“Sometimes you make a recipe a certain way because that’s the way your family has eaten it for generations.” This was where my mom and I landed in a recent conversation about GOULASH. Now, goulash is one of those perfect family weeknight dinners that you know your family is always going to love. Mom had it on her favorites list and we would gobble it up the first time and as leftover. It was a family staple at my house growing up.
As you look for back-to-school meal ideas or easy meals that your family will always love, let me challenge you to put goulash in your mix!
Alexa would tell you Goulash is a dish of stewed meat and spices. Google would give you a lengthy list of all kinds of international recipe variations from far and wide. Pinterest, the new Google, will show you people like me who share all they’ve ever known to call a family staple, a family favorite if you will.
Goulash, at least our variation of it, is something I’ve had all my life. My mom tells me it’s just something that my grandmother made and frankly whether it was coming home from college or the week I had my baby it’s a meal always on my request list to my mama. This week she has been here for her Spring Break and when we did a little meal planning last Friday, it was added to the list. My grandmother would tell you that she used tomato paste and water, but I’ve never seen this made with anything but ketchup. Since my grandparents lived out of town, it was easier to make it with what she always had on hand, which was a bottle of ketchup. Growing up, I always had this served with peas (purple hull or black-eyed) and cornbread.
One of my favorite things about visiting my grandparents in the summer was sitting on the park bench behind their house and shelling peas. Sometimes a set of friends from church or other family members would come over and the adults would sit out back and shell peas in the evening after dinner. I always loved hearing grown-up conversations and would never complain when I was handed a bowl to do some shelling myself. I think that’s what made this meal more special. I secretly wondered if one of the few peas I shelled actually made it into the batch we were eating that night.
Grandmother’s Goulash
Ingredients
- 2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni
- 1 lb ground chuck
- 1 green bell pepper diced
- 1 small white or yellow onion diced
- 1 can whole kernel corn drained
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 14 oz. bottle ketchup
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Boil water and cook elbow macaroni for 8 minutes (just under al dente).
- Drain and rinse at the end of 8 minutes.
- Brown hamburger meat with bell pepper and onion.
- Drain on plate with paper towel.
- Wipe out skillet and returned browned meat mixture to skillet.
- Add drained corn, spices and cooked pasta to meat mixture.
- Gently stir together.
- Add ketchup.
- Put 1/2 cup water in ketchup bottle and shake around to get all the sauce off the sides.
- Pour over meat mixture.
- Cook on medium heat until thickened, usually 2-3 minutes.
I originally shared this post as part of an Arkansas Women Bloggers Foodie Friday series focusing on Family Favorites. What’s on your list of favorite family recipes?
In case you need more ideas for great family meal ideas, here’s a list I’ve been working on across my blog.
- Crocktober Roundup
- Tried and True Family Meals
- Slow Cooker Freezer Meal Ideas
- 2020 Monthly Meal Plans – more coming soon!
- 2019 Monthly Meal Plans – Sept – Dec
- Family Beach Meal Plan
- Road Trip Family Menu
- Easy Meals to take and serve to another family – new baby, grief, hard week
- Table Food Hacks for Toddlers
- Easy Meals for a Social Distancing Family
Here are some other easy weeknight meals you can pin and save for later.
- Cheesy Chicken Rigatoni
- Slow Cooker Hawaiian Chicken
- Shortcut Lasagna
- Sausage, Peppers, and Veggies Sheet Pan
- Easy Salmon Sheet pan
- Chicken Spaghetti
- Red and Green Enchilada Stack
- Summer Vegetable Orzo Bake
- Crockpot Turkey Tacos
- Slow Cooker Gumbo
- Turkey Meatloaf Scoops Sheet pan
- Slow Cooker Sausage Tortellini Soup
- Orange Dijon Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner
- Naked Chicken Pot Pie
- Stockpile Stew
- Slow Cooker Stroganoff
- Slow Cooker Swiss Steak
- Stacked Enchiladas/Mexican Casserole
- Shepherd’s Pie
Hi Keisha,
Thanks for sharing your goulash recipe. Will give it a try. Love learning the history accompanying family favorites. Adds a bit of warmth.
You are especially right when it involves a mom and a grandmother. It’s gottabe good then!