Low-Calorie Comfort Food: Harvest Festival Minced Beef & Vegetable Casserole (5:2 Diet)
Low-Calorie Comfort Food:
Harvest Festival Minced Beef & Vegetable Casserole
(5:2 Diet)
Low-Calorie Comfort Food: Harvest Festival Minced Beef & Vegetable Casserole (5:2 Diet)
I love this time of year, as you will all know if you read my last post for elderberries and preserves, Elderberries, Hedgerow Harvests and A Cornucopia of Preserves for the Autumn Pantry. It’s not just the obvious change in meals, from salads and summer berries to stews and comfort food, but it’s the whole seasonal package…..kicking dried leaves on a country path, storing the wood ready for wood fires, the amazing colours of the trees as their leaves don their autumn attire, pumpkins, fruit and vegetables, straw, wheat and amazing sunsets……harvest loaves, dusky hedgerow berries and nuts…..the first frost and sparkling starry nights – it’s a wonderful time of year. But, if you are following a diet, as I am, then diet food can seem a little “blah” and salads, much though I LOVE them, just don’t fit the bill once the mercury starts to fall. What is needed to feed the soul on a low-calorie diet day is a hearty, filling casserole, and this new recipe of mine for Harvest Festival Minced Beef & Vegetable Casserole is perfect, especially as it comes in at a FABULOUSLY low 270 calories per portion, or only 300 calories when served with another NEW 5:2 recipe I WILL be sharing this week, for “faux mashed potato”, which is in fact mashed cauliflower!
Low-Calorie Comfort Food: Harvest Festival Minced Beef & Vegetable Casserole (5:2 Diet)
This recipe is just fabulous, a hearty hug in a bowl of minced beef with seasonal root vegetables and lots of lovely gravy……by using just 200g (about 8 ounces) of minced beef, and padding the recipe with lots of veggies, it makes a low-calorie casserole with bags of flavour and a scant amount of calories. I then experimented with another new recipe by serving the meal with mashed cauliflower, in lieu of mashed potatoes, and it worked like a dream! I am rather taken with the cauliflower when dieting, and many of my readers will know I have shared a recipe for cauliflower Crust Pizza, which is amazingly tasty and a fabulous low-calorie substitution for the usual bread crust – you can see my recipe here: Low-Calorie Cauliflower Crust Pizza: Gluten Free, Paleo and 5:2 Diet Pizza Recipe.
Low-Calorie Cauliflower Crust Pizza: Gluten Free, Paleo and 5:2 Diet Pizza Recipe
The faux cauliflower mash was perfect as an accompaniment to the casserole and I pepped it up a bit with lots of black pepper, and some low-fat spread for a slightly creamy texture – watch out for the recipe later on this week. As you can see from the photos, the casserole was a generous portion and by using very lean minced beef, I was able to save lots of calories. I have shared the calories for all types of minced beef below, from high fat to very low-fat, and you can see how much you can save by using a very low fat minced beef, and the difference is quite frankly staggering.
Faux Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes
Calories in Minced Beef:
100g Minced Beef 70% lean meat/30% fat = 332 calories
100g Minced Beef 80% lean meat/20% fat = 254 calories
100g Minced Beef 85% lean meat/15% fat = 215 calories
100g Minced Beef 90% lean meat/10% fat = 176 calories
100g Minced Beef 95% lean meat/5% fat = 136 calories
Low-Calorie Comfort Food: Harvest Festival Minced Beef & Vegetable Casserole (5:2 Diet)
I hope you will enjoy my recipe for Harvest Festival Minced Beef and Vegetable Casserole, if you make it, as much as we did last week, and look out for my faux cauliflower mashed potatoes coming later this week too. That’s all for today, I will be back soon with more new recipes, news and chat – have a great week, and see you soon! Karen
Low-Calorie Comfort Food: Harvest Festival Minced Beef & Vegetable Casserole (5:2 Diet)
Harvest Festival Minced Beef & Vegetable Casserole
Print recipe
| Serves | 2 |
| Prep time | 20 minutes |
| Cook time | 50 minutes |
| Total time | 1 hours, 10 minutes |
| Meal type | Lunch, Main Dish |
| Misc | Child Friendly, Freezable, Serve Hot |
| Occasion | Casual Party |
| Region | British |
| By author | Karen S Burns-Booth |
Ingredients
- 5 or 6 sprays Frylight low-fat spray (= 5 or 6 calories)
- 1 medium onion, peeled and siced (= 44 calories)
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely diced (= 10 calories)
- 200g lean minced beef (95% meat and 5% fat = 270 calories)
- 1 small swede, peeled and diced (= 70 calories)
- 2 carrots, peeled and diced (= 50 calories)
- 1 x 400g tinned tomatoes (= 84 calories)
- 1 x beef stock cube mixed with 300mls water (= 10 calories)
- salt and pepper to taste
Note
A hearty low-calorie recipe that is perfect for the 5:2 diet on fast days,as each portion only has 270 calories a serving. A wonderful harvest dish with root vegetables, tomatoes and lean minced beef.
Directions
| Step 1 | Spray the low-fat spray into a heavy based casserole dish and add the onions and garlic, put the lid on and sauté over a low heat for 3 to 5 minutes. |
| Step 2 | Add the minced beef and fry it with the vegetables for a couple of minutes before adding the chopped swede and carrots. Add the tinned tomatoes and beef stock, replace the lid and simmer over a low heat for 35 to 45 minutes, or until the root vegetables are cooked and soft. |
| Step 3 | Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve with faux cauliflower mashed potato for a low-calorie meal or mashed potatoes for a normal meal. |
| Step 4 | Recipe serves two people and recipe is suitable for freezing. Total calories in recipe = 540 and each portion of minced beef casserole is 270 calories. |
Low-Calorie Comfort Food: Harvest Festival Minced Beef & Vegetable Casserole (5:2 Diet)
Denise says
That looks absolutely delish! Will be making this tomorrow for my next fast day on 5:2 – thanks so much for posting it – and all your other delicious recipes =D
Karen says
Thanks Denise, I think you will find this very comforting and filling! Karen
Sophia says
Yay! How wonderful! You are following 5:2 diet and I love your recipes! Lovely post Karen! Thank you!
Karen says
THANKS so much Sophia, I LOVE your site and was thrilled to see you had visited me! Karen
Sophia says
<3
xoxo
Dominic says
low calorie comfort doesn’t sound like it should be together but clearly it is with this lovely dish… when I was on the atkins diet I used to make a lot of cauliflower mash and I loved it, I must start making it again, thanks for the inspiration!… gorgeous pic of that casserole dish full of stew too, very tempting! xx
Karen says
It is a bit of an odd statement isn’t it Dom? But, it does work and is very comforting too. Karen
SallyBR says
I am looking forward to this type of meal now that summer is over… (sad, but true).
As to mashed cauliflower, it is a favorite of ours, I actually prefer it to mashed potatoes, which I don’t even remember when I had last. Cauliflower is so much lighter, I never feel bloated after enjoying it. I recently made a variation of the mashed cauliflower using almond milk and it is fabulous! If you want the recipe, it’s on my blog a few posts back, maybe last month…
Karen says
Thanks Sally – I will pop over to see your recipe for cauliflower mash – we LOVE it and have it often, for the same reasons as you probably. Karen
Tracy Nixon says
What a wonderful recipe! I will defo give this one a try! Thanks so much for sharing!!!
Caroline says
That cauliflower mash looks interesting – think I’ll give it a try.
Tracy Nixon says
I love your low calorie comfort food recipes!!! I always make far more comforting meals when it is cold so it is nice to see that there are low calorie versions that taske and look just as good! Thanks!
Fresh Foodie says
I love your direction to exchange ingredients prefering high quality foods. Aroud our place I can always ask to get a piece of meat minced to get real tasty burgers and stews.
Secondly I also prefer stews, pots and casseoles at this time of the year especially with all kinds of pumpkins, kale and cabbage. From the traditional origins I developed most recipes to a leaner and healthier stage exchanging fats, sausages and meat qualities and cooking them shorter.
Great blog!
Hannah says
I saw the mashed cauliflower thing on the new Jamie Oliver TV show, such a good idea! I’m veggie but this recipe does look good, I really should try this 5:2 diet xxx
Karen says
You could substitute quorn mince for meat mince and reduce the calories even more Hannah!
Alison O'Connell says
please can you post the cauliflower mash recipe as I’ve just started the every other day diet which is same principle as 5:2. thanks
Karen says
Hi Alison, it is posted already here:
https://www.lavenderandlovage.com/2013/10/cauliflower-the-dieters-friend-faux-mashed-potatoes-cauliflower-mash-recipe.html
Enjoy!
Karen
Alison O'Connell says
thankyou, can’t wait to try it.
Bernadette Finn says
Hi Karen,
I made the Harvest Festival Minced Beef & Veg Casserole last night and it was delicious. We had it with the Cauliflower Mash and it went down a treat. Even my 16 year daughter, whose face drops when I mention we are on a “Fast Day” enjoyed it and didn’t realised it was a fast day meal! Thank you so much for all your wonderful 5:2 recipes. As a result of your wonderful food inspiration my partner and I have lost 27lb and 21lb respectively, over the past 8 months 🙂
Karen says
HI Bernadette,
Firstly, thanks so much for your wonderful comments and I am so pleased that you enjoy my recipes!
Secondly, a BIG well done for all your weight loss, that is such a LOT to have lost! FAB!
I have lost 27lbs too, and my husband has lost a staggering 40 lbs!!
Keep popping back for more new recipes and I have a lovely one today for Garlic, Herb and Parmesan Crusted Chicken Schnitzels which I am sure all of your family will love!
Karen
Lauren says
We aren’t on a diet but just like eating heathy (I’ve thankfully lost the baby weight I put on since being pregnant) so when I stumbled across this recipe I wanted to make it. I just made it for tonight’s dinner for my husband and toddler. It was a huge success and quick and easy! My toddler even ate the pumpkin I threw in- which he normally throws on the floor to our dog… Thank you Karen.
Michael Munro says
Nice recipe! I used QUORN mince substitute (my wife is a vegetarian) and it works very well, also fewer calories too!
Karen Burns-Booth says
Thank you! 🙂
Ida says
Thank you so much for this recipe. It’ became one of my favourite dishes whilst on diet and already made it 3 times 🙂
Goes beautifully with cauliflower mash