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.