Spicy Beef Picadillo

The SMACKdown:
I was inspired to make this dish after eating the beef picadillo from the Whole Foods hot bar. It seemed easy enough to make and, true enough, it was. I love this beef picadillo recipe for a basket full of reasons...

• It's super easy and quick to make
• It doesn't take a lot of ingredients
• You don't have to be crazy precise with measurements (not my strong suit)
• It makes awesome leftovers

This recipe is also great because you can't really mess it up as long as you have the main elements of beef, cumin and onion. I've made it without the potatoes and it was still delicious. Also, this last time I made it I bought the wrong chipotle peppers. As you can see in the top picture, I bought chipotle salsa when I meant to buy the chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. The salsa made the picadillo a little more wet, so I had to cook it down a bit longer, but the taste was still awesome.

This recipe can also be relatively cheap to make depending on your meat selection. I always go for grass fed beef which definitely increases the price of this meal. We are in the habit of getting our meat from Whole Foods because their meat rating system makes it simple to know what quality of meat you are getting, and if there's one food category I am picky about, it's meat (food snob alert!).

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp. grapeseed oil

1 whole onion chopped

2 garlic cloves minced

2 bell peppers chopped (green, yellow, red, orange, whatever you prefer)

5-6 little red potatoes chopped into 1/2 inch cubes

1 Tbsp. cumin

1 lb ground beef

1- 4oz can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce chopped (use as much as you like depending on how spicy you want it)

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Heat the grapeseed oil in a pan over medium heat.

2. Add onion and garlic and saute 3-5 minutes or until the onion begins to become translucent. 

3. Add the potatoes and peppers to the pan and cook an additional 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently.

4. Add the cumin, salt and pepper to the pan and stir so everything is evenly coated.

5. Add in the ground beef. Using the tip of a spatula or a spoon, break apart the beef and stir to combine with the vegetables.

6. Once the beef is fully broken apart, add in the chipotle peppers and some of the sauce from the can.

7. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 10-15 minutes.

You can go absolutely wild with the leftovers. Serve them over tortilla chips to make a spicy nacho snack, put it on your salad for lunch, or, have them for breakfast my favorite way... with eggs over easy and a side of steamed spinach!