The Taco Meat That Hides a Whole Vegetable

A white hobnail bowl heaping with Tex-Mex taco meat with cabbage cooked in, a spoon tucked in, avocado and taco shells behind.
The finished taco meat, cabbage and all, though you’d never know it. This is the bowl that started the whole smug little habit.
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Here’s a thing I do to taco meat that I’m a little smug about: I hide a whole vegetable in it, and nobody at the table has ever once noticed.

The vegetable is purple cabbage, finely chopped, four cups of it, which sounds completely unhinged until you watch it cook. Raw, it’s a mountain; there’s a full pound of beef buried under there somewhere (in the skillet it looks like a coleslaw that took a wrong turn). Twenty minutes later it has collapsed into the meat and essentially vanished, leaving behind body, a little sweetness, and not one single person asking why there’s cabbage in their taco. Because they can’t tell. That’s the whole trick, and I’m delighted by it every single time.

An overhead view of taco meat in a white bowl with a halved avocado and taco shells in a holder.
From above, the whole spread. A weeknight dinner that pretends to be more effort than it is.

I started doing this for the most practical reason there is. I feed a hungry man who lifts weights, and a man who lifts weights needs a genuinely heroic amount of food, protein and bulk both. One pound of ground beef does not go far in this house. But a pound of beef plus four cups of cabbage plus a can of Ro-Tel feeds a crowd, stretches the good grass-fed beef I’d rather not buy by the three-pound heap, and sneaks a vegetable into a weeknight while it’s at it. Frugal, filling, and quietly virtuous; my favorite combination of things to be.

And this isn’t only taco meat, though it’s very good in a taco. This is my all-purpose Tex-Mex ground beef: the thing I reach for when I want nachos, or a taco salad, or something to stuff a pepper with, or just a bowl over rice that I can call dinner and mean it. Anytime a recipe says “seasoned ground beef” and leans Tex-Mex, this is what shows up.

Let me be clear about what this is and isn’t: it’s Americanized Tex-Mex, hard shells and all. It isn’t trying to be anything fancier, and I love it exactly as much as I love the fussy stuff, which is to say a great deal.

  • A cast-iron skillet with browning ground beef under a big pile of finely chopped purple cabbage and diced onion.
  • A cast-iron skillet of taco meat simmering in orange taco spiced Ro-Tel sauce on a gas stove
  • A cast-iron skillet of finished taco meat, cooked down and saucy, no cabbage visible.

The method could not be simpler. Brown the beef, add the onion and that ridiculous pile of cabbage, and cook it down until the cabbage gives up the fight. Then in go the taco seasoning (Penzey’s Bold Taco, for me; I buy it by the 3/4 cup bag), a can of Ro-Tel, and a can of water, and you let it all simmer until it’s saucy but not soupy and the cabbage has slipped quietly into the background like it was never there to begin with.

That’s the post, honestly. Go forth and hide vegetables in things.

Print Recipe

Taco Meat That Hides a Whole Vegetable

All-purpose Tex-Mex ground beef with four cups of finely chopped purple cabbage cooked right in. The cabbage disappears as it cooks, adds a vegetable, and stretches a single pound of beef to feed a crowd. Great for tacos, nachos, taco salad, or a rice bowl.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb lean ground beef
  • 4 cups finely chopped purple cabbage
  • 1 ea small onion diced
  • 2 tbsp Penzey’s Bold Taco seasoning heaping
  • 10 oz Ro-Tel undrained (1 can)
  • 10 oz water just fill the empty Ro-Tel can

Instructions

  • Brown and wilt. In a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high, cook the ground beef, breaking it up, until it starts to brown.
    1 lb lean ground beef
  • Add the onion and the cabbage. (It will look like an absurd amount of cabbage. Trust it.) Cook, stirring, until the cabbage wilts down and the beef is cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes.
    1 ea small onion, 4 cups finely chopped purple cabbage
  • Stir in the taco seasoning, the Ro-Tel with its juices, and one Ro-Tel can of water. Bring to a simmer.
    2 tbsp Penzey’s Bold Taco seasoning, 10 oz Ro-Tel, 10 oz water
  • Simmer, stirring now and then, until the liquid cooks down and the cabbage has all but disappeared into the meat, 10 to 15 minutes. You want it saucy, not soupy.
  • Pile into hard shells, spoon over nachos, build a taco salad, or bowl it over rice. Avocado alongside is never the wrong call.

Notes

  • The cabbage trick. Four cups looks like a lot; it cooks down to almost nothing. You won’t taste “cabbage,” just a little body and sweetness, and it stretches a pound of beef to feed more people.
  • Purple, not green. Purple melts in and hides in the browned beef. Green works but stays more visible and assertive.
  • Heat. Ro-Tel Original is medium. Use Mild or Hot to taste, and adjust salt to your taco blend.
  • Beyond tacos. Nachos, taco salad, stuffed peppers, quesadillas, a rice bowl. This is my catch-all Tex-Mex ground beef.
  • Storage. Keeps about 4 days in the fridge and freezes well.

P.S. If you think four cups of cabbage is too much cabbage, I need you to trust me exactly one time. It disappears. It’s basically a magic trick you can do with the produce section.

P.P.S. Yes, purple specifically. Green works, but purple practically melts in and its color hides in the browned beef; green stays a little more visible and a lot more opinionated. Purple is the stealth option.

P.P.P.S. This is also a tremendous way to feed cabbage to people who swear up and down that they hate cabbage. I’m not telling you to deceive your loved ones. I’m just noting that the option is right there.