Pasta with Ground Beef & Creamy Chili Sauce
Most ground beef pasta gets a tomato sauce. This one gets cream cheese, chili sauce, and a splash of water stirred into a pan of browned beef and paprika. Three ingredients that melt together into something between a glaze and a gravy.
684 kcal, 32g of protein, 72g of carbs, and 10g of fiber from nine ingredients. Bell pepper and carrot bring crunch and color. Fifteen minutes total, one pot for the penne, one pan for everything else.
Most ground beef pasta gets a tomato sauce. This one gets cream cheese, chili sauce, and a splash of water stirred into a pan of browned beef and paprika. Three ingredients that melt together into something between a glaze and a gravy.
684 kcal, 32g of protein, 72g of carbs, and 10g of fiber from nine ingredients. Bell pepper and carrot bring crunch and color. Fifteen minutes total, one pot for the penne, one pan for everything else.
Ingredients
- penne, whole wheat 3 ounces
- bell pepper 1
- carrot 1
- 96% lean ground beef 3 ounces
- olive oil 1 tablespoon
- paprika (ground spice) 0.5 teaspoon
- cream cheese, reduced fat 1.5 tablespoon
- chili sauce 1 tablespoon
- water 2 tablespoons
Method
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Cook the penne according to the instructions on the packaging.
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Dice the bell pepper and carrot.
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Heat the oil in a pan and stir-fry the bell pepper and carrot cubes for 4 minutes. Then, add the ground beef and paprika powder and cook until browned, about 4 minutes. Next, add the cream cheese, chili sauce and water. Stir well and heat until a creamy sauce forms.
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Drain the penne and mix it into the creamy chili sauce.
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Serve the pasta with ground beef and chili sauce on a plate. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Brown the beef with the paprika for the full four minutes before adding the cream cheese, chili sauce, and water. The paprika needs direct contact with hot fat to release its flavor compounds. Adding it after the sauce goes in dilutes the heat and mutes the warmth.
Behind this recipe
Is 32g of protein enough for one meal?
More than enough for a single sitting. The old gym-floor rule that your body caps out at 20-30g of protein per meal has been challenged by research examining mixed meals. When protein arrives alongside carbs and fat, as solid food rather than a liquid shake, digestion slows and muscle protein synthesis continues to respond well above those older thresholds. This plate, with its ground beef, whole wheat penne, olive oil, and cream cheese, is exactly the kind of slow-digesting mixed meal where the body keeps putting protein to work.
Read the full evidence reviewCan I use regular cream cheese instead of reduced fat?
Yes. Regular cream cheese is slightly richer, so the sauce will be a bit thicker and the fat content climbs by roughly 5-8g per serving depending on the brand. The recipe already sits at 30g of fat, so the shift is modest. If the creamier version tastes better to you, the overall macro profile does not change dramatically.
Does stir-frying in olive oil destroy its health benefits?
No. Olive oil retains its beneficial compounds during normal home cooking, including the kind of stir-frying this recipe calls for. The 8-minute cook time at standard pan temperatures sits well within olive oil's stability range. The concern mostly applies to deep-frying at extreme temperatures for extended periods, not sautéing vegetables and ground beef in a tablespoon of oil.
Read the full evidence review
