen spinach or other greens.
vegetarian – replace beef with cooked lentils or chickpeas or beans (so you’ll still have the alliteration!). Diced cooked mushrooms or eggplant will also work. Blue cheese is fab melted into scrambled eggs.
dairy-free – blue cheese = olives, avocado, caper or preserved artichoke hearts. Smoked salted almonds, walnuts or roast macadamias are also delicious options.
soy-free / no soy sauce – skip it and just season with salt. Or use a splash of balsamic vinegar. Coconut aminos are a great soy-free alternative but they are much sweeter than regular soy so start with just 1 tablespoon and add to taste.
gluten-free – use tamari or other gluten-free soy. Or see the options above.
no chives – soften a diced onion in the pan before cooking the beef. Or replace chives with flat leaf parsley or basil leaves. Or add 1-2 minced cloves garlic to cook with the beef.
more substantial (carb lovers) – cooked pasta, sweet potato or rice.
more substantial (low carb) – use all of the beef, more cheese, avocado, roast macadamias, walnuts or other nuts.
Low FODMAP – just watch the quantity of baby spinach.
different vegetables – any salad leaves or cooked greens (kale is excellent here). Beautiful broccoli. Any roast or grilled veg or ratatouille.
different protein – any minced (ground) meat will work. Sausages. Steak is another option – just slice and stir fry quickly until just browned. Chicken breast or thigh fillets will be fine too. And see the vegetarian ideas.
Waste Avoidance Strategy
minced (ground) beef – freeze it.
chives – will keep in the fridge wrapped in a plastic bag for a few weeks.
soy sauce – keep it in the pantry.
blue cheese – if unopened it usually has a shelf life of a few weeks in the fridge. If it is opened, will only keep for a few days so use for another meal or freeze.
baby spinach – either freeze or wilt down in a pan with a little oil and then keep in the fridge for weeks.
Prepare Ahead
Yes! Cook as per the recipe but keep the blue cheese and baby spinach separately. Or you can wilt the spinach in with the beef. Will keep in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or can be frozen. To serve, warm beef in a pan with a little oil then serve with blue cheese.
Add to my Old Favourite Recipes
I made this recipe as is for me but over pasta for my family. My husband gave it the highest compliment when he said, “This is so good. I would pay big bucks for it at a restaurant.”
So yummy!
Love it Tracey!
Made this with parmesan and onion because the blue cheese in the frig went bad. 🙁 It was fine, but not good enough to repeat with these substitutions. I’ll try again with complete recipe compliance!
Bummer about the blue cheese Catherine – good to know the parmesan wasn’t as good as you’ d hoped 🙂
Just a friendly note to request you please add a number to the chives on the ingredient portion of the recipe so it will scale with the rest of the ingredients. Thanks! Jen (aka mom of 5).
Done! Thanks for noticing Jen 🙂
Made this today with ground beef, red onion, spinach, Parmesan cheese, canned artichokes, liquid aminos, and a little bit of fish sauce. It was delightful! The contrast between the fresh spinach and the meat topping was quite enjoyable, and I wilted the rest of the spinach into the meat topping for leftovers. I plan on enjoying those with avocado. Yum!
I like that cold fresh spinach / hot meat contrast as well Claire
And YES for avocado!
Jules, you really surprised us good with this one. Neither of us is a fan of blue cheese, though we do use it occasionally. But this dish is just fabulous and wouldn’t be the same with another cheese. Both of us really enjoyed it, plus it is insanely easy to make, so it is a recipe I’ll definitely make again. The only thing that would have made it better is if my chives had not started to go bad. I was able to rescue some, but it would have been nice to have the whole bunch to use. I think it’s time to restart weekly grocery shopping, instead of the two week intervals we’ve done throughout the pandemic.
I’m happy to surprise Susan 🙂
Funny that we are going into lockdown now and I’m doing fortnightly shops.
Chives are really easy to grow – they die off over winter but come back in Spring. So might be a good addition to your garden!
Another great and easy recipe
I loved the blue cheese flavour although a bit strong, though hubby prefers his blue cheese on crackers.
I added a crispy fried eggplant and a can of chickpeas, which mellowed the dish and bulked it up
Served with creamed silver beet from the veggie patch
Delicious!
Day 3 of challenge done!
Well done on completing day 3 Melita 🙂
If you ever do this again, maybe try a milder creamier blue instead.
I had quite a bit of meat to eat last week, so went for the vegetarian option of mushrooms, partly because I thought I remembered mushrooms and blue cheese being a classic combination. Walnuts and blue cheese also go well together, so I fried some after the mushrooms (to which I’d added some finely sliced carrot) were finished. I wound up putting everything back into the hot pan, so melted the blue cheese into a kind of sauce, with balsamic vinegar and veg stock powder in place of the soy sauce, and had it with broccoli and pasta. Good.
Yes mushrooms and blue cheese ans walnuts do go so well Mark – great idea!
2nd go, I had about 250g of beef mince. I started off frying a sliced carrot with some rosemary, then added 8 sliced button mushrooms and several cloves of garlic, then the beef and two sliced zucchini. The sauce I used was equal parts balsamic vinegar, kecap manis (I keep forgetting to buy regular soy sauce) and fish sauce. Good.
ooh yum Mark – the extra sweetness from the kecap manis would work really well here.
I made “this” again tonight, but eliminated the final remaining ingredient from the main recipe 😉 by substituting feta for the blue cheese. Chopped rosemary and carrot to start with, then sliced mushroom, garlic (including some powder), sliced zucchini and veg stock powder, adding chopped walnuts later, and finishing off with Worcestershire sauce, diced feta and pasta. Good.
oh you’re making me laugh Mark – good call on the Worcertershire sauce – it’s such a fab ingredient.
This IS a beaut! I didn’t realize how tasty this would be with the blue cheese! My fellas loved it and I think they were sad when it was all gone! -I actually did not have enough beef, so I added in some garbanzo beans. It was still beefy tasting and we all enjoyed it. Thank you Jules!
oh great Cynthia! Alawys good when a recipe lives up to it’s name 😉
Garbanzo beans would be a lovely addition
Lodge makes excellent pans Steven!
After getting more comfortable cooking regularly a simple beef mince with “spices” (such as turmeric, cinnamon, garlic, salt, and occasionally a little cayenne pepper) and cleaning then “seasoning” the cast iron pan with coconut oil…
“Seasoning” of a cast iron pan is when oil is applied to the cast iron pan (AFAIK any oil can be used, but I like coconut oil for this purpose since it is healthy on low carb lifestyle and very importantly lasts “forever”. 🙂 😉 – the fat from the heated oil put on the cast iron pan and absorbed when it’s hot is the “seasoning” and any excess wiped off;
The seasoning 1. creates a safe durable non-poisonous non-stick surface at all cooking temperatures plus 2. also prevents rusting as long as you don’t leave tons of water or a lot of moisture for ages.
It also builds up and provides even more protection and non-stick the more you use, clean and season your cast iron pan.
Cast iron pans can last generations with loving care, and apparently have been around since 6th century in China! (according to https://www.designlife-cycle.com/cast-iron-pan )
Anyway I made this recipe with basil leaves instead of chives and balsamic vinegar instead of soy sauce and skipped the baby spinach since the regular spinach bags were too big for the one recipe. I was pleased with the result. I’m probably not the best blue vein cheese lover though. 😉 Great stuff and I’m glad I took the opportunity to get the lifetime membership when I had the chance! 🙂
I love your substitutions Steven – and glad you’re loving your cast iron pan!
It’s got a lid too that doubles as a shallower pan. Haven’t done any grilling or oven cooking recently so I haven’t used the “lid” for a while, but I got an excellent deal with that Lodge cast iron pan set a few years ago. I initially let it get a bit rusted because I had left moisture on it, but my friend Andrea from the US told me how to scrape the rust off and start anew. Now that I know and am comfortable with cleaning and seasoning it right away before getting stuck into the meal, it hasn’t got rusted since and likely not ever from now on!