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Beef and Bean Pie

In 35 minutes you can put together enough dinner for two nights easily, and this is a dinner that kids especially will want to have again. I like the combination of protein rich beans and ground beef, and the creamy, cheesy topping which has very little cheese at all but adds so much to the taste. Other similar recipes use cornbread instead, but boxed mixes have hydrogenated fat and making it from scratch is a bigger time commitment, so polenta is a great substitute. See fantastic lunch idea using leftovers. (See bottom.)
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Prep Time 35 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings: 6 servings
Course: Red Meat
Ingredients Method

Ingredients
  

  • 1/3 cup(s) onion diced
  • 1/2 bunch kale taken from rib and chop 1/2" pieces
  • 1 cup(s) mushrooms chopped
  • 1 lb(s) ground beef
  • 14 oz(s) diced tomatoes
  • 1 cup(s) corn
  • 14 oz(s) pinto beans
  • 1 cup(s) milk
  • 1 lb(s) polenta
  • 1/2 cup(s) shredded cheddar cheese

Method
 

  1. Prep Work: Chop onion, mushrooms and kale; store separately. Dice tomatoes if not using canned.
  2. Heat 1 Tbsp. oil in skillet and saute onions 2-3 min. until beginning to soften. Add kale and mushrooms and cook another 3-4 min. until both are softened.
  3. Preheat oven broiler.
  4. Push vegetables to sides and put meat in center of pan. Break apart with a spatula and put a lid on skillet. Check after 4 min., break apart meat with spatula, return lid and cook until no longer pink, at least 4 more min.
  5. Add tomatoes, corn and beans to skillet. Add 1 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper (yield of 6) or to taste. Drain liquid and save for broth! Place ingredients of skillet into an 11x7 pan.
  6. Puree polenta with milk in blender until smooth. Spread polenta over top of meat and beans and sprinkle with cheese. Broil from middle of oven approx. 10 min., or until cheese is bubbly and slightly browned. Leftovers Soup: Put leftovers in a soup pot and add enough broth to give it the consistency you like. Saute small potato chunks and onion. Add to soup along with other leftover vegetables you might have, chopped greens like collard greens or spinach, diced zucchini. If you didn't have many leftovers you may need to add chunks of cooked turkey sausage and/or a can of kidney beans. Season with salt and pepper, and dried herbs like oregano, thyme and nutritional yeast. Add a crushed clove of garlic for extra flavor too. Leftovers for Lunch: Warm a large, burrito sized tortilla. In center spread hummus, leftover meat pie without polenta topping, salsa, leftover, diced baked potatoand or other vegetables and some kind of finely sliced greens. I used leftover salad. Wrap up in burrito and then wrap in cellophane. Good warmed up or not. OTL 2011