Dinner Diaries #6 Beef Hash & Smoky Beans

This is thrown together, can use up a ton of odds and ends from the refrigerator and tastes different every time…

Quick to throw together after work, this is truly lazy low carb cooking…

Simple Beef Hash Supper

What you need…

For the hash: Ground beef – around 250g / 8oz, 1/2 an onion diced, 2 cloves of garlic crushed, 1 stick of celery copped, 2 diced carrots, a handful of mushrooms chopped, 1/2 glass of red wine, 1/2 glass of stock or tomato juice, 2 bay leaves, a few sprigs of thyme and black pepper. A little olive oil.

For the beans: A can of butter beans drained, 3 rashers of streaky bacon, chopped into bite size pieces, 3 tomatoes roughly chopped (canned or fresh – use canned if you would like to add the juice to the hash above), a bunch of fresh basil shredded, 1/2 teaspoon of paprika, 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar. A drop of olive oil.

What to do…

First up get the beef hash sorted..

• Heat a tablespoon or so of olive oil in a skillet. Add the ground beef and cook on a high heat till starting to caramelize, prodding with a wooden spoon to break it all up.
• Add the onion, garlic, celery, carrots and mushrooms and fry for another 5 minutes or so on a medium to high heat till everything is glossy.
• Add the liquid, herbs and black pepper and bring to a simmer.
• Let the hash bubble away on a medium to high heat for 5 minutes for the wine to cook down, then simmer on a low heat for around 20 minutes whilst you sort out the sides.
• For the beans heat a little oil in a small pan and fry the bacon till golden.
• Add the beans and tomatoes and simmer over a low heat for 5 minutes to let some of the tomato liquid evaporate.
• Add the vinegar, paprika and basil. Mix thoroughly and you’re done.

Serve the beef hash and smoky beans alongside some green veggies (we went for shredded cabbage sauteed with a little butter, onion and garlic) for a quick and easy low carb dinner.

It might not look terribly impressive but it tastes great, can accommodate all sorts of random odds and ends you have left in the fridge and it fills you up!