If you’ve been following me on social media, I started a Carnivore diet back in October 2023 as an experiment to see how it would affect my health and overall sense of wellbeing. It’s been a positive experience. My digestion is much better, I no longer experience bloating and my energy is even throughout the day. I lost a few pounds but that was not my main goal. While many people around me came down with colds and flus, those cooties passed by and kept going, so this way of eating has had another plus; a positive impact on my immune system.
I’ve since then, migrated towards a Ketovore way of eating which is adding a small amount of veggies and some winter squash like acorn and occasionally some dairy (I always look for raw cheese where I can, which is better for you and not inflammatory like pasteurized that takes out all the beneficial bacteria and enzymes).
When it comes to most chronic health conditions, I recommend using nutrition as a first line of defense, instead of popping a pill. Look first to your lifestyle and see what you can adjust and give it time. At least 8 to 12 weeks. With any dietary change, your microbiome is resetting itself and that sends chemical messengers to other parts of the body that you are in the process of healing. When eating a low carb diet/keto based diet, your body does go through an adjustment period. Some people experience temporary loose stools or constipation as your body adapts to eating differently. The fat content is higher on keto so you eat less and are less hungry, as fat has more calories per gram. You get longer lasting energy and your blood sugar goes down. Lower blood sugar also means less cravings and weight loss if that is something you’re working on.
The recipe in this week’s blog post is nutrient dense and the cheese taco gives you a good percentage of healthy fats. I was stuffed after two tacos!
For the Keto Beef Taco recipe featured here, I improvised on a few recipes and came up with my own version. One recipe I looked at had the beef cooked in a dutch oven for 3.5 hours but to save time, I used an instant pot and pressure cooked it for 60 minutes. A good rule of thumb is 15 minutes of cooking time for every 1 pound of beef. I had 4 pounds so that’s an hour in the pressure cooker on the high setting.
The kicker for me in this recipe is using just cheese to make a taco shell to hold the shredded meat. It was like doing a fun science project to make the cheese taco and I’ll attach an image so you can see what it looks like. You do need patience to make the cheese tacos. It takes about 10 minutes to brown the cheese like a crepe in a frying pan. I used a PFAS and PFOA free non-stick frying pan. Ideally, stay away from cookware that’s made with aluminum and has chemical compounds in its manufacturing. These chemicals leach into your food. Now onto the recipe.
KETO BEEF TACOS
EQUIPMENT
- Instant pot
- Cast iron skillet or other stainless steel skillet
- Non-stick skillet that’s PFAS and PFOA Free
- Large mixing spoon to saute the meat
- A large serving platter for the beef chuck
- Two chopsticks
- 2 large mason jars of the same size or two large drinking glasses. I would use one that’s about 6 inches tall or higher (this is for shaping the mozzarella tacos. It’s similar to handing laundry out to dry on a clothesline)
- 2 paper towels
INGREDIENTS
- 4 lbs of grass fed-grass finished beef chuck stew meat. NOTE: If grass fed/grass finished meat is not available, do the best you can and use what is available.
- Rock Yo Taco Organic Seasoning Mix 1 Tbs. NOTE: You can find this on Amazon or choose a different brand you like. If you want to make your own Mexican seasoning, you can look up online, the ratio of seasonings that go together. Typically, it’s cumin, onion powder, garlic powder, oregano, chili powder, salt and black pepper.
- Beef Tallow or ghee – 1 to 2 Tbsp to brown the meat
- Filtered water for the instant pot
- Sea Salt – I like Redmond’s Real Salt
- Mozzarella cheese – You’ll need between 6 to 8 cups. 6 cups will make about 5-6 tacos – To make it easier and save time, you can buy pre-grated cheese.
- Optional: Sour cream – NOTE: This is the one I used. When buying at your local market, look for the best option which would be organic and grass fed. Whole foods doesn’t always have
- Optional: Guacamole or avocado slices
- Optional: Lime wedges to squeeze onto the finished product if you like.
- Avocado oil or some butter to lightly grease the pan for the mozzarella tacos
DIRECTIONS
- Place the beef chuck stew meat on the serving platter. Sprinkle salt all over the meat and heat the cast iron skillet or stainless steel using the 1 tbs of tallow or ghee. Keep the flame on medium high. Brown the beef stew chunks on all sides. This method helps to lock in moisture and flavor. Do this in batches to avoid overcrowding the skillet. As the pieces of meat brown, set them aside on the platter.
- Once all the meat is done, put them all into the instant pot. Sprinkle 1 Tbs of the Rock Yo Taco seasoning spice over the beef. Using a large spoon, mix all the ingredients together so the seasoning is well incorporated. Add just enough filtered water to cover the meat; about 2 to 3 cups. The meat should not be submerged and floating in the water. It should be just enough that you see some of the meat sticking out above the water.
- Put the cover on the instant pot and lock it. Put the setting on high for pressure cooking and the time for 60 minutes. When the beef is finished cooking and the timer goes off, allow the pressure to release for about 15 minutes on its own and then you can do a quick release for the remainder of the pressure.
- Around the half hour mark of the beef cooking, start making the mozzarella tacos.
Here’s a good image for browning your beef chuck meat, before it goes into the instant pot:
HOW TO MAKE AND SHAPE THE MOZZARELLA TACOS
Step 1
In a non-stick skillet, lightly coat the pan with ghee or avocado oil. The cheese has its own fat so that’s why you don’t need a lot of grease for this.
Step 2
Heat the skillet on low for about 5 to 8 minutes.
Step 3
While the skillet is heating, take two mason jars with their covers on or drinking glasses and place them next to each other. Take your two chopsticks (if you don’t have chopsticks, you can use a large cooking utensil that has a long handle) and place them on top of the mason jars. Think of this like a clothing line. Take the 2 paper towels and place them under the chopsticks. This is to catch any oil from the cheese taco when you drape it over the chopsticks to shape the taco.
Step 4
Take about 1 cup of cheese and place it in the center of the skillet. Using a silicone spatula, gently move the cheese into the shape of a circle leaving some space between the cheese and the skillet. You want to be able to flip it at some point.
Here’s a photo of what my mozzarella cheese taco looked like. It should have that golden brown color:
Step 5
Make sure the cheese is fairly proportional as you spread around. Avoid any holes/gaps.
Step 6
The cheese should start to melt within 3 minutes and expand into a larger circle. Make sure it doesn’t burn and keep the flame low to medium low. The color should be golden brown on the bottom.
Step 7
Once you see the bottom of the cheese taco is golden brown, take your spatula and very carefully lift the cheese taco and flip it over. This part takes patience and care because you want to keep the cheese from bunching up. I used my hand to maneuver this as well as the spatula. Let the other side brown for about 3-5 minutes. Once both sides are brown, lift the cheese with the spatula and carefully drape it over the chopsticks like hanging laundry out to dry. Make sure that you drape the cheese taco evenly so one side is not longer than the other.
Step 8
The taco will dry and firm up within about 6 minutes. Just leave it there while you make the next one. By the time you are ready to hang the next taco, you can lift that one off the chopsticks and set it aside on a plate. This was really amazing to me because the cheese taco holds its shape perfectly and most importantly when you add the shredded beef!
Here is what my mozzarella cheese taco shell looked like after it firmed up:
Step 9
When the beef in the instant pot is done and you’ve taken the lid off, carefully take the beef out and put it into a bowl. With two forks, shred the beef. It will be so soft and moist, this will be very easy. After the beef is shredded, taste it to see if you need to add more salt. Next, add some of the liquid from the instant pot to the serving bowl.
Step 10
Once all your cheese tacos are made and set aside onto a plate,take the shredded beef to the table along with any other additions you have like sour cream or guacamole and let everyone prepare their own taco. Putting your own taco together is the fun part of this meal! Then you can ask someone else to clean up LOL
This is what my finished product looked like with the beef and some sour cream:
ADDITIONAL NOTES FOR MAKING CHEESE TACO SHELLS:
I have not tried to freeze the cheese tacos but the meat you can definitely freeze for leftovers. I would say that if you have leftover cheese tacos, put them in a glass container and in the fridge; they should be good for about 3 days. When you want to use them, I would place them on a baking sheet with some parchment paper, at 200 degrees in a preheated oven for about 2-3 minutes. You don’t want them to melt but just be a tiny bit warm and a little bit softer.
Another method to making the cheese taco shells which I have not tried yet but will, is to use cheddar and do this in the oven. You would need a large baking sheet. Cover it with non bleached parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put about 1/2 cup of the cheese into a circle. Repeat this so you fill up the baking pan with however many taco shells you need for your dinner. Make sure there’s space between each circle so they don’t melt into each other.
If you have 4 people, then figure 2 or 3 shells per person. So about 12 cheese taco shells for 4 people. Bake for 6-8 minutes until golden brown. I would check the cheese at about 6 minutes to see if you need more time. The color should be slightly golden brown. A lot of this also depends upon how big you made your circles. If it’s bigger, it will take a bit longer to cook. After it’s done, drape your cheese over the chop sticks to shape the taco shells. You may need to set up a few chopstick and mason jars if you bake the taco cheese shells, since they will come out of the oven all at once!
If you try making this dish, please let me know and comment! Bon appetit!