This creamy hummus with spiced ground beef, feta cheese, and fresh mint is absolutely delicious! It’s the perfect appetizer or turn it into a light, high-protein meal.
Our long-time readers know how much we love our recipe for homemade hummus (shared many years ago). We’re always on the lookout for new ways to enjoy it, which is where this hummus with ground beef recipe came from.
We take hummus and pile on lots of spiced ground beef, crumbled feta cheese, and fresh mint. It’s extra tasty, easy to do, and works really well with homemade pita bread, this quicker flatbread, or served on top of salad for a light protein-forward meal.
Key Ingredients
- Hummus: I highly recommend our simple hummus recipe, but feel free to use your favorite store-bought brand.
- Ground Beef: Look for ground beef with some fat (85/15 or close to it is perfect). Ground lamb is also excellent.
- Spices: We’re going for a Middle-Eastern vibe with the spice mixture, so you’ll combine cumin, cinnamon, cayenne, coriander, and allspice. These make the beef really delicious with an almost intoxicating warm spice.
- Broth: Use beef stock, chicken stock, veggie stock, or, if you are in a pinch, water. We just need a little liquid to make our beef juicier.
- Feta and Mint: I love the salty pop of feta cheese and the fresh flavor of mint. That said, you could skip this altogether and add a spoonful of homemade tzatziki sauce on top, instead.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
My Tips for Making Hummus with Spiced Beef
Tip 1: Don’t miss the opportunity to brown your beef. When cooking ground beef, I like to press it down into my skillet and resist the urge to stir it until the bottom is nicely browned. When it is, I stir and add my spice mixture.
Tip 2: Season the beef really well. Think of the ground beef as a topper to the hummus, so it’s okay if it’s very well seasoned. That’s a good thing. You’ll likely be enjoying this with flatbread and scooping up some of the hummus with the beef for each bite, so while the meat on its own may seem too seasoned, once it’s all put together, it works.
And there you go! If you want more ways to spice up hummus, see our roasted red pepper hummus (a reader favorite!).
Hummus with Spiced Ground Beef
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
This hummus with spiced beef is seriously delicious. You can buy your hummus or make our simple hummus recipe. It only takes about 10 minutes and tastes better than store-bought. Feel free to substitute the ground beef in our recipe below for ground lamb. I especially love this with our soft and fluffy pita bread!
You Will Need
1 batch homemade hummus or 2 cups store-bought hummus
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound ground beef, we prefer 85/15 (450g)
1/4 cup beef stock, chicken stock, or water (60ml)
2 tablespoons chopped mint leaves
1 ounce crumbled feta cheese (28g)
Directions
1Make the spice mixture: In a small bowl, whisk the cumin, coriander, cinnamon, allspice, cayenne, and salt together.
2Brown the beef: Preheat a large skillet over medium heat. When it is hot, add the olive oil, and then press the beef down into the pan. Cook, without disturbing it, until browned on one side, about 8 minutes. Break the beef up, then stir in the spice mixture and continue for 2 minutes. Pour in the stock and cook until reduced and the beef is cooked, about 5 minutes more.
3To serve: Spoon the hummus into a serving bowl, top with the spiced ground beef, and finish by sprinkling over the mint and feta cheese.
Wow – So very good! This recipe made it into my personal top tier: crave-worthy. I can’t wait to try it with fresh mint from my garden this summer. I love the combination of beef and mint and the rest of the warm spices go so well with the lemony hummus. Thank you once again! This is a definite go-to, “repeat” dish for me. I also appreciate that much of it can be made in advance for company or if you want to take pita sandwiches for a “gourmet” picnic with friends.
You are going to love this recipe with fresh mint. We are so happy that you love the recipe! 🙂
I made this for a pot luck. It was a huge hit. Made the hummus as well. Didn’t change a thing. Highly recommend this recipe. Thanks so much. Happy New Years
Happy New Years and thank you for coming back to leave a review! 🙂
This is one of my favorites when ordering middle eastern. Who would have thought I could make it at home? I only had 80/20 beef so I drained some of the fat. I thought it was an interesting method of cooking the beef. I’m curious as to the benefits vs just breaking it up and seasoning as it starts to brown? It tasted great! I also added the pine nuts becuase I had them. Really good!
SO happy you enjoyed it Carrie!
This sounds lovely. Going to give this a go. thanks for sharing this recipe.
Simon
really great and easy… thanx
That’s our dinner tonight, thank you! 🙂 My mother-in-law makes a similar dish — hummus, spiced lamb or beef, and toasted almonds or pine nuts for the topping. I think feta cheese will add an interesting flavor.
I never would have thought of this recipe but I am glad someone did. How simple and not terribly unhealthy.
Erin