Picadillo Recipe

Picadillo is a dish with ground meat, tomato, potato, and carrots as basic ingredients. This is usually cooked using ground beef and/or ground pork, depending on the country of origin of the recipe. This Picadillo version that I am sharing today makes use of the basic ingredients. I also added green peas and Manzanilla olives to make it look and taste better.

I have been enjoying Filipino Picadillo since I was a child. It is simple and delicious. As I was growing-up, I learned that it is also easy to cook.

There are  several ways to enjoy it. The most common is to eat Picadillo with warm white rice. You can have a small saucer with patis (fish sauce) and crushed chili on the side to even boost your appetite. This can also be used as a stuffing for empanadas. I just shared a recipe for pork emapanda, and the stuffing looks similar to this dish. Another way is to have the leftover for breakfast, with toast.

Sometimes, it is practical to cook a large amount of Picadillo and keep it in the fridge or freezer for future use. If you are bringing your own lunch to work, or your kids prefer home-cooked meals for lunch at school, then I suggest to make enough portions in advance. It also works best when you suddenly get hungry, there will always be something sitting in the fridge to devour-on.

Try this Picadillo Recipe. Let me know what you think.

Ground meat, potatoes, carrots, olives, and peas come together to form beef picadillo –– a hearty, filling, and absolutely delicious dish you can enjoy from the comfort of your own home! 

What is Picadillo?

You might notice that Picadillo looks similar to giniling –– and you’d be right. Seeing as giniling’s direct translation is actually ground meat of any kind, you wouldn’t be wrong in saying that giniling plays a primary role in making picadillo. However, the giniling we’re familiar with tends to make use of pork rather than beef –– wherein in picadillo, we use the latter. You can also view picadillo as a slightly drier version of the saucy giniling we’re used to.

Ingredients for this recipe:

Ground beef

Picadillo’s main protein can be found in the small but filling pieces of beef that occupy the serving bowl. Ground beef is one of the most affordable and least time-consuming ways of enjoying this protein. From hamburgers to spaghetti, ground beef is popular due to the many ways you can use it –– picadillo happens to be one of them. Another great thing about ground beef is how easily it can adapt and absorb the taste of other ingredients. While it may appear to others as the main star of the show, in picadillo ground beef actually works with other ingredients in order to emphasize each other’s unique and enticing flavors.

Tomatoes

Humble but bright and beautiful, tomatoes lend their juicy taste and summery appearance to this dish. A powerhouse vegetable, tomatoes are also the home to many vitamins and nutrients, including but not limited to Vitamins C, K, and potassium. Great for the skin, heart, and stomach, tomatoes really help enhance the flavors of your picadillo!

Raisins

Raisins are a polarizing dish –– some love it while others can’t stand the sight of it. But wherever you are on the spectrum, you can’t deny that it has a flavor unlike any other. Raisins may be naturally sweet but they also aid in keeping our bones strong and our iron levels up. They can truly help make your picadillo both more delicious and more nutritious!

Olives

Whether serving it on a delicious plate of cheese and cold cuts, putting it in a glass of martini, or adding it to dishes like picadillo, olives’ unique taste make them a great addition to beef picadillo. You usually enjoy olives in sides like salads or appetizers, but putting them in mains like picadillo is a welcome twist. High in vitamin E and antioxidants, you won’t regret adding this to your regular comfort food!

Potatoes

One of the most popular vegetables in the world, the humble potato is used in a myriad of dishes, cooked in a myriad of ways! From our favorite french fries to mashed potatoes, you can enjoy potatoes as, and in, almost everything. What’s more, keeping potatoes in your diet improves your bone health, digestion, and overall immunity. Potatoes and ground meat often go hand in hand in dishes, but adding it to picadillo especially truly makes it something special.

Carrots

These bright orange veggies are more than just crunchy and tasty –– they’re absolutely nutritious, too! One of their best known health benefits is that carrots are great for improving your eyesight. With Vitamins A, B6, and K1, carrots help reduce the rate of cancer and lower blood cholesterol levels. Apart from savoring them in picadillo, enjoy carrots as a light, bite-sized snack you can take on the go.

Green peas (Guisantes)

Often called sweet peas or garden peas, these round green balls are great for adding texture to your picadillo. They are nutritious, high in fiber and protein, and contain many vitamins and nutrients. Green peas make your picadillo even more filling and delicious –– you won’t be able to get enough!

All these ingredients come together to make the comforting and delightful beef picadillo that so often graces our dining tables. Now that we know what’s in our picadillo, it’s time to make it!

When we’re kids, most of us prefer going out and dining in at restaurants to enjoying meals at home. But as we grow older we start to appreciate a nice warm home-cooked meal more and more. This happens especially when we start living alone, or away from our parents. By cooking dishes like beef picadillo, you’re able to bring back memories of warmth, comfort, and family. Simple but delicious, picadillo can invoke a number of different emotions that you can savor in one perfect bite.

How to Cook Picadillo

Let’s cook beef picadillo together! Beforehand, let’s prepare all of our ingredients. Mince 1 medium sized yellow onion, as well as 4 cloves of garlic. Cube 1 medium baking potato, and 2 medium sized carrots. Be sure to thaw your frozen peas –– you’ll need ¾ cup of those. 

Heat 3 to 4 tablespoons of cooking oil in a cooking pot. Once it heats up, add in the onion and garlic you minced prior. Sauté both of these ingredients in your pot until the latter softens and becomes semi translucent.

Around this time, add in 1 ½ lbs. of ground beef, but pour it in at a gradual pace. Sauté and stir your dish around until you have a light brown color on your beef.

Then, it’s time to pour in your diced tomato, 1 cup of beef broth, and half a cup of raisins. Stir your beef picadillo mix until you’ve brought it to a boil –– at which point you should cover it and let it cook on its own. This should take about 15 minutes.

Once your 15 minutes are up, add your other ingredients: olives, carrots, potatoes, and green peas. Stir your beef picadillo to ensure that you’ve incorporated all of the scrumptious ingredients.

When you’re satisfied, cover the pot once more and let it cook for an additional 12 minutes.

Season your beef picadillo with salt and ground black pepper to taste; then, cook it 3 minutes longer. Once that time is up, turn the heat off the stove and transfer your dish to a serving plate. With a nice plate of veggies and warm, steamed rice beside it, you’ve created the perfect comfort meal!

Serve the beef picadillo to the rest of your family, and share and enjoy! Let us know what you think of this great recipe.