Grandma's Goulash

I took our Grandma's recipe for goulash and spruced it up a bit. It turned out fantastic and is fairly simple to make. Unlike traditional Hungarian goulash, this has a tomato base instead of beef stock.

Skill level: Easy

Chance of burning down the house: Low

Stuff you’ll need;

- Ground beef (or ground turkey… pork.. human.. whatever tickles your fancy)

- Sausage… any flavor. again whatever you want. Optional, but it’s awesome.

- 1 box macaroni

- 1-2 yellow or white onions

- 1 red pepper

- 1 green pepper

- Chilis or hot peppers if you want. But not so many you ruin it

- 1 big can of tomatoes… doesn’t matter if they’re chopped, whole.. whatever ya like

- 4 cloves garlic or a couple spoonfuls of minced garlic

- Spices to taste. I use black pepper, paprika (sweet hungarian paprika is the best), red pepper flakes.. that’s about it. Throw in whatever the hell you want.

- One bottle original V8 juice, low sodium. Unless licking salt piles is what you’re into.

Feel free to throw in whatever kind of veggies you want or none at all… the glory of of this, it's hard to screw it up. 

Also if you're a grass grazer and don't like to eat meat (blasphemy to me, but they're out there) you can substitute the meat for some sautéed tofu or just substitute by adding more veggies of whatever variety you like.

Instructions

1. Get out a big pot and brown the meat and start adding some of the garlic and spices. Don’t cook it all the way through, it’ll be in there awhile, it will cook as it’s all goin.

2. Add some water, less than a coffee mug full, here and there when you brown the meat just so it doesn’t stick to the pot and burn… sometimes ya have to tell people this. Assuming you already do, move on to #3. (sidenote - this is a healthier way than adding oil to get the meat going. The meat will produce enough grease on its own as it's cooking)

3. Add in your veggies. If you’re not a total dunce you would have used the time the meat was browning to chop those little buggers up. (Add more water to the meat/veggie mixture. By now whatever you added before has cooked off)

4. Turn the heat down a little and let that mix cook for a bit, stirring it here and there. Add in more spices if it’s not quite up to what you want.. heads up that red pepper flakes get hotter the longer it sits (peaks around a day, which is perfect for left overs), so if you don’t want to burn your face off, don’t add too many.

5. Take a break and drink a beer. Science, bitch.

Just kidding, it’s really not.

6. Add in the V8 juice and tomatoes and juice from the can if it is in a water base, stir it up and dump in the macaroni.

7. Add more water if needed probably 2 cups, I don’t know, I don’t measure the shit. Enough to make it watery so the noodles can cook up. Let it all simmer until the noodles are done. Add more water as needed if it's too thick and keep stirring it now and then.

There ya go. Great warm meal with leftovers that freeze well.

In short, throw the shit in a pot and let it cook.