10 Great Ways to Cook Our Ontario Grass-fed Ground Beef

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November 4, 2022

Our Ontario grass-fed ground beef is one of the most versatile meats we produce and sell here at Meeting Place Organic Farm. It’s a good thing too because you get a lot of it when you buy bulk beef from us as a ¼, ½ or whole. We dry age our beef at least 14 days and grind our ground beef twice resulting in a finer texture, more consistent cooking, and a delicious product.

We often tell new customers that there is a learning curve when it comes to cooking grass fed beef versus conventional beef. Ground beef though is more forgiving than the other cuts of the animal. It can be used in all your favourite ground beef recipes without adjusting the recipes. Two small tips are that grass-fed ground beef is leaner so it won’t have to be drained nearly as often and in recipes where fat binds ingredients together (like burgers) if can actually help to add back a bit of healthy fat like butter, olive oil or avocado oil.

Here are 10 great ground beef recipes to add to your dinner rotation:

Stuffed Peppers - Delish.com Classic Stuffed Peppers Recipe

This is amazing recipe for when the garden is overflowing with peppers and tomatoes. The filling alone with our grass-fed ground beef, lots of veggies and spice, makes a hearty fast dinner. It great for weekly dinners but is also a show stopper at bigger occasions.

Five Marys Farms Grass Fed Beef and Pastured Pork Ricotta Meatballs

Five Marys Farms is a great resource for cooking all kinds of grass fed pastured meat. They raise cattle, sheep, and Berkshire pork in a similar way to our farm but they also have their own abbatoir on site and own a few restaurants so are fully invested in creating recipes that showcase the amazing taste of grass-fed and pastured meat. This is one of those recipes that combines grass-fed ground beef with pastured pork in an exceptionally delicious way. Check out their other recipes as well.

Pasta with Simple Meat Sauce

This can be as simple or complicated about as you want to make it. Start by cooking some diced onions in a large frying pan, then add and brown a pound of our organic grass fed ground beef (there shouldn’t be much extra fat to drain because grass fed beef is naturally leaner), add homemade marinara or jarred sauce next, garlic, spices. Cook your favourite type of pasta and combine everything. You could add diced peppers or mushrooms to help veggie load it. This is a great everyday meal to tailor to your specific household.

Beef Ramen Stir Fry - Chelsea's Messy Apron

You don’t often think of ground beef and ramen going together but they do and it tastes so good.

Sweet Potato Shepherd’s Pie - EatingWell.com

Another hearty, soul-warming classic. This recipe uses sweet potatoes as a topping to give some added health benefits and sweetness to the traditional recipe.

Ukrainian Inspired Cabbage Rolls - Your Best Life with Lisa

Health coach, Lisa, made this recipe specifically with grass-fed ground beef but it is the combination of beef, fresh dill and sauciness that make it so good. The more sauce the better.

Deconstructed Cabbage Roll Casserole - Small Town Woman

Yes, a second cabbage roll recipe but this one is more go-with-the-flow and I often add in some of our pasture raised ground pork. I am not much of a recipe follower I must confess so recipes like this hit the spot.

Ground Beef Bulgogi Bowls - SlenderKitchen.com

This is a take on traditional Korean Bulgogi using ground beef instead of thinly sliced steak. If you haven’t tried it before put this on your dinner menu sometime soon.

Walking Tacos - Neighbourhood Food Blog

If would have been easy to include a regular taco or nacho recipe on this list but these walking tacos are much more fun. Not for every week certainly but definitely a fun, kid-friendly, novelty recipe that is perfect for a busy summer afternoon or evening and should be eaten outside.

Chili - The Best Classic Chili - The Wholesome Dish

This is the base recipe I start with and then modify it in the following ways. I use soaked from dry kidney beans, add in an extra 1 pound of our pastured ground pork and 1 pound of our pastured sausage. I also add a cup or two of sweet peppers – a great way to save your peppers when you know they are about to go bad is to dice them and freeze them for this exact purpose. We preserve our own tomatoes in various ways and use them instead of the canned chunk in this recipe.

Chili is such a fantastic and versatile recipe that can be made in bulk in the fall so you can have frozen, easy, heart-warming meals throughout the winter. You should always change it to suit your family’s tastes whether that means adding more veggies, removing some of the beans, or spicing it up.

When you are in a rush and you just don’t know what to have for dinner, take a pound or two of ground beef out of the freezer in the morning before you head out the door. It is so versatile that when you get home you will thank yourself for your forethought and enjoy a simple dinner.

The reason so many family’s comfort food recipes contain ground beef is because it has always been a versatile and relatively cheap cut of meat. Check out our store where you can buy our Ontario grass-fed ground beef by the pound or get a bulk discount when you stock up your freezer with 10 pounds of our delicious ground beef.

If you are interested in buying a ¼, ½, or whole beef you can pre-order for our May, September, and November bulk meat dates in our store. We deliver throughout Central and Southern Ontario weekly.

Nose-to-Tail Eating: Buying Organic Offal and Traditional Cuts in Ontario

Nose-to-Tail Eating: Buying Organic Offal and Traditional Cuts in Ontario If you are searching for organic offal, traditional meat cuts, or pasture-raised nose-to-tail meat in Ontario, you are not alone. More people across the province are looking beyond steaks and chicken breasts and rediscovering how previous generations cooked by using the whole animal with intention and respect. At Meeting Place Organic Farm, nose-to-tail eating isn’t a trend. It’s how we’ve always approached farming and food. If you know Tony McQuail, you know how much he loves to cook beef tongue. We raise certified organic, 100% grass fed beef, pork, and chicken, and make a wide range of traditional cuts and offal available to customers across Ontario through our online farm store and delivery routes. What Does Nose-to-Tail Eating Mean? Nose-to-tail eating means using as much of the animal as possible including organs, bones, and traditional cuts rather than relying only on a small selection of popular muscle meats. This approach: Reduces food waste Respects the life of the animal Provides nutrient-dense foods often missing from modern diets When animals are raised on pasture, fed a natural diet, and processed carefully, these cuts are not only usable — they are deeply nourishing and flavourful. Organic Beef Offal and Traditional Cuts Available in Ontario Our grass-fed, grass-finished beef is certified organic and raised entirely on pasture. Alongside familiar cuts, we offer a range of traditional beef options that support nose-to-tail eating: Beef liver Beef kidney Beef tongue Beef cheeks Oxtail Beef bones and knuckle bones (with and without marrow) Nose-to-tail ground beef These cuts are ideal for bone broth, slow braises, stews, and traditional recipes from many cultures. Beef liver, for example, is one of the most nutrient-dense foods available, while oxtail and cheeks create rich, collagen-filled meals when cooked low and slow.Here's a recipe to try for Jamaican Oxtail Stew. Pasture-Raised Pork Offal and Heritage Cuts Our pork is pasture-raised and certified organic, living outdoors where they are able to root and wallow. Pork is particularly well suited to nose-to-tail eating, and many traditional cuisines rely on these cuts. Available pork offal and traditional cuts include: Pork heart Pork kidney Pork tongue Pork trotters (feet) Pork tail Pork jowl and pork jowl bacon These cuts are prized for their flavour, fat content, and ability to enrich soups, stocks, and slow-cooked dishes. Pork jowl, has long been used as a flavour base in traditional cooking, while trotters are naturally rich in gelatin for broths. Organic Chicken: Using the Whole Bird Whole-animal eating is especially important with poultry. Our organic, pasture-raised chickens and only raised between April and September because our midwestern Ontario weather is too cold for them to pasture outside beyond that. They are processed with care, and we make a full range of nose-to-tail chicken cuts available: Chicken livers Chicken hearts Chicken gizzards Chicken feet Chicken backs and necks Chicken feet, backs, and necks are excellent for deeply nourishing broth, while hearts and gizzards are traditional staples fried, stewed or sauteed. These cuts are often overlooked, yet they are some of the most affordable and useful items in the freezer. Why Ontario Customers Are Choosing Nose-to-Tail Meat Across Ontario, customers are rethinking where their meat comes from and how much of the animal they’re actually using. Nose-to-tail eating appeals to people who want: Less waste and more sustainability Better value from high-quality meat A stronger connection to their food traditions Buying offal and traditional cuts also supports smaller organic farms by allowing the entire animal to be used, rather than only a small percentage of popular cuts. How to Buy Organic Offal and Traditional Cuts in Ontario Meeting Place Organic Farm offers online ordering and scheduled delivery routes across Ontario. Availability varies seasonally, as we raise and process animals on a small scale, in alignment with organic standards and animal welfare. The best way to stay informed is to join our email list, where we announce restocks, bulk beef, pork, and chicken availability, and delivery dates. If you’re new to nose-to-tail cooking, start small: Add bones or chicken feet to your freezer for bone broths Try ground meat blended with organ cuts, what we call our Nose to Tail ground beef Slow-cook tougher cuts like cheeks or tongue These foods don’t require complicated recipes just time, care, and good ingredients. Eating with Intention Nose-to-tail eating isn’t about perfection. It’s about choosing food that aligns with your values, respecting animals, supporting organic farming, and reconnecting with how food has been prepared for generations. For customers across Ontario, we’re proud to offer certified organic, pasture-raised beef, pork, and chicken including the offal and traditional cuts that make whole-animal eating possible. To see what’s currently available, visit the farm store and join the email list at the bottom of our homepage for updates on upcoming deliveries.