Budget-Friendly and Easy Beef Recipes for Weeknight Dinners

There are several reasons beef is a staple in our weekly meal planning. This meat is an extremely adaptable and inexpensive alternative that can be prepared in a variety of dishes.

Whatever you have on hand and regardless of your financial or time constraints, the following easy beef recipes provide something for everyone.

Reasons to Love

For many reasons, beef recipes are part of most comfort foods. First, the meat's high protein content makes it satisfying, keeping you feeling full for longer.

This protein can also be used to create a variety of dishes, from soups and stews to grilled and baked goods. It can be part of a nutritious supper, a snack, or fast comfort food such as burgers.

Lastly, they all cook surprisingly quickly, either on the stovetop or in the oven, making the meat perfect for weeknight dinners and weekend barbecues.

Collection of Easy Beef Recipes

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Steak and Eggs Recipe

This duo is a winning combo in our book. Packing protein into your routine will ensure that you’re full for longer. So you get satiety and satisfaction in one meal; you can’t go wrong with it.

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Ground Beef and Cabbage Recipe

This simple mix is humble yet glorious. You could be raggedy or rich, yet still want — or need — this meal with a bowl of rice at the end of a long day. After all, who doesn’t love simple comfort food?

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Beef Chow Mein Recipe

Another egg-noodle dish to fulfill, Chow Mein is easily a favorite for curbing carb cravings. Stir-fry flank steak with voluminous veggies (bok choy, cabbage) and noodles in soy sauce and serve right away.

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Beef Shawarma Recipe

The best Middle Eastern dishes will instantly blow your taste buds away. Bear witness to the richness of this cuisine with this fragrant Shawarma made right in 15 minutes.

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Beef Tomato Recipe

What looks like a simple dish produces many irresistible, tomato-sweet flavors. It’s so succulent and delicious you’ll have to eat it with your shoes off so you can wiggle your toes.

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What Kind of Steak Cut Good For Steak Salad 1

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Steak Salad Recipe

Salads are great and all, but add some protein, and they instantly taste better. At least in our opinion. You can’t go wrong with this Steak Salad anyway. It’s nourishing and satiating and can easily pass for a main dish.

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Beef Chow Fun Recipe

This Chow Fun is a rice noodle stir-fry that exudes umami undertones. With tender mushrooms basking in a luscious soy sauce, it’s just what you need for a gratifying feast.

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Beef Lo Mein Recipe

This remake of a restaurant Chinese dish will make you want to exchange your versatile menu for this treat throughout the week. The marrying of carrots, bell pepper, and ginger is utterly irresistible. You’ll soon realize you can only take so much goodness.

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Creamy Steak Fettuccine Recipe

This dish includes a creamy tomato and mushroom broth, which is the secret to its impressive quality. It’s an excellent way to make a homemade dish taste expensive.

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Creamy Tomato Rigatoni Pasta Recipe

Rigatoni is wide, cylindrical pasta with ridges on the exterior. All the better to soak up as much of these savory mushroom and parmesan flavors in each spoonful!

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Beef Tapa Recipe

This Filipino dish of thinly-sliced steak is what we forage for when we’re famished. It’s tender and marinated meat served with a sunny-side-up egg and fried rice — the epitome of a rewarding meal.

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Vegetable Beef Ragu Recipe

This ragu is packed with vegetables simmered in a satisfying, hearty broth. It’s so robust that it carries a life of its own. You’ll undoubtedly want to cling to each spoonful to prolong this experience.

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Spaghetti Bolognese Recipe

When you plan a dish you want everyone to love, Spaghetti Bolognese should come to mind. It’s a time-tested meal that requires little effort yet never fails to impress. The kids will be lining up for seconds.

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Steak Taco Recipe

Fine dining meets street food in this exquisite Steak Taco recipe. It delivers top-quality beef served rustically to satisfy even the deepest of cravings.

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Chili Spaghetti Recipe

Ever pushed the envelope of a simple spaghetti dish? This Chili Spaghetti lets you indulge in a mighty spicy main that’ll set your taste buds ablaze; you won’t settle for anything less fiery after trying it.

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Asian Beef and Noodles Recipe

“Udon” want to miss this Asian stir fry! If you’re unfamiliar, udon is a thick Japanese noodle made from rice or wheat flour. Simply sauteed in a ground beef, mushroom, and soy-oyster sauce mix, it makes an excellent vehicle for deep umami flavors.

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Beef Stir-Fry Recipe

This recipe will become a top choice for down days. You need just 25 minutes to turn broccoli, carrots, and snow peas into allies for a quick yet satisfactory meal.

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Beef Burger Recipe

Got some beef? We’ve got buns. Precisely crisping up in the oven at 430 ℉. It’s the recipe for perfect grab-and-go burgers that are also ideal for a party.

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Beefy Butternut Squash Pasta Recipe

This dish guarantees there’s no better way to enjoy Butternut Squash Pasta. The sweet and nutty after-roast tang is addictive. And once you add the tomato sauce broth, it glosses over the butternut cubes and delivers a bittersweet finished taste.

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Beef and Mushrooms Recipe

This dish is proof of basic ingredients par excellence. Simply sear mushrooms, onions, and beef in a semi-sweet soy sauce until caramelized, and serve with fluffy white rice. That’s it — no heavy lifting. Except to convince your guests that it really is that simple.

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Hamburger Soup Recipe

Filled with alliaceous flavors and nutritious veggies, this meat and pasta dish is a weekday lifeline. You’ll suffer no compromise of flavors with this one-pot stew that’s ready in under an hour.

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What Is the Best Seasoning for Beef?

When it comes to seasoning beef, the straightforward and classic beef seasoning of freshly cracked black pepper and kosher salt will make the beef shine on the plate.

Sprinkle a little salt, such as flaky sea salt, for a flavorful finishing touch. Or you can add chopped herbs such as thyme, rosemary, or sage to your salt to create a meat-flavored salt.

For steak worthy of a restaurant, baste it with butter and herbs in the last few minutes of cooking. This will give your favorite steakhouse's signature buttery taste.

Another easy way to add flavor to your beef is to rub a clove of garlic onto a steak that has been cooked. Simply chop the garlic in half and massage the sliced side all over the steak while it rests.

With stir-fry and stew recipes, it’s best to create a mix of your favorite dry ingredients, such as garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, rosemary, thyme, cumin, chile powder, and brown sugar.

Store the spice blend in an airtight mason jar so that it is always accessible. In addition, the thrill of producing your own homemade spice with a few basic ingredients is simply beyond anything you can buy in a store.

What Are Easy Ways to Cook Beef?

Now that you're familiar with meat spices, let's explore the cooking techniques that bring out the best in each beef cut. Depending on the type of beef, which may have fat and connective tissue, it is important to choose a cooking method that keeps as much moisture in as possible, locking in the flavors and tenderness.

Braising

Braised beef can make even the least tender pieces fall apart on the fork. To braise beef, the meat is first browned, then slowly cooked in a small amount of liquid with a tight lid over low heat. The result is flavorful and tender meat.

Stewing

Beef stew is a wintertime staple dish. The rougher, less costly cuts of beef produce the tastiest beef stews.

The only difference between stewing and braising is that stewing totally submerges the beef in liquid, whereas a minimum amount of liquid is required for braising. Because the meat is often sliced into cubes or tiny pieces beforehand, the cooking time can be reduced.

Grilling

The most popular way of preparing what we often refer to as "steaks" is grilling. Grilling entails preparing food on a gas or charcoal grill or other heat source. Typically, grilling uses high heat for a brief amount of time, with or without a finish, over indirect or lower heat.

Stir-frying

Stir-frying is a quick and simple technique to cook beef throughout the year. Pan frying is a quick cooking technique requiring a little amount of heated fat, such as oil or butter, often high heat, and shorter cooking periods.

Stir-frying is a version in which smaller meat chunks are cooked over extremely high heat with constant stirring. When stir-frying at home (as opposed to in a restaurant), a skillet is preferable over a wok. Marinating the meat is a wonderful technique to build flavor and keep the meat tender.

You can choose a cooking style depending on the ingredients in your kitchen. Now, here are the beef recipes that will have you cooking restaurant-quality meals in no time.