Giniling (Filipino-style Picadillo) Kasha Bowl

Giniling! Kind of fun to say out loud! It’s a family favorite that I grew up with and it’s become one of my go-to weeknight recipes as it is so easy and pretty quick to make. Maybe takes 30 minutes, tops.  It’s the Filipino version of picadillo, a  ground beef dish with veggies, though other types of chopped up meat is also popular. Usually it is served with rice or as a filling of some sort, commonly in empanadas or other fill-able fare. As usual, I like to veer a bit from the traditional recipe that I grew up with and use a different mix of veggies and serve it with something other than white rice. Kasha?  It’s a grain, more specifically lightly toasted buckwheat groats that can be fluffy like rice, has a nice slightly nutty flavor, some good nutrients, but less intense in taste than the uber-popular quinoa. I was craving for something like a rice bowl, but we are not eating much white rice nowadays so I got the idea for this Giniling Kasha Bowl, a delectable and easy 30-minute meal.

Here’s how kasha looks like cooked. You can get them whole, medium, or fine granulations. Here I have the fine grains. Like rice, you can cook kasha in a rice cooker too! Just cook it the same way as you would rice in those handy dandy cookers.  I had it cooking while preparing the giniling. Dr. Weil has some nice info on kasha, so click over to his site to learn more.

I think that what usually separates a good meat dish from just an okay tasting one is the quality of the meat. Somehow, grass fed organic beef tastes better, in my opinion. So be sure to not to skimp on the quality. Use meat from your favorite source. Even Trader Joe’s sells a pretty good tasting grass-fed ground beef in the frozen section. As for the veggies, just some organic carrots (which you don’t need to peel!) and some shredded collards. Also, there’s some chopped shiitake mushrooms in the mix, though they are harder to see in the pictures because they look like the meat, hehe. In fact, you can make a killer vegetarian giniling with chopped mushrooms instead of the meat!

Giniling Kasha Bowl

Serves ~4

Ingredients

• 1 cup Kasha (toasted buckwheat groats)
• 2 cups water
• Dash cooking oil
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 large shallot (or a small onion), diced
• 1 pound grass-fed ground beef
• 2 tablespoons tamari or soy sauce
• 2-4 tablespoons tomato puree (optional)
• 2 teaspoons fish sauce/patis (optional)
• 3 carrots, roughly chopped
• 1 cup shiitake mushrooms
• 1-2 cups shredded collard greens
• salt & pepper, to taste

1. Prepare kasha:  Place kasha and the water in a pot and bring to a boil. Cover the pot and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 15-20 minutes or until tender. Fluff with a fork.
2. Heat a skillet on medium and add a dash of oil. Add the garlic and saute until lightly brown. Mix in the shallot (or onion) and saute until softened.
3. Add the ground beef and cook for about 5 minutes, until browned. You can drain off some of the fat, if  needed. To the ground beef mixture, mix in the tamari, tomato puree, and fish sauce.
4. Add the carrots and mushrooms. Saute for about 4 minutes until carrots have softened, but still have some bite. Season with salt & pepper, to taste.
5. Turn off the heat and mix in the shredded collard greens. The residual heat will soften the greens.
6. To serve, place cooked kasha in a bowl and top with the giniling.

Tastes really good with some hot sauce too!

Leftovers tastes even better, but maybe you want to eat something different? What to do with any leftover giniling or some ground meat? I’ll answer this question in an upcoming post. 😀

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