15 Simple Ground Beef Recipes That Take 30 Minutes or Less
From burgers to tacos to shepherd's pie, some of the most delicious recipes feature one key ingredient—ground beef. While the protein is a versatile ingredient that goes well in plenty of recipes, some recipes may be a bit tricky to navigate. Thankfully, there's a lot you can do with ground beef.
With a quick cook time, ground beef is an ideal protein to feature in these fast recipes, none of which take more than 30 minutes to put together. Here we've gathered a list of some of the most simple recipes that are still bursting with delicious flavor, that take 30 minutes or less to make.
Copycat Olive Garden Pasta Fagioli Recipe
Sure, you can always drive to Olive Garden and order a bowl of the Italian chain's pasta fagioli soup, or you could make your own nearly-identical batch in just about 15 minutes. This soup recipe, which contains ditalini pasta, kidney beans, and cannellini beans, also has a whole pound of ground beef cooked into it.
Get our recipe for Copycat Olive Garden Pasta Fagioli.
Lean Turkey Swedish Meatballs
Don't be fooled by the name—even though this meatball recipe has turkey in it, it also still contains an equal amount of ground beef, making each bite of the tasty Swedish dish a sort of two-for-one. By using turkey, as well as ground chuck, this recipe also saves on calories and fat, making it a delicious and healthy option.
Get our recipe for Lean Turkey Swedish Meatballs.
Classic Beef Tacos
Beyond heating up the hard taco shell, the only other thing that needs any preparation in this recipe is the ground beef itself, which takes less than 15 minutes to cook and season. For such a simple recipe, it perfectly captures the classic flavors of Americanized Mexican food, and makes for a great Taco Tuesday or any other day meal.
Get our recipe for Classic Beef Taco.
Copycat Big Mac Recipe
Yes, McDonald's is technically fast food, but we're pretty sure that you could make this homemade burger for even less time than it would take to drive to the fast-food chain and order it. Not only does this copycat Big Mac recipe come together relatively quickly, but because this recipe uses sirloin and also gets rid of the middle bun, it's way healthier, too.
Get our recipe for Copycat Big Mac Recipe.
One Skillet Taco Pasta
Not only will this dish take less than 30 minutes to make, it also won't leave you with a huge pile of dishes, as it's all made in one skillet. Tacos and pasta might sound like two separate meals, but they're deliciously combined in this recipe, which combines all of the ingredients you'd find in a taco, including ground beef, but with the ingenious addition of pasta.
Get our recipe for One Skillet Taco Pasta.
Ultimate Patty Melt
There are few foods as comforting as a patty melt, but comfort food doesn't always equate to the healthiest meal choices. Thankfully, this recipe is a more health-conscious choice, with only 340 calories. The best thing about making this recipe? It only takes 15 minutes to put together, making it the perfect meal for a busy day.
Get our recipe for the Ultimate Patty Melt.
Red Wine-Infused Mushroom Swiss Burger
This isn't your average burger. For this recipe, a classic mushroom Swiss burger is enhanced even further by infusing the mushrooms with red wine. A fancy burger like this should take a long time to put together, right? Not at all. This recipe can be made in under 30 minutes, which means you can impress your friends and family even when you're in a hurry.
Get our recipe for Red Wine-Infused Mushroom Swiss Burger.
Instant Pot Chili
Normally, chili is an all-day affair, as it's typically left to simmer on the stove for hours. But what if you're craving chili and don't have a full day to wait for it to cook? That's where this recipe and an Instant Pot come in handy. Altogether, the cooking takes 30 minutes, and after the Instant Pot depressurizes for 10 minutes, you'll be ready to eat.
Get our recipe for Instant Pot Chili.
Low-Calorie Sliders
If you can make a simple burger recipe in under 30 minutes, it only makes sense that you can make a smaller version of a burger, or a slider, in that amount of time as well, right? These aren't just small burgers, though. This recipe gives instructions on how to make sliders two ways: mushroom and bleu cheese, and chipotle bacon, both of which are packed with some serious flavor. Still, they're relatively simple to prep and take less than 30 minutes altogether to make.
Get our recipe for Low-Calorie Sliders.
Instant Pot Keto Cheeseburger Soup
With just 11 ingredients, this keto-friendly cheeseburger soup contains a lot of flavor for just a small amount of effort. Even including the 10 minutes that the Instant Pot needs to depressurize, this recipe takes less than 30 minutes to cook. It's also extremely low on carbs and a filling way to stay on the Keto diet.
Get our recipe for Instant Pot Keto Cheeseburger Soup.
Simple Whole30 Beef Burrito Bowl
This beef burrito bowl may have 13 ingredients, but that doesn't mean it's a tricky recipe to put together. It just means there's a lot of different components that come together to make this a delicious dish. Not only is this recipe simple to put together, but it also contains no grains, dairy, or sugar, making it an ideal choice for anyone following the Whole30 or Paleo diets, or just looking to cut down on any of the above.
Get our recipe for Simple Whole30 Beef Burrito Bowl.
Korean Beef Bowl
A flight to the Korean peninsula from the United States would take 13 hours, on average. If you don't have the time for that, travel there through your taste buds in just 20 minutes with this Korean beef bowl recipe. Most of the work in putting this recipe together comes from preparing the beef with ingredients found in traditional Korean flavor profiles, like sesame oil and ginger.
Try the recipe from Well Plated.
Ground Beef Tacos
It may look like this recipe is a bit tricky because there's a lot of ingredients going into it, but a vast majority of them are seasonings to make the beef flavorful and delicious. Once the seasonings are combined with the meat, which takes moments, this recipe only requires 15 minutes of your time until you have perfectly-browned ground beef. Add a couple more minutes on to the time to account for prepping the rest of your toppings and putting them in the shell, and that still makes for an extremely quick dinner.
Try the recipe from How Sweet Eats.
Instant Pot Spaghetti
Spaghetti isn't the most technically challenging meal to make in the first place, but it's rarely been simpler than this Instant Pot recipe, which will have the meal ready in just 20 minutes. With 13 ingredients, it's still full of all of the delicious flavors you'd expect from a spaghetti dinner that took longer to make, but cooking this spaghetti recipe in an Instant Pot helps make the meal come together seamlessly on even the busiest of nights.
Try the recipe from Well Plated by Erin.
Beef Kafta
In just 28 minutes, this recipe transforms ground beef into a Lebanese staple, and with only nine ingredients, it's a fairly easy recipe to test out. One of the best things about this recipe is it can be served in so many different ways. The recipe gives instructions on how to make yogurt sauce, on how to serve the kafta up in a sandwich, or the best way to put the meal together in a bowl.
Try the recipe from Foxes Love Lemons.
These ground beef recipes are delicious, easy to make, and decently healthy. Whether you're making just one or trying the whole list, you'll be able to enjoy a new cooking experience in under 30 minutes or less each time. Another benefit of these recipes is that they're versatile in how many people can enjoy them. You can make some for yourself and save the rest for leftovers, or you can make some for the whole family.
