Garden Skillet Supper (a.k.a Ground Beef and Vegetables)
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My easy-peasy and healthy garden skillet supper includes ground beef and lots of fresh vegetables (think juicy baked garden tomatoes, squash, and bell pepper) served over noodles or rice.
It’s garden skillet supper recipe time! I love me some veggies and the great part about this recipe is you can use veggies that are available all year round. So this one-pan skillet meal can be a healthy supper or lunch in the fall, winter, spring, or summer. It just doesn’t matter. You can add fresh veggies from the garden or get them from the grocery store, whatever cranks your tractor!
This garden skillet meal is a simple go-to weeknight dinner, one like our grandmothers would just throw together and not even consider a recipe. But today I’m going to show you how to make a fresh, flavorful, and filling ground beef skillet with just enough seasonings to enhance all of the flavors without covering any of them up.
As the title suggests, you need ground beef and vegetables to make this main meal, as well as dried or fresh parsley, and some salt and pepper. That’s all the seasoning you need. For the fresh mixed vegetables, I’m using garden tomatoes that we quickly broil to make them extra tasty, flavorful, and juicy. Then I add bell pepper, squash, and onion, but you can use any vegetables you like or have on hand.
In 30 minutes and one pan (slash cast iron skillet), your ground beef and vegetables will be ready to serve to your hungry family. I love to serve this with noodles or rice, but I’ve included further serving suggestions below. Are you ready to get cooking? If you are looking for another easy skillet recipe check out Asian Pork Tenderloin Skillet (Quick & Budget-Friendly), Kielbasa Skillet, Skillet Lasagna, Creamy Chicken Skillet, or Chicken Broccoli Skillet with Pimento Cheese Sauce
Recipe Ingredients
- Tomatoes
- Squash
- Bell pepper
- Onion
- Lean ground beef
- Dried or fresh parsley
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- Sugar (a dash)
Helpful Kitchen Tools
How to Make A Garden Skillet Supper
To begin with, place your tomatoes on an aluminum foil-lined baking sheet and put them in the oven on “broil” while you get your beef going (about 5 minutes or so).
Chop up your onion and place that in the skillet with your ground beef.
Chop the beef up really well and stir over medium heat until brown.
You can buy these awesome meat chopper devices from a Pampered Chef person, eBay, or even on Amazon.
Now take your tomatoes out of the oven and the tomato skin should be split.
Set them aside for a minute to cool and then carefully pull a piece of skin until it comes off.
Repeat until you peel every
Cut the tomatoes into wedges and add them to your skillet.
NOTE: I’m using lean ground beef so I didn’t have to drain mine before adding the tomatoes. If you aren’t using lean beef and have grease in your skillet at this step, drain the beef before adding tomatoes.
Chop them up with your thingiemawhosit or a wooden spoon or whatever you grab first from the drawer and continue cooking over medium heat.
Keep in mind these tomatoes are hot and have juice so there may be hot juice involved.
Add your parsley, salt, and pepper (just add a teaspoon of sugar if you really wanna bring out the sweetness of these tomatoes).
Continue cooking and dicing up the tomatoes for about 5 minutes, until they are good and juicy and make a sauce of sorts.
While you’re doing this, chop up your bell pepper (throwing away the seeds) and squash.
Add in the rest of your veggies.
Cook and stir until squash is lightly translucent and veggies are just tender, but not overcooked or soft.
I know “overcooked” is kind of the Southern way to some folks but that is a holdover from the old days when we really did have to cook the mess out of something in order to make sure it was safe to eat. So when your meemaw cooks you vegetables until they cry uncle, she is just repeating what her meemaw did as a way to make sure the food was safe.
This ground beef skillet is BURSTING with flavor!
Serve over hot cooked macaroni noodles or rice.
Enjoy!
Storage
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Thaw in the fridge before reheating in the microwave.
Recipe Notes
- Here are some easy substitutions and variations to put your own spin on this ground beef and vegetable recipe:
- Substitute the yellow squash for zucchini.
- Use ground turkey, ground chicken, or ground pork instead of ground beef.
- Other vegetables that work in this garden skillet: cauliflower, broccoli, carrot, celery, green beans, mushrooms, sweet potato, and cherry tomatoes.
- Add your favorite seasoning, whether that’s garlic powder, minced garlic cloves, dried or fresh basil, Italian seasoning, taco seasoning, dried oregano, or thyme.
- Add some heat with a dash of chili powder, red pepper flakes, or cayenne pepper.
- In a pinch, substitute for the frozen vegetable of your choice.
- If you have never used kosher salt before, grab some next time you are in the grocery store. This is one of those ingredients that really does make a pow difference and won’t cost you much at all. IF you don’t have kosher salt, table salt will work as well.
- Serve your ground beef and vegetables as is or on a bed of macaroni pasta, white or brown rice, quinoa, cauliflower rice, mashed potato, or zoodles (zucchini noodles).
You may also enjoy these easy-peasy skillet recipes:
Asian Pork Tenderloin Skillet (Quick & Budget-Friendly)
Chicken Broccoli Skillet with Pimento Cheese Sauce
Ingredients
Quantities are on a sliding scale in this recipe, feel free to use whatever you have
- 1-2 pounds lean ground beef
- 2 large garden tomatoes
- 1-2 yellow squash, sliced
- 1-2 bell peppers, chopped
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Place tomatoes on a foil-lined baking sheet and put them under the broiler for 5 to 8 minutes, while you get the ground beef going below.2 large garden tomatoes
- In a large skillet over medium-high heat, place ground beef and onion. Chop and stir with a wooden spoon until beef is fully brown and onion is tender and translucent (about 10 minutes). If not using lean ground beef, drain grease.1-2 pounds lean ground beef, 1 onion, chopped
- Remove tomatoes from the oven while ground beef is cooking and set aside to cool slightly. Once cooled, carefully peel the skin off and slice them into large wedges.
- Add tomatoes to ground beef and onion in the skillet and continue cooking over medium-high heat while you stir and chop them up, being careful not to squirt hot juice on yourself.
- Add salt, parsley, black pepper, and sugar (if using sugar). Stir well and cook for about 10 minutes.1 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, 1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
- Add in squash and bell pepper and stir well. Cook until squash is lightly translucent and bell pepper is just tender (about 10 more minutes).1-2 yellow squash, sliced, 1-2 bell peppers, chopped
Serve over hot cooked macaroni noodles or rice.
Nutrition
To wish you were someone else is to waste the person you are!
~Unknown
New to your site and I am loving your recipes, your words of wisdom, your faith and your attitude. Thank you for sharing. I live in Alabama, too and am so grateful for my Southern heritage.
Welcome to Southern Plate Rebecca!!! And thank you so much for your kind words! I look forward to getting to know you and hope you enjoy the recipes!
Cristy you are nuts but you can come to my poll anytime. I love this site.
This looks delish!! Only hubby doesn’t want meat in his dishes. So I make his spaghetti sauce (love spaghetti) with all the above ingredients except the meat. I’ll add mushrooms and cut up eggplant too. Have made all of this and served over spaghetti squash which is even better to me. That way I can save the carbs to have my garlic bread! I love your recipes using what we have on hand.
I am going to make this and put it over spaghetti squash, hoping to leave the starch out!
Great idea Christen!!
Looks & sounds delish! I’m making Shrimp Jambalaya this evening. I add a can of cut okra to my dish…my mouth’s craving it.
Enjoy! ;D)
I made this dish with a side of buttered potatoes and I added 1 onion and 1 can of corn and it was a big hit with hubby
Christy, I grew up in Northern Alabama, and am in Afghanistan, reading your recipes, trying to wipe the drool off my chin without getting the mouse wet! A good friend from high school shares your blogs on Facebook, and the first time I visited your site, I killed about 4 hours, just reminiscing. It brings a smile to my face, and makes me think of mother. How I miss going to see her. She would never let you leave without eating something! I spent a lot of time in the kitchen with her, and your recipes make me long for my Alabama roots! This Garden Skillet is the kind of cooking I usually enjoyed at her house. Thank you,
Keith, first I hope you made it home safely. Second, thank you so much for your service. We would not have the freedom to post recipes or to talk about them without men like you. My husband’s family is from a small town in Northern Alabama and I know what you mean about eating!!! When you’re from the south, and you’re not IN the south, you miss southern cooking, southern hospitality, and of course, southern manners. Take care & God bless. From an Army wife. 🙂