Vintage Hamburger Goulash
photo by DianaEatingRichly 
- Ready In:
- 30mins
- Ingredients:
- 8
- Serves:
ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef, browned
- 2 onions, large chopped
- 1⁄2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 (16 ounce) bag elbow macaroni
- 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon garlic salt (I use Lawry's)
- 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
directions
- Saute beef, 1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes and 2 onions in large frying pan. Drain excess fat. Lots of onions makes this good.
- Meanwhile, in another pan cook macaroni in boiling, salted water until tender. Set aside until almost ready to serve.
- When beef and onions are finished cooking, add the canned, crushed tomatores and approximately 1/2 cup water; also add garlic salt, pepper, chili powder and mix well.
- Simmer for about 20 minutes; then add cooked macaroni noodles and mix well when ready to serve. If you add the macaroni noodles too soon, they may over cook and get mushy.
Reviews
- I found this in a very old Jewish cookbook and was going to post it. It is a very good, easy, recipe. I left out the chili powder and this one time I left out the onion because I served this with a side of sauteed onions and yellow squash and didn't want to go over the top with the onions...it was very good and my husband said "This is Mary's Special"..."Um, no, it's hamburger goulash."...apparently this was the only thing his grandmother ever made so they called it "Mary's Special." So this is a very vintage recipe as Grandma Mary died in the 70s...I was happy to find a recipe my husband loved and reminded him of his childhood...I'll be making this over and over again...
- I make this a lot but I also add a small can of tomato paste and a dash of sugar. I'm from the south and thats how my grandma showed me how to make.
- Use one can of tomato paste plus water to make it very soupy and add uncooked mac. along with everything else. Baked covered for 20 minutes. Remove lid top with cheese and cook another 15 minutes. No need to precook noodles
- This is exactly the way we have always made our goulash !!YUMMY> Although , when done if you take american cheese slices and lay it on top of noodles ,put a tight fitting lid over. Let sit for few minutes till melted. OUTSTANDING!
- This is called American Chop Suey and every kid I know in New England ate some variant of this growing up.
Tweaks
- I add a dollop of honey to mine - spruces it up nicely.
- I add some sliced carrots, since my mother always made goulash this way.
- This recipe was just ok. I added some cheddar cheese and used garlic powder instead of garlic salt to reduce the sodium. Still seemed to lack flavour!
- My hubby is a big goulash-lover, and this is another good example. I probably used about 12 ounces of pasta instead of the full 16 ounces; we like a higher ratio of meat to pasta.
