Hamburger (Homestead) Helper

Take the concept of the famous boxed dinner of Hamburger Helper and make it not only taste better but great for your family!

Add whatever you want to "ramp" up the flavor and nutrition all at once!

The boxed-meal concept is to oversimplify the dinner-making process, and I totally get it! But with a little know-how and a few extra steps, you can have this made in about 30 minutes and have it be so much better! Our picky eaters went back for seconds!

Being selective about ingredients will drive home the focus on health, but you can still make the meal taste "hearty" and not "healthy".

We love to make our own pasta, but in a pinch we'll use Jovial Einkorn Penne; they also offer spaghetti, fusili, and similar noodle shapes. Einkorn is amazing, even many people with a gluten intolerance can eat einkorn flour and pasta. We'll post more about einkorn in the future, but in short, it's the last strain of wheat that has yet to be genetically modified through either GMO techniques or selective breeding practices.

Speaking of gluten intolerance, I was so thrilled when we discovered that sourdough baked goods were tolerable to most, but even more thrilled to learn that sourdough starter makes an amazing replacer for flour when making a roux! Which will be necessary for the cheese sauce in this recipe.

Using sourdough discard to make the roux

When selecting your cheese, you can go by my method of 2:1 when it comes to blending for equal parts texture, flavor, and price. The majority of your cheese can be made up of a cheaper young cheddar, such as Cabot White Cheddar, that's your 2 parts (1 cup). Then you can add in a nice punchy cheese like Prairie Breeze Cheddar or a Smoked Gouda, that's the 1 part (1/2 cup). I added a tablespoon of goat cheese to this batch for a little tang. But cheese is so fun to experiment with, so go wild! Why not a Fontina and some Blue Cheese?

Use a simple cheddar for the body, smoked cheese for punch, goat cheese lends a little tang!

We will use our own beef when available, otherwise a local grass-fed beef, or low PUFA sausage, or even a pasture-raised shredded chicken will work great in this meal. We opted for a market trim of grass-fed ground chuck for today's dinner.

Wild-foraged leeks are one of our favorite springtime treats, followed only by morels!

Depending on the season, you can get creative with produce from the garden (peppers and onions are great, we imagine some sundried tomatoes in this), or with something you can wild-forage (learn your mushrooms!). We did wild leeks (ramps) as well as a handful of shitake mushrooms that a herdshare member traded with us! The garlicky ramps and umami of the mushrooms were the perfect rounding out of the flavor in the bowl!

It sounds like a lot, but again, this only took about 30 minutes and came together for a meal the whole family chowed down on, and we still had leftovers!

Recipe

Ingredient List

Skillet

• Ground Beef - 1 lb (substitute with sausage or diced chicken)

• Shitake mushrooms (optional) - 1/4 lb diced (1 cup) (substitute with button mushroom or morels)

• Wild Foraged Leeks - 24 leaves (substitute for another green like peppers or onion)

• Garlic Powder - 1/2 tsp

• Oregano - 1/2 tsp

• Coconut Aminos (optional) - 1 Tbs (substitute with Worcestershire or similar marinade that'll give a zip)

• Salt & Pepper to taste

  
  

  Cheese Sauce

• Heavy Cream - 1/4 cup (more if you want a thinner sauce)

• Butter - 2 Tbs

• Sourdough discard - 2 Tbs (more if you want to thicken the sauce)

• Young White Cheddar - 1 Cup shredded

• Smoked Cheddar or Sharp Cheese (optional) - 1/2 Cup shredded

• Goat Chevre (optional) - 2 Tbs

• Salt & Pepper to taste

Pasta

• Jovial Einkorn Penne - 1 box (12 oz)

• Water

Instructions

• Bring a pot of water to a boil in preparation for noodles.

• Cooking the skillet - 10 minutes

  • We use a 12" cast iron skillet over medium-low heat.

  • Brown ground beef, adding the shitake mushrooms about 5 minutes into cooking the beef (when there's still a little pink left in the beef).

  • Strain the excessive fat from the beef, leaving a little to keep the skillet from drying up.

  • Add hardier produce, such as diced onions or peppers, now.

  • Add spices, coconut aminos, and salt & pepper.

  • Leave on a low heat with a lid on, stirring occasionally while you prep the cheese sauce.

  • As your cheese sauce is finishing off, you can remove it from the heat and toss in chopped wild leeks or softer greens that can sweat with the lid on.

• Add noodles to boiling water and stir occasionally (follow instructions on the box).

• Cheese sauce - 5-10 minutes

  • Shred the cheeses you've selected and set aside, ready to add to the sauce.

  • Over low heat in a small sauce pot or 9" cast iron:

  • Start your sourdough roux - similar practice to a standard roux, but slightly different.

  • Melt butter

  • Stir in the cream and allow to warm up with the butter for about 2 minutes.

  • Whisk in sourdough discard, raise to medium heat, and stir continuously for about 2 minutes until sauce is thickened, and reduce to low heat again.

  • Add salt & pepper.

  • Add cheeses, stir in over medium heat until melted, and remove from heat.

  • Taste test and adjust for thickness and flavor.

• Finish noodles and strain.

• Combine

  • In the pot you boiled your noodles, you can combine the noodles and the skillet, stir gently.

  • Add cheese sauce and stir once more.

• Serve with a garnish of finely shredded wild leeks and red pepper flakes for those who like a little heat.

Notes:

• The doneness of the vegetables is up to you; if you want softer peppers and onions, add them earlier in the skillet. If you want a crunch, then add them towards the end.

• Adding a delicate green, such as spinach or ramps, too early will cause them to shrink and dull their color; timing is key for flavor and appearance!

• If substituting with chicken, keep in mind that poultry doesn't lend as much fat as beef or pork, and you may need to add a splash of olive oil or tallow to keep the skillet from drying out.

• Coconut aminos evolve in flavor depending on how you cook them; a little heat will caramelize the sauce and boost the richness, but too much heat will cause it to burn.=

• When it comes to using sourdough discard in your roux, a little goes a long way! Give it at least a minute of heating up and thickening before you add more, or you'll be compensating with more cream to thin it again.