Cabbage Rolls in Sour Cream Sauce

Another variation for ukrainian cabbage rolls: meat staffed cabbage rolls with gentle sour cream and onion sauce.

Making these from scratch will take some time as any recipe for cabbage rolls even if you use ground beef and don’t need to prepare it yourself, you still need to separate cabbage, assemble rolls and then cook them.

But don’t let this to stop you - even though it is time consuming to cook cabbage rolls you will get enough rolls for later - just store left overs in fridge or freezer.

Veal Stew with Chanterelles and Peas

Chanterelles are mushrooms which I simply can’t pass in the shop, even though they are seasonal or maybe because of that.

It is my shame, but I don’t know any way to prepare them other than this stew with veal and peas, but it sure tastes great!

You can substitute beef for veal, just increase cooking time to ensure meat is soft enough. You can also substitute white dry wine for water, if you feel like this.

Stuffed Spaghetti Squash Recipe

My mom usually cooked big zucchini like this: stiffing it with ground beef and rice mince.

However I wasn’t able to find an “adult” zucchini in any shop here in US to cook it. It seems that they don’t survive long enough to grow big here (maybe green piece should look into that, I don’t know).

Anyway, I believe spaghetti squash is a good substitute for this recipe: it serves the purpose by being squash and providing a cavity to cook stuffing, and it also brings nice unique texture to the dish with its “spaghettiness”.

The taste here is similar to cabbage rolls (as if they were made of squash :) ), however the amount of work you need to put into this one is considerably smaller.

Russian Fried Pies with Meat and Rice Stuffing

Fried pies (piroshki/pyrizhky), resembling individual size fried buns of yeast dough with stuffing, are very popular in all countries of ex-USSR. There are many stuffing variations for these: fruity and sweet or savory.

This is recipe for piroshki with boiled meat and rice stuffing - meat left over after preparing broth or soup is usually used to prepare these. And later fried pies can be served together with that soup or broth.

Piroshki are good choice if you need to take food to-go: they don’t require refrigeration to keep them fresh (for 1-2 days).

Crepes with Boiled Meat and Rice Stuffing

A cup of beef broth with a couple of meat and rice stuffed crepes will always remind me of my childhood: mom used to cook these all the time.

There is always boiled meat left over from cooking broth, and stuffing crepes with it is easy way to prepare a nice meal to go with it.

Assembled meat and rice stuffed crepes can be stored in fridge for couple of days - you just need to warm them up by frying right before serving.

And if you cook a way too much (as I usually do) just seal some portion of stuffed crepes in a bag and freeze them up, this way you will always have some fresh stuffed crepes when you need to prepare some food fast.

Beef Stroganoff with Mushrooms and Cream

This recipe features a small modification to the beef stroganoff recipe I posted earlier, but a good one: a cup of cream and cremini mushrooms give this dish a very rich taste.

Field mushrooms will also work good in this recipe, but cremini are the best.

As usual, I suggest serving beef stroganoff with a side of boiled buckwheat, it tastes great with mushrooms and cream and, of course, beef.

Minced Cutlets Stuffed with Mushrooms

This is a tasty tweak to original minced beef cutlets recipe. The mince is prepared exactly the same way and mushrooms and onions stuffing gives ground meat juiciness and extraordinary taste.

A bit of agility is required to put stuffing inside of minced meat cutlets, but once you get it - it seems easy: meat is sticky, so if you get some holes, they can be easily patched by adding a layer of mince on top of the hole.

To prevent meat from sticking to hands - rinse hands with cold water from time to time while assembling minced cutlets.

Lazy Cabbage Rolls

Lazy cabbage rolls, or “lenyvi golubtsi” how this dish is called in ukrainian, is an easier version of ukrainian cabbage rolls.

Since it doesn't require assembling of rolls it is much easier to prepare, and taste is very similar to cabbage rolls.

Lazy cabbage rolls taste great when seasoned with a bit of chopped garlic and a bit of mayo.

Veal Roast with Mustard and Garlic

This veal roast is a good choice for romantic or family dinner. Meat can be prepared for cooking in advance, like a night before, and then roast day after. That will make meat even better marinated.

I think veal is the best for this recipe, but since veal is hard to get and can be quite pricey - beef can be used as well. If you choose to cook beef – increase roasting time a bit.

Veal roast can be served warm straight from the oven, as one piece or spiced into portions. It also tastes good cooled down.

Veal Shish Kebab with Onions

Cookout when we had these veal shish kebabs was rather extreme: we went to the lake (about 50 miles away), fired up grill, skewered meat, set it on the grill and then... rain started.

And it appeared to be not the light summer rain which we hoped for when we first saw clouds, but the cloudburst with thunders, lightnings and a hail in between, the cold one.

I don't know how we managed to keep that meat cooking, but it turned out good, maybe it even tasted better because we were guarding grill for half of hour with towel above it to keep it from getting wet.

By the way, to cook such shish kebab (“shashlik” or “shashlyk” how we call this dish in Russia) you will need skewers of some kind and of course grill (make it a charcoal one to get better taste) in additional to meat, onions, vinegar and spices. If you use wooden skewers, don't forget to soak them in the water at least for 1 hour before skewer meat on.

Meatballs with Carrot-Tomato Sauce

Russian meatballs (or “tefteli” how they are called in Russia) are prepared from ground beef and rice mix and cooked under some kind of sauce. They usually have big size (1 or 2 meatballs is enough for a serving).

This is a recipe for “tefteli” my mom uses: big meatballs, dipped into flour, then fried over in some oil and cooked with vegetable sauce (carrots, tomatoes, onions and dill) until ready.

I've modified recipe a bit to use freshly pureed tomatoes instead of tomato paste. However, if you don't have fresh tomatoes under your hands, you can use canned tomatoes or tomato paste diluted with water.

Boiled potatoes or mashed potatoes are usually the first choice of side dish for tefteli for me, boiled buckwheat or pasta work good too.

Lasagna with Beef and Vegetables

Several weekends ago, when I asked Yuriy what should we prepare for dinner, I got an answer – lasagna, and I was intimidated a bit - I never prepared lasagna before. So I spent some time in internet researching recipes and found several I liked. I've combined them, added some touch to my taste and prepared this lasagna.

This was my first attempt to make lasagna. And main challenge for me was to properly prepare noodles: according to the instructions on the pack they required boiling before using. I've added 2 tablespoons of oil to the boiling water and was boiling them layer by layer and it totally helped to prevent noodles from sticking while boiling.

This lasagna turned out perfectly: balanced combination of meat and vegetables (just how I like it), noodles were very tender, it was totally worth all the time I've spend boiling them, getting out of water and trying arrange them in the pan.

Macaroni with Ground Boiled Beef

Lots of recipes require using clear soup (meat broth, stock), however not all of them also require boiled meat which is often used to prepare meat broth. So the question is, are there any good recipes which actually require boiled meat and no broth?

This is one of them: russian pasta with ground boiled beef and fried onions (btw, it is called “makarony po-flotski” in Russia; I have no idea why, but we always called this dish so).

Any “al dente” kind of pasta will work here: I've used penne, just read instructions on the pack and cook them accordingly. You may also vary proportion of meat to pasta to taste.

Beef Roast under Cheese and Onion

That is probably one of my favorite dinner recipes: slices of beef roast under mayonnaise, shredded mozzarella and onions, and it is very easy to cook.

You can make steps 1-7 some time in advance, then put meat into the fridge and continue later; just get meat to the preheated oven about 1 hour before you are going to serve it. That comes extremely handy when you need to get a lot of other things taken care of right before the dinner.

Some dry red wine is a nice addition to this dish, especially if the dinner is going to get romantic.

Fried Beef Liver with Onions

Liver is an irreplaceable source of various nutrients which are very important for human health. It has biggest concentration of a vitamin A comparing to all other food sources; natural source of vitamin D, B12 and C, phosphorus and copper; it is high on protein of animal origin; and the most important, it is rich source of easily absorbed iron – that made liver a part of the treatment for pernicious anemia.

Saying all of that, I was very surprised of how hard it was to find fresh beef liver in a local shops (true to tell I didn't try a local farmer markets, didn't locate any around yet). I am also pretty sure, what liver dishes are not very popular in this part of the earth globe, however they are traditional in Europe: Germany, Russia, Ukraine, and a believe a lot of other countries.

So here is my attempt to fix that: fried beef liver with onions – is perfect lunch or dinner dish, it is very easy to cook and, as I already mentioned above, it is very nutritious. Important tip: do not overcook liver, to preserve as much goodness as you can.

Stewed Beef with Onions

It felt like a time for some nice beef stew recipe, so here it goes: beef stewed with onions is a dish my mom was always cooking, when I was little. Well, maybe she didn't put a wine, but besides of that – that is the dish I am used to from my childhood.

It is very easy to do, probably the easiest stew recipe I know, and doesn't take much time to cook. Wine adds a nice hint to the taste, but it is completely optional: just replace it with a cup of water if you don't have a cup of dry red wine.

This dish goes good with mashed potatoes or boiled buckwheat as a side dish.

Minced Beef Cutlets

This it a traditional russian recipe for minced meat cutlets which includes meat, white bread soaked in milk and a lot of onions. Some people prepare those cutlets from beef only, some add a bit of pork or pork fat in them. I prefer just beef.

You may grind or mince meat yourself or buy a ground one and simply add finely chopped or grated onions: whatever you prefer. Either way I am sure it will taste delicious!

I've served those cutlets with fried potatoes and greek salad, just in case you were curious.

Beef Stew with Vegetables

One of the most delicious ways to prepare beef is to stew it with vegetables. Stewed meat shares its juices with vegetables which makes the dish not only nutritious but also very tasty. Stews are a bit time consuming to prepare, but it is totally worth it. Serve stews hot without side dish.

In this post I've prepared beef stew with potato, bean, carrots and tomatoes. Read step-by-step instructions how to prepare Beef Stew with Vegetables with pictures.

Moussakas

In Greek cuisine, moussakas (moussaka, musakka) is a layered casserole made of vegetables (eggplant as a main ingredient) and minced meat.

It takes a bit of time and require some coordination in order to make it. But even if you spend a lot of time preparing moussakas, it totally worth it! It is great dish, and it tastes good served as hot as well as cold.

Tzatziki is good addition for Moussakas Casserole.

Meat with Prunes

For meat with prunes you can use either pork or beef. I think, pork tastes even better prepared this way, especially if prunes you have are not too sweet, so I advise you to go with pork.

However if you don't like pork for some reasons or if you don't have it just like I did when I were writing this article, you can use beef. I must say it tastes also delicious!

Stuffed Bell Peppers

My better half doesn't like fresh bell peppers, so I do stuff them with ground beef and rice and stew for a bit and here we go, it is his favorite meat dish.

Stuffed Bell Peppers are easy and fast to do. They are being served without side dish and are tasty!

Beef Stroganoff with Buckwheat Side

I believe there are a lot of recipes which are called “Beef Stroganoff”. This one is the recipe my mom uses to prepare her Beef Stroganoff, so do I.

It goes very good with potato puree and even better with boiled buckwheat.

Beef Stew with Carrots and Bell Pepper

Delicious meat main dish with a set of vegetables. You will need to spend a bit of time to get it done, but the result will not leave you disappointed.

Stewed vegetables and tender beef, what can taste better?