Ground Beef Taco Bowl with Black Beans & Avocado

Haven't you heard? It's Fiber February, which means I'll be sharing a new fiber-based series for the next five days for you to enjoy. As your favorite gut health dietitian, I wanted to brainstorm a series that not only provides you with fiber-based recipes, but recipes that are approachable and easy to make.

Quick educational recap: Fiber comes our plant-based sources of foods, our fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and nuts/seeds. Our bodies do not digest fiber, so when fiber reaches the colon undigested, the trillions of bacteria that live in our gut microbiome will ferment the fiber and produce compounds called short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). These play a key part in our gut health, but also our overall health and well being. SCFAs have a role in our immunity, inflammatory responses, and digestive health. Beyond our gut health, fiber helps support regularity (aka making sure you're going) and promotes satiety, ensuring you stay fuller for longer.

So, for this Fiber February, I created my new series called, "Five Fibers, One Dinner". Since there are five different categories of fiber --

1. Fruits

2. Vegetables

3. Legumes

4. Whole grains

5. Nuts/seeds

I wanted to create five dinners that each contain all five fiber groups. For the next five days, you'll be provided a new dinner recipe that contains a fruit source, a vegetable source, a grain source, a legume source, and either a nut or seed. Of course I'm also focusing on other macronutrients, such as healthy fats and protein, to ensure you have a fully balanced meal. Oh, and let me not forget to mention that each day will be completely different sources of fiber, there will be no repeats! By Friday, you will have obtained 5 new dinner recipes and almost 32 different sources of fiber.

This is my way of teaching you that incorporating a diverse range of fiber within your day to day is possible. I want to teach you how to be more intentional about building balanced meals and being aware of the fact that all of these plant sources provide your body with more health benefits than you realize. Let's get more creative in the kitchen, shall we?

Our 1st recipe of this five-day series: Ground Beef Taco Bowl with Black Beans, Corn & Avocado

---

My Ground Beef Taco Bowl with Black Beans, Corn & Avocado is a simple, yet mighty recipe. As I mention down below, this point of this series is to teach you how to incorporate different fiber sources into one recipe. So, please make sure to make it your own when it comes to the garnishes and sauce. This recipe is going to make for the perfect dinner for when you come back home from school or work and have no clue what to make! Baking the tortilla elevates your typical taco bowl with little to no effort. Here are the details:

1. Fruit source: Mango

2. Vegetable source(s): Lettuce, bell pepper, avocado

3. Legume source: Black beans

4. Whole grain source: Brown rice

5. Nuts/seeds source: Pepitas

You may be confused right now asking yourself, "Isn't this supposed to be a plant-based meal? Why is there ground beef?" I intentionally used a source of red meat in this recipe because I know that many of us (especially in the USA), believe that plant-based eating is made solely for vegetarians and vegans -- when that's not remotely true. No matter what type of lifestyle you follow, plant-based eating and fiber-based eating, is for everyone. You can be a beef/chicken/fish-lover, but still make sure your plate is filled with color and fiber. Eating animal-based foods and plant-based foods are not mutually exclusive.

If you are a vegetarian or vegan, please ensure to opt for a plant-based source of protein here such as tofu, tempeh, seitan, or add more black beans. Let's get to it.

Yields: 3

Portion: 1 bowl

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 15 minutes

Total time: 40 minutes

This recipe can be vegetarian or vegan if you opt out of the ground beef.

---

Ingredients:

Filling:

1 lb lean ground beef

Salt, black pepper, cumin, paprika, garlic powder, optional chili powder

1 large flour tortilla

½ head of lettuce, finely chopped

1/4 cup finely diced red bell pepper

¼ cup finely diced ripe mango

¼ - ½ cup cooked brown rice

1 15oz canned black beans, drained and rinsed (you will use ¼-½ cup)

1 tbsp pepitas

Garnish:

Cotija cheese

Lime

Fresh cilantro, finely diced

Please feel free to use a sauce of choice. The premise of this series is to teach you how to build balanced meals and to add more fiber. You can opt for sauces like hot sauce, buffalo, srircha, chipotle crema, avocado crema, etc.

---

Instructions:

1. Prep the ground beef:  in a frying pan, add in olive oil and ground beef. Season with salt, black pepper, garlic powder, cumin, and paprika to your liking. Add a dash of chili powder if you enjoy some spice. Cook until there is no remaining pink, the texture of the beef is firm and crumbly, and the rendered fat has cooked off.

   
   

2. Prep tortilla: preheat oven to 375°F. Lightly brush or spray both sides of the tortillas with oil. Press the tortilla inside an oven-safe bowl. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the bowls are golden brown and crisp. Allow bowl to cool for 5-10 minutes before removing them from the molds.

   
   

3. Prepare the black beans: saute the black beans in a frying pan on medium high heat.  Stir and saute for 5-8 minutes or until black beans crisp up. Set aside.

   
   

4. Prep produce: have lettuce, bell pepper, mango, brown rice, and avocado prepped.

   
   

5. Assemble & serve: once the tortilla bowl has cooled down, build the taco salad. Add in lettuce, ground beef, black beans, brown rice, bell pepper, mango, and pepitas. Garnish with avocado, cilantro, cotija cheese, and lime juice. Feel free to use a sauce of choice -- I used hot sauce. Enjoy!

Recipe Notes:

• Switch up the toppings: Please opt for garnishes that you prefer. You can use Mexican cheese instead of cotija, you can use fresh mint instead of fresh cilantro. Again, the premise of this series is to teach you the foundations.

• Try a different protein base: Not a ground beef fan? Please opt for another source of animal protein, such as seitan, tofu, tempeh, even ground chicken or ground turkey if you don't enjoy ground beef.

• Dairy free or gluten free: Please make sure to opt out of the cotija cheese if you're dairy free and switch to a gluten free tortilla if you're following a gluten free lifestyle.

I hope you love this recipe as much as I did, so if you do, please leave me a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! I always read through my suggestions and comments, so please let me know your thoughts. If you have any questions you can feel free to DM me here or through Instagram. Speaking of Instagram - please tag me in all of your creations! I love seeing how the recipes come out and seeing how talented you all are. Sending my love.

xoxo,

Jasmin D the RD