Tacos with Mexican Ground Beef
Ground beef, cumin, and chili powder brown in the same pan. Add diced tomatoes and tomato paste, and five minutes of simmering turns them into a thick sauce that clings to the shell. Kidney beans and corn go in at the end, just long enough to warm through.
Two loaded taco shells, 596 kcal, 36 grams of protein from beef, beans, and cottage cheese. The cold cottage cheese on top is the move: a clean swap that adds protein where sour cream adds only fat.
Ground beef, cumin, and chili powder brown in the same pan. Add diced tomatoes and tomato paste, and five minutes of simmering turns them into a thick sauce that clings to the shell. Kidney beans and corn go in at the end, just long enough to warm through.
Two loaded taco shells, 596 kcal, 36 grams of protein from beef, beans, and cottage cheese. The cold cottage cheese on top is the move: a clean swap that adds protein where sour cream adds only fat.
Ingredients
- onion 0.5
- garlic 1 clove
- bell pepper 1
- olive oil 1 tablespoon
- 96% lean ground beef 3 ounces
- tomato paste 1 tablespoon
- ground cumin 1 teaspoon
- chili powder 1 pinch
- diced tomatoes 7 ounces
- corn 2 ounces
- kidney beans 3 ounces
- taco shells 2
- cottage cheese, 4% milkfat 2 tablespoons
Method
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Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
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Finely chop the onion and mince the garlic. Dice the bell pepper.
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Warm the taco shells in the oven according to the packaging instructions.
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Heat the oil in a pan and sauté the onion and garlic for 2 minutes. Add the diced bell pepper and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the ground beef, tomato paste, ground cumin and chili powder and cook for 4 more minutes.
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Add the diced tomatoes to the meat. Stir well and let simmer for 5 minutes until a thick sauce forms. Stir in the corn and kidney beans during the last 2 minutes and warm them up. Season with pepper and salt to taste.
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Fill the taco shells with the meat mixture and spoon the cottage cheese on top.
Chop fresh cilantro and scatter it over the top. The herb cuts through the richness of the spiced meat and plays off the cool cottage cheese.
Behind this recipe
Can I use regular ground beef instead of 96% lean?
Yes. Regular ground beef (80/20 or similar) works fine for this recipe. Drain the excess fat after browning before adding the tomatoes. The filling will be richer, but the macros shift: total fat goes up, protein percentage stays roughly the same.
Is 57 grams of carbs too much for a dinner?
Research on evening carb intake found that eating carbs at dinner did not impair weight loss. In some trials, participants who ate most of their carbs at night actually lost more fat than those who spread carbs evenly. The 57 grams here come from taco shells, tomatoes, corn, and kidney beans, not from added sugar.
Read the full evidence reviewWhy cottage cheese instead of sour cream?
Cottage cheese adds protein where sour cream adds mostly fat. Two tablespoons of cottage cheese deliver roughly 4 grams of protein and 1 gram of fat. The same amount of sour cream delivers less than 1 gram of protein and about 5 grams of fat. The temperature contrast (cold cheese on hot filling) works the same way.
