Spicy Sauteed Chickpeas with Ground Beef and Cilantro
(This recipe has been removed from my site, but I am keeping the printer-friendly version here in case there are people who were fans of the recipe!)
Makes 4 main dish servings, recipe slightly adapted from Mark Bittman’s Quick and Easy Recipes from the New York Times. (affiliate link)
Ingredients:
1/2 lb. low fat ground beef
1 tsp. plus 1 T extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp Spike Seasoning (0ptional, or use your favorite seasoning for ground beef)
2 cans chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drain and save liquid (or use 4 cups cooked chickpeas and save 2 cups cooking water)
chicken stock to add to chickpea liquid if needed to make 2 cups
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground Chipotle chile powder, more or less to taste
1 1/2 tsp. minced garlic
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro, plus more for garnish if desired
Instructions:
- Drain chickpeas into a colander, saving liquid. Add chicken stock to chickpea liquid to make 2 cups, set aside.
- I like to rinse canned chickpeas until no more foam appears because I think it removes some of the undigestable starches, so I rinsed mine after I drained them.
- Heat 1 tsp. olive oil in a large deep frying pan over high heat, then add ground beef, crumbling into pieces as you put it into the pan, and seasoning with Spike Seasoning if desired.
- Use a metal turner to stir and break up the meat while you start to brown it, about 3 minutes.
- When meat is fairly broken up, add chickpeas. Keeping heat high, saute meat and chickpeas together until meat is well browned and chickpeas are quite brown and starting to pop, about 10 minutes. (If the mixture starts to stick turn down the heat a tiny bit.)
- Add ground cumin, ground Chipotle chile powder, and minced garlic and cook a minute more.
- Add reserved cooking liquid (with added stock if needed to make 2 cups).
- Scrape the bottom of the pan with turner to loosen any browned bits, season with salt and pepper, then reduce heat and simmer until most of the liquid has evaporated, about 5-10 minutes.
- Turn off heat, stir in chopped cilantro and 1 T olive oil. Taste to see if it needs more salt or pepper, then serve hot.
78 Comments on “Spicy Sauteed Chickpeas with Ground Beef and Cilantro”
I love this recipe! I've included it in my family meals post. http://lifefling.ca/food-10-healthy-family-friendly-recipes/
Thanks Jamie; so glad you enjoyed it!
I'm making this tonight. Thanks for helping me find something new to make with ground beef. I'm afraid I'm going to burn the chickpeas, but I'm going to hover over the stove. It seems fairly quick, too. Well, except for the fact that I accidentally poured a can of cannelini beans in the strainer. I'll let you know how it turns out.
Melissa, I think Cannellini beans would be pretty good in this too. Hope you enjoy!
I ended up weeding out all of the cannellini beans, sauteeing the chickpeas and mixing it all together, then I wound up sauteeing the cannellini beans, too and throwing them in because I used more lean ground beef (it was frozen that way). It turned out great and I'll definitely be making it again. I love how I can also use ground turkey. I added a bit of sauteed sundried tomatoes and a slice of lime to each bowl and it was super yum!
There are so many ways you can make this! I really appreciate the recipe. I look forward to trying more recipes from your site.
Melissa, so glad it worked out for you. And glad you're enjoying the recipes.
I'd definitely chop fresh cilantro and add it each time after you reheat it! Hope you enjoy.
I'm going to try this tonight. I like to have leftovers for a few days so I don't have to cook every night. Do you think the cilantro will keep in this dish for 3 days in the fridge? Or should I add it just to the portion I'm going to eat?
Traci, I prefer to rinse canned beans too. Hope you enjoy!
I love chickpeas!.. My sil puts them in Samosa's when she makes her "Vegan Samosa's" along with potatoes and spices and they are delish!.. I love cilantro too and so this recipe really sounds good to me,I can't wait to try it. I personally will not save the liquid from the cans because I'm pretty sure the stuff you are rinsing off is what is in the water. It's a chemical that helps preserve them so they don't turn to mush. I am sensitive to food chemicals and additives, they give me migraines so I will just rinse them and use all chicken broth; the only other reason I can see he would use the water is because the starch helps to thicken it; I believe you can help that by sprinkling a tiny amount of flour into the ground beef mixture before cooking as well…. 😉
CJ, so glad you're enjoying this!
Love, love, LOVE this recipe. Makes a pound of pricey grass-fed beef go twice as far! The grocery store near me serves a large Mexican population, and I was able to find a sauce that is essentially the adobo sauce that canned chiles come in. Use a tablespoon or so of that with no other modifications, except to add a sprinkle of feta or cojito (if I have it) cheese.
So good!!
Caroline, so glad you all enjoyed it!
this was delicious!! and quick! and relatively inexpensive! all of which i love… especially as a college student. i replaced the ground beef with a leaner choice of ground chicken. i also topped the stew with some sriracha chili paste which took the dish to the next level. some of my roommates tried it and wanted more, so we've already decided this will be the dish for a planned house dinner next week!
So happy that people are enjoying this!
I made this recipe tonight (1/2 recipe) but with full spices (ancho chili instead of chipotle) and it was so delicious. Both my husband and I loved it. This is a keeper recipe (and I always give you credit).
Kalyn, I made this for supper last night (a half recipe.) My husband and I both loved it! I made an orange vinaigrette and tossed with mixed greens, and served the spicy mixture on top – so good!
I've made this a couple times now and I love it!!! I use beef and sausage and added onions as well. Since the packages of meat are about 1.5 lbs altogether I add more of everything and there's lots of good leftovers. I add a handful of baby spinach and a dolop of non-fat greek yogurt when it's all warm and ready to eat. I call it my garbanzo chili salad! Thanks for the recipe.
Made this for dinner tonight. Tasty, thanks!
Celia, from the recipe: "Turn off heat, stir in chopped cilantro and 1 T olive oil."
Glad I am not the only one who misses things like that.
This sounds great and will definitely make it. One question though: When do I use the 1/2 cup chopped cilantro?
Nice! I am also on a chickpea kick right now. They are perfect for the skillet. 🙂
Thanks Dara, just can't seem to ever get enough of them!
Oh, Kalyn…this is fantastic! And I am highly supportive of your current chickpea fascination.
They are 14.5 or 15 oz. cans.
Hi Kalyn what size cans of chick peas for this recipe?
Rachel, great idea!
I made this using a two-cup container of previously-browned ground beef(I did not need three pounds of taco meat for Taco Tuesday!) and it was delicious and super-easy.
Lauren, I love the idea of adding sweet potato this this!
Love this recipe. I made it with beef and it was great. Just would like to mention a variation if you don't have any beef. I added some sweet potato, which was sautéed until soft. A little heavy on the carbs but works in a pinch!
I feel like I say this a lot but this is probably one of my favorite Kayln recipes. Not only is it totally delicious but it was very cheap and easy to make. I was running low on time to make a meal last night & this did the trick.
I did end up using almost a whole pound of organic lean beef b/c I had to defrost it all at the same time. One other difference is that I didn't have fresh cilantro on hand but I did have one of those tubes that has the herb blend in it. Cilantro herb blend…I got it in the produce section. My husband hates cilantro but all the flavor combined together & he didn't even notice it. I will definitely be adding this to my rotation! Thanks!
Monica, glad you liked it. I definitely liked the version with less meat best.
I'm so glad you mentioned that you first tried this with a full pound of ground beef, I was tempted to do the same, but resisted after reading that. And it turned out great. I realized halfway through that I was out of cumin (one of my favorite spices!), but it was still fantastic. Thanks for all of your fabulous recipes!
Ayame, your substitutions sound great! No reason not to eat this over rice if you're not following the South Beach diet, and even then you could use certain types of rice for phase 2 or 3.
I just finished preparing this dish and it is wonderful!
I did however substitute normal dark chili powder and crushed red pepper for the chipotle chili powder, as this is what I had on hand.
It turned out great, though it had a bit more liquid left after simmering so I served it over a bed of rice. The rice absorbs the extra liquid and works well together. I am not sure if this ruins the dietary value of the dish but it is still great!
Thank you for the recipe!
Eileen, so glad you liked it! And I love the idea of pairing this with Spicy Mexican Slaw. (And guess what, I just barely gobbled up a big bowl of leftover Spicy Mexican Slaw for dinner myself, must be on the same wavelength!)
You've just got to make this. It's so delicious! This is something I could have once a week forever and not tire of it–we love it with Kalyn's Spicy Mexican Slaw with Cilantro and Lime. So good!
Timothy, like the idea of using a spicy seasoning! Glad you liked it.
Made this last night and it was hearty and delicious. I used Mrs. Dash's Southwest Chipotle blend for heat. I had 80% lean beef – next time I think I will look for 90% lean. It wasn't too greasy, but it was certainly on the indulgent end of the richness spectrum using the fattier stuff.
YUM!!! I needed a quick dinner with what we had in the house. I made this last night and it was DELICIOUS!! My husband loved it and my 13 year old daughter tasted it with a side-ways glance. She loved it and fixed her self a nice helping of it. Thanks for the recipe!! Many blessings, Julie
Wow Kalyn, tagging this right away, thanks!
oh kalyne, i love this recipe. so clever and sounds and looks deeelish. what a great combo — i need to make this for sure!!
Love the idea of using this in stuffed peppers! I always buy the ground beef at Costco which is less than 10% fat. I’d add some olive oil rather than using more fatty beef.
If you don’t have Spike I’d season ground beef with things like garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, black pepper, black pepper, and salt.
Hi Kalyn,
I am currently in a chickpea craze! I love their texture, the protein, yum! This recipe looks right up my alley. I think I’ll try it in my relatively new cast iron pan, which does great things for hamburger meat.
By any chance, do you remember how lean your beef was? I don’t want to have to drain off the fat (you don’t mention doing so) but I also realize that fat = flavor, especially in this recipe. Also, with my upcoming move, I’m trying not to buy more spices so would you please make some recommendations as to what I could use to season the meat. I haven’t worked with ground meat much so I don’t know 🙂
By the way, it seems like this mixture could be used to make SB-friendly grainless stuffed peppers!
As always, thanks!
Anonymous, wow, wow, wow! I love that idea of adding some avocado to this. Fabulous!
This looked so good that I made it today. After putting a serving into a bowl, I added 1/2 avocado (cut into small pieces) to it. WOW!!! Mmmmmmm!
Bliss and beauty, anonymous, and Colleen, glad you liked it. Colleen, all those adaptations sound great to me.
Tried this one out for dinner tonight! I had to make a couple of substitutions — I used a spicy grill seasoning instead of the Spike, hot sauce instead of chipotle powder (which the Slovaks haven’t discovered yet), and flat-leaf parsley instead of “koriander” (which I can only ever find here in potted-plant form, and I somehow always manage to kill the poor potted plants). I also substituted some spicy cured turkey sausage for the beef. It was so yummy! Thanks for the inspiration.
I made this for dinner last night. It was really delicious and easy. Mine didn’t look nearly as pretty as yours though, I think I stirred it too much. Thanks for the recipe.
I made this for supper tonight. I loved it. Thanks for the recipe.
I have some ground beef in my fridge – and I’m going to soak some chickpeas now and give this a try this week. Looks delicious!
Cookie, sounds good to me. I think paprika would be a great substitute here, especially if it was slightly hot paprika.
I made this tonight…VERY tasty! While I love chipotle peppers and usually have them around in several varieties, I couldn’t readily locate any once I got into adding the spices. I subtituted smoked bittersweet paprika for the chipotle powder and it was very good. It still had the smoky taste, just not as hot!
yum…can’t wait to try this one. I love chickpeas.
Both my mom and I love garbanzo beans. She also is having some teeth problems right now and this looks soft enough for her to chew. This will be great to make for her, Thanks!
I made this last night and it was YUMMY!!!!!!!!! Thanks so much for the recipe. I dropped a bit of the little bit of leftovers that remained on the floor and even our very finicky Husky ate every morsel including the chick peas! Next time I will plan ahead and start with dried chick peas. I did add the entire pound of chopped meat and thought it was perfect.
This dish looks really good! I got some locally grown and dried cickpeas at the farmers market in the fall, and I am boiling them now to make some hummus. Next week I am going to use some for this dish. Thanks 🙂
Looks good! I will just take out hte beef:)
This sounds like a quick and delicious meal! I would love to find that chipole chili powder, I’ll have to look for it.Thanks Kalyn!
I’m addicted to chickpeas, so your tasty recipe captures all my attention! Yummy!
Cheers,
Rosa
Thanks chickpea fans! Kymmi, I’m not normally that much of a fan of non-stick pans, but it would work well for this dish.
I made this for dinner tonight and it turned out yummy. Unfortunately, I made it in one of my dutch ovens instead of a frying pan, so the beans didn’t brown as much as they should have. Still quite tasty. I served with whole wheat pita and a dab of tatziki. Delish!
Thanks for all your recipes – I love them!
I love chick peas but I never thought of doing them with ground meat before. What a fantastic idea! Thanks Kalyn.
I see a lot of us have chickpeas on the brain. Great recipe and great flavours. Another one added to the must try pile.
I like chickpeas as well. This chickpea dish sounds really tasty. Bookmarked
Oh I do not mind you getting fixed on chickpeas! I am loving what you are creating. This is yet another exciting dish to try.
Amanda and Brilyn, thanks.
Karen, too funny. My two food crushes in one dish.
Tanna, I have a bread surprise coming soon for you. (Of course I’ll never get anywhere near your bread-baking talent.)
Elizabeth, sounds fabulous. We don’t have anything quite like that here. (Sorry about the snow!)
Zoe, I am definitely going to try that! It did some just awesome.
I’m in a chickpea phase too! Really more of a bean phase in general — until this year I really didn’t like beans, just forced myself to eat them occasionally. I’ve finally eaten them enough to like them.
By the way, the cece frites recipe from Seriously Good is amazing. I just sauteed some minced garlic from a jar, added the chickpeas and cooked, then seasoned with ground thyme and kosher salt when done. Fabulous and so easy! Try it next, try it!
This looks delicious, Kalyn!
And it’s reminding me to pester my husband to make a north-Indian style chickpea curry. Almost every time we go to Indiatown to get spices, we can’t help stopping at “Moti Mahal” to get a plate of chenna (or do they call it chole??) and some vegetable samosas. With mint sauce, sweet red sauce and pickled carrots/onions. Mmmmmm!! As soon as the snow melts (if the snow ever melts), we’ll ride our bikes over.)
-Elizabeth
Just stick on chick peas all you like, I’m loving them for forever and now.
This looks just great!
I’m a little stuck on bread myself at the moment does that count ;))
Kalyn – the perfect dish for you…combines your current short-term love with your long-term cilantro love!! How nice when you can put both the long and short-term in the same dish. But this looks really interesting – I would never have thought to combine beef with chickpeas…I tend to think of chickpeas either as vegetarian or with chicken. So something new to try!
I went through a chickpea phase a couple years ago and haven’t had them as much since. This looks great though and i want to give it a try!
This looks fantastic!
Amanda
downhomedieting.wordpress.com
Glad to know that people like the sound of this simple dish that I just loved. Charlotte, maybe I will switch to edamame now and you can switch to chickpeas! (Oh sigh, if only I could find shelled edamame here somewhere!)
I have an obsession with edamame beans at the moment to the point where the kids are getting a bit weary of it…
I could move on to chickpeas though…and this looks good enough to tempt me!
OK, I must try this. I adore chickpeas; have never seen them used quite this way. Yum.
I feel like I eat chickpeas at least once a week. I have a great Nigerian recipe for them that I made last weekend. This sounds different from any that I normally do. I will have to try this sometime. Yum!
yum! i know what you mean about falling in love with certain ingredients — i do the same thing! chickpeas are one of my favorites though — this looks amazing!