A filling taco mixture, filled with ground beef or quinoa, beans, tomatoes and just enough seasoning to make it delicious.
Meat is Not the Star
I am not a big meat eater. I did not grow up eating lots of meat.
In fact, when my husband and I first got married, I went over to his parent’s house for dinner. His mom is an amazing cook and she made a delicious meal and part of that meal was chicken.
She served me a whole chicken breast. I had never been served a whole piece of chicken like that. Unfortunately, I wasn’t even sure what to do with it.
I still remember the look on my new husbands face when I served him a baked potato and a salad for dinner. “Is there anything else?” he queried.
I didn’t know that there might need to be something else. He adjusted and happily eats all sorts of weird things that I feed him now.
Other Filling Aspects
Forgive my walk down memory lane; lets get to our favorite taco filling.
Because meat has never been the star of the show for me, I always try to fill up our family with other components. This taco filling does have ground beef but it also has beans and salsa.
When we aren’t eating meat, I just double the beans and skip the meat. Alternatively, you could use cooked quinoa in place of the meat. That is another delicious way to make it. If you prefer all meat, you can double the meat and skip the beans. It’s a flexible recipe.
Versatile and Freezes Well
It is great served on tacos, as the name implies, but it is also great over chips for nachos or rolled up in a burrito. We often take it camping all cooked and mixed up and then it just has to be heated up for walking tacos, taco fillings served inside a bag of fritos. It’s versatile.
This recipe also freezes well. I often double the batch and freeze some for a second quick meal.
When I freeze it, I use a gallon freezer bag, fill it with the taco meat, press it all flat and remove any extra air.
This helps save space in the freezer and it defrosts a lot quicker.
Mel’s Taco Filling
1 pound ground beef – I use grass fed (See notes for meatless options)
½ cup onion, chopped
2 -14 oz cans pinto or black beans, drained
1 – 8 oz can tomato sauce
½ – 1 cup salsa
1 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1 ½ teaspoon chili powder
½ teaspoon cumin
1 can refried beans – optional – for a creamier sauce
salt and pepper to taste
TWEAK IT NOTES
- VEGETARIAN – If you want the filling to be meatless, you can either double the beans or add 1 1/2 cups of quinoa in place of the ground beef, keeping everything else the same.
- NO BEANS – If you prefer to not use beans, you can double the meat and skip the beans. Leave everything else the same.
