This budget-friendly, easy Beef and Tomato Rice Bowl is lip-smackingly good, endlessly adaptable, and perfect for a quick weeknight dinner! What’s not to love about buttery rice, unctuous ground beef, tangy tomatoes, and earthy garbanzo beans? Ready in thirty, I bet you have everything you need to make this incredibly tasty and super-filling meal in your pantry right now!
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Ingredients For Beef And Tomato Rice Bowl
What I love the most about this Beef and Tomato Rice Bowl recipe is how ridiculously versatile it is. But before we get into variations, let’s go over the ingredients you’re going to need:
- Ground Beef – adds flavor and bulk to the mixture. You can substitute ground beef with plant-based ground beef or minced mushrooms.
- Onion and Garlic – these aromatics help build depth and add flavor. Use 1 tablespoon of onion powder or 3 tablespoons of dried onion flakes as a substitute for the fresh onion. To substitute the fresh garlic, use a 1/2 teaspoon of granulated garlic.
- Diced Tomatoes – add acidity that helps cut through the fattiness of the beef and increases the bulk. You can substitute the diced tomatoes with equal parts fresh tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, or tomato sauce. However, depending on your substitution, the texture of the beef mixture will change.
- Chickpeas – add earthiness and increase bulk. Substitute with your favorite canned bean, just make sure they are drained. If you want to use dry beans, you will need to rehydrate them first and cook through.
- Oregano, Cumin, and Red Pepper Flakes – all add flavor. Substitute with 3/4 teaspoon of your favorite spice blend.
- Rice – We used Jasmine rice, but feel free to use whatever rice you have on hand. You can also serve the beef mixture over cauliflower rice, mashed potatoes, or over a bed of wilted greens.
Variations
- For a vegan version of this dish, use your favorite plant-based ground beef alternative and substitute the chicken broth with veggie broth. Use soy sauce instead of Worcestershire sauce.
- To add bulk and increase servings, consider adding diced carrots or potatoes, chopped spinach or kale, or sliced mushrooms or zucchini to the beef mixture.
- Skip the rice and serve the beef mixture over Riced Cauliflower, Mashed Potatoes, or Roasted Vegetables.
- Serve the dish with some of your favorite toppings like shredded cheddar cheese, a dollop of sour cream, or a side of sliced avocado.
How To Store Leftovers
You can store Beef and Tomato Rice Bowl leftovers in an air-tight container for up to four days in the fridge. They will keep up to four months in the freezer. If freezing, cover the surface with plastic wrap or parchment before sealing the container, which prevents freezer burn. If meal prepping, refrigerating, or freezing, add the beef mixture to the container first and then top it with the rice. This will prevent the rice from absorbing all of the sauce. You can reheat leftovers in a microwave. Cook in 30-second increments until the beef mixture is steaming.
Beef and Tomato Rice Bowl
Servings 4 bowlsIngredients
- 2 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.08)
- 1/2 lb ground beef ($4.00)
- 1 3/4 tsp salt, divided ($0.05)
- 1 yellow onion, diced ($0.42)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced ( $0.10)
- 1/2 tsp oregano ($0.05)
- 1/4 tsp ground cumin ($0.03)
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce ($0.03)
- 1 15 oz. can diced tomatoes ($1.00)
- 1/2 cup chicken broth ($0.08)
- 1 15 oz. can chickpeas, drained ($0.79)
- 2 cups rice ($0.85)
- 3 cups water ($0.00)
- 2 Tbsp salted butter ($0.28)
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes ($0.02)
Instructions
- Set a deep stainless steel skillet over medium-high heat and add the cooking oil. Once the oil has warmed, add the ground beef and sprinkle it with a 1/2 teaspoon salt. Once the beef has browned, remove it from the pan and set aside. Keep about 2 tablespoons of rendered fat in the pan.
- Add the diced onion to the pan and cook until translucent, about 2 minutes. Add the minced garlic to the pan and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Add the beef back to the pan with oregano, ground cumin, and Worcestershire sauce. Top the meat with the diced tomatoes and their juices. Stir to combine.
- Add the chicken broth and drained chickpeas to the beef mixture. Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and stir to combine. Cover the pan and cook until the chickpeas soften, about 15 to 20 minutes.
- While the beef mixture cooks, add the rice to a rice cooker, along with the water, salted butter, and remaining 1 teaspoon of salt.
- When the beef and tomato mixture finishes cooking, sprinkle with red pepper flakes. Divide the rice into four bowls and top with the beef mixture. Enjoy!
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Equipment
- Rice Cooker
- Deep Stainless Steel Skillet
Nutrition
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How to Make Beef and Tomato Rice Bowl – Step by Step Photos
Add the diced onion to the pan and cook until translucent, about 2 minutes. Next, add the 2 minced cloves of garlic to the pan and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Add the beef back to the pan along with 1/2 teaspoon of oregano, 1/4 teaspoon of ground cumin, and 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce. Then top the meat with one 15-ounce can of diced tomatoes and their juices. Stir to combine.
Add 1/2 cup of chicken broth and one 15-ounce can of drained chickpeas to the beef mixture. Then sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and stir to combine. Cover the pan and cook until the chickpeas soften, about 15 to 20 minutes.
While the beef mixture cooks, add 2 cups of rice to a rice cooker, along with 3 cups of water, 2 tablespoons of salted butter, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Cover and cook. If you don’t own a rice cooker, check out our blog post on How To Cook Rice.
When the beef and tomato mixture is finished cooking, sprinkle with a pinch of red pepper flakes, or more to taste. Then, divide the rice into four bowls and top with the beef mixture. Finally, sit back and enjoy this hearty meal you’ve made with very minimal effort!
Me and my partner added some shredded cheese to this, and it was delightful! Highly recommend.
This recipe is so easy and I ended up adding some peas and a bell pepper I had left in the fridge. It is a great recipe, I just found the flavor to be lacking a little with the given spices. I added more of the recommended and then some additional different spices and it was great.
This is DELICIOUS and so easy to make! Definitely adding to my rotation. THANK YOU!!
This dish is a regular at our house. Love meals that everyone including my toddler can enjoy and customize a bit. He tops his with cheese. Tonight I tossed in a handful of chopped kale and some eggplant.
This was quick and easy, but I started with the oil onion and garlic before adding/cooking the ground beef. I was also wary of the cumin for this… so in addition to salt/red pepper flakes, I sustituted the cumin with parsley, sage, thyme, Italian seasoning and pepper. Also I had two cups of rice already made so I added it to the meal rather than chickpeas and served it with broccoli. It was liked by all.
At first I was a little weirded out by the idea of adding ground beef, tomatoes and chickpeas together, but as I happened to have these ingredients on hand, I thought; why not. And soon I was eating my thoughts! It was really delicious! I added a little bit of nutrional yeast to boost the umami flavour, and it really hit the spot in a week where my budget was pretty tight.
I usually love everything from budget bytes. This was just ok. We couldn’t figure out what the flavor was supposed to be. And two cups of rice made way too much. Plus the beef stuff needed a sauce or something to go with the rice. If I made it again, I will need to alter it in some way.
So delicious and simple! I already had a leftover 1/2 lb of ground Italian sausage, so I used that (and skipped the first salting) and it turned out fantastic. It’s actually 5 servings for me This dish crushed it for dinner tonight and I will definitely make again!
I wasn’t sure about this but I had all the ingredients and needed a quick meal.. turns out, it’s pretty darn tasty!! Followed the recipe except I had a lb of hamburger to use that was frozen, I rinsed off the meat after it was done cooking so it’s be less greasy, added back a lil extra salt and a lil extra of the spices and for the final simmer, I added about half a bag of frozen corn/carrots/green beans mix. Kiddo and I both thought it reminded us of a rice slightly spicy version of shepherds pie (minus the cheese lol). Overall turned out really good and definitely saving this recipe for later.thanks so much!
This is such an easy and filling meal! I’ve made it with ground turkey once and ground beef once, they’re both good. The best thing about this recipe is I usually have all the ingredients on hand!
I have some extra bell peppers in the fridge and I think this would be a great filling for them, maybe with a little extra tomato sauce.
I threw in frozen peas and peppers! Definitely the kind of fridge cleaning recipe that encourages throwing in whatever veggies you need to get rid of. Very filling with lots of leftovers.
In the future I might try throwing in garam masala or something for an alternate flavor direction.
This was so delicious. I always follow the basic recipe, but end up improvising based on what’s in the fridge. Used 6oz ground turkey & one sweet Italian sausage. Added half a green pepper (to compensate for not having a whole onion) & one chopped zucchini. Used brown rice. Such a refeshingly different & satsfying dish. Thank you for such a lovely recipe!
Super simple and quick! I did 1 lb of ground beef instead of half to up the protein. Will be making again.
Easy and delicious. I used 1.5 cups dry rice and ended up with 5 servings. I probably could have just done 1 cup too— so use your best judgement there.
I didn’t bother taking the beef out of the pan in between adding the onions, and it turned out fine. I use 80/20 beef though so it doesn’t dry out as easily. Will make again for sure.
I was looking for something quick but I didn’t expect it to be as delicious as it is! Thank you, Monti! I love your contributions to BB.
I love I had everything on hand, came together in little time and was delicious – perfect Manic Monday recipe
Wow! So yummy for such a simple, easy recipe and the butter rice was so delicious!
Thanks so much, homie! xoxo. -Monti