Mexican Penne with Ground Beef
Ground beef simmers with tomato paste, diced tomatoes, and a kick of paprika and chili while the whole wheat penne cooks alongside. Fifteen minutes, one pan of sauce, and everything comes together with corn and kidney beans.
42 grams of protein from the beef-and-bean combination, 19 grams of fiber from four different plant sources, and the kind of spiced, saucy comfort that tastes like it took three times as long.
Ingredients
- penne, whole wheat 3 ounces
- corn 2 ounces
- kidney beans 3 ounces
- onion 0.5
- garlic 1 clove
- carrot 1
- olive oil 1 tablespoon
- 96% lean ground beef 3 ounces
- paprika (ground spice) 1 teaspoon
- chili powder 1 pinch
- tomato paste 1 tablespoon
- diced tomatoes 8 ounces
Method
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Cook the penne according to the package instructions.
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Rinse the corn and kidney beans in a colander and let them drain.
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Finely chop the onion and mince the garlic clove. Dice the carrot.
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Heat the oil in a pan. Add the onion, garlic and carrot and cook for 3 minutes. Add the ground meat along with the spices and cook until browned in about 3 minutes. Add the tomato paste and diced tomatoes and cook for 5 more minutes until the sauce thickens.
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Drain the penne and add it to the pan along with the corn and kidney beans. Warm everything together for 2 minutes.
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Serve the penne with the ground meat on a plate. Season with pepper and salt to taste.
Top with sliced scallions and fresh cilantro for a sharp, herbal finish that cuts through the rich tomato sauce.
Simmering diced tomatoes in olive oil, exactly as Step 4 does, increased lycopene absorption by 82% in a clinical trial. Heat breaks the tomato cell walls, and the olive oil provides the fat that lycopene needs to cross into the bloodstream. The tablespoon of tomato paste contributes even more bioavailable lycopene per gram than the fresh tomatoes it cooks with.
Behind this recipe
Is 93 grams of carbs too much for one dinner?
Not for fat loss. Across 32 controlled feeding studies with 5,192 participants, swapping carbs for fat at the same calorie intake changed daily fat loss by just 16 grams. The carb count in your bowl does not determine the outcome. What matters is total calories and getting enough protein, both of which this recipe handles.
Read the full evidence reviewCan I use regular penne instead of whole wheat?
You can. Regular penne works the same way in the recipe. The trade-off is fiber: whole wheat penne contributes a meaningful share of this meal's 19 grams of fiber. Swapping to white penne drops that number and removes one of four plant-fiber sources in the bowl. If you prefer the taste of regular pasta, the rest of the dish still delivers fiber from kidney beans, corn, and carrot.
Where does all the fiber in this recipe come from?
Four different sources. Kidney beans are the biggest contributor (legume fiber plus resistant starch). Whole wheat penne adds bran fiber that white pasta does not have. Corn delivers insoluble fiber. And the carrot adds both soluble and insoluble fiber. Together, the four bring the total to 19 grams, roughly half a full day's recommended intake.
Read the full evidence review
