If you’re one that struggles to work vegetables into your diet (isn’t that pretty much all of us?) you’re going to love this Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry. It’s full of vegetables and absolutely addictive. And the best part? It uses vegetables that are super inexpensive so you can know that you’re doing your body and your wallet good. Winning!
Can I Substitute the Beef?
Yes, you can definitely make this cabbage stir fry recipe with other types of ground meat! I think pork or even ground turkey would work just as well or better, and will most likely be less expensive than beef. You can use a whole pound of meat if you like extra protein, but I found that the half-pound I had provided me with just the right ratio of meat to cabbage.
What Other Vegetables Can I Add?
In addition to the cabbage, I also added some shredded carrots and sliced green onion to this beef stir fry for color. There are so many other fun things you can put in your beef and cabbage stir fry. Try adding some of these vegetables:
- sliced mushrooms
- thinly sliced red bell pepper
- water chestnuts
- snow peas
- broccoli
- baby corn
Make it even FASTER!
You can totally take a shortcut here and buy a bag of pre-shredded coleslaw mix to replace the 1/2 head of green cabbage and carrots listed below. Sometimes that’s a more economical purchase and saves you from having a half head of left over cabbage. :)
What to Serve with Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry
This Ground Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry goes great with Easy Egg Drop Soup, Thai Cucumber Salad, Savory Coconut Rice, Pork Gyoza. Although most of the time I just eat it as is! You can also serve it over a bed of rice to bulk up the servings.
Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry
Servings 4 (1.5 cups each)Ingredients
STIR FRY SAUCE
- 2 Tbsp soy sauce ($0.18)
- 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil ($0.33)
- 1 Tbsp sriracha* ( $0.05)
- 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar ( $0.02)
STIR FRY
- 1/2 head green cabbage ($1.78)
- 2 carrots ($0.22)
- 3 green onions ($0.17)
- 1/2 Tbsp neutral cooking oil ($0.02)
- 1/2 lb. lean ground beef ($3.90)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 1 Tbsp fresh grated ginger ( $0.13)
- Pinch of salt and pepper ($0.05)
GARNISHES (optional)
- 1 Tbsp sesame seeds ($0.08)
- 1 Tbsp sriracha ($0.05)
Instructions
- Prepare the stir fry sauce first. In a small bowl stir together the soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, sriracha, and brown sugar. Set the sauce aside.
- Shred the vegetables so they are ready to go when you need them. Cut one small cabbage in half, remove the core, and then finely shred the leaves of one half the cabbage (4-6 cups once shredded, save the other half for another recipe). Peel two carrots, then use a cheese grater to shred them (1 cup shredded). Slice three green onions. Mince two cloves of garlic. Peel a knob of ginger using either a vegetable peeler or by scraping with the side of a spoon, then grate it using a small-holed cheese grater.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot add the cooking oil, ground beef, garlic, ginger, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook the beef until browned (about five minutes).
- Add the cabbage and carrots to the skillet and continue to stir and cook until the cabbage is slightly wilted (or fully wilted, if you prefer). Stir in the prepared sauce and the green onions. Top with a sprinkle of sesame seeds and a drizzle of sriracha, then serve.
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Notes
Nutrition
Video
P.S. If you love cabbage as much as I do, check out our Cabbage Soup Recipe!
How to Make Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry – Step by Step Photos
Prepare the easy stir fry sauce first, so it’s ready to go when you need it. In a small bowl stir together 2 Tbsp soy sauce, 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil (it has a dark amber color and VERY nutty flavor, not always labeled as “toasted”), 1 Tbsp sriracha, and 1/2 Tbsp brown sugar. This makes a medium-spicy stir fry, so if you’re sensitive to heat, start with 1 tsp sriracha.
Next, shred the vegetables. Cut one small cabbage in half, remove the core, then slice half of it into fine shreds (save the other half of the cabbage for another recipe). You’ll need about 4-6 cups of shredded cabbage. Peel and shred two carrots (about one cup). I used a large-holed cheese grater to shred the carrots. Slice three green onions. You’ll also want to mince two cloves of garlic and grate about 1 Tbsp of fresh ginger (I use a small-holed cheese grater for this). More info on working with ginger can be found here.
Heat a LARGE skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add 1/2 Tbsp neutral cooking oil (something like canola, corn, vegetable, safflower, peanut, etc.), 1/2 lb. ground beef, the minced garlic, grated ginger, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook the beef until fully browned.
Add the shredded cabbage and carrots to the skillet and continue to cook and stir until the cabbage has wilted slightly. I like my cabbage to still have a little crunch, so I only cooked it until it was partially wilted. If you like the cabbage fully cooked and soft, just cook it a bit longer.
Pour on the prepared stir fry sauce…
… and toss in the sliced green onions. Stir until everything is evenly combined.
Garnish the Beef and Cabbage stir fry with a little drizzle of sriracha and a sprinkle of sesame seeds. I particularly liked the sesame seeds for the texture they added to the dish!
And that’s it! This Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry is probably one of the easiest dishes I’ve ever made. :)
I usually use a bag of slaw mix so I don’t have to do all that cutting. i also use chinese five spice in mine. Yummy! This is one of my favorite dishes. Sometime I use kielbasa instead of ground meat too.
Thanks for this. I haven’t made anything Asian-inspired in quite a while and this hit the spot! Added more ground beef, shrooms, more Shiracha and a touch of Chili Oil.
Am I the only fella that reads this blog? If so, they’re missing out.
Nah, you ain’t
Most certainly not the only fella
Nope your not.
Me neither
This is very similar to a family style Indian dish we encountered in the early 80s at a Southern Indian buffet we frequented in Saudi Arabia. It’s been part of our dinner rotation for many years–shredded cabbage, finely sliced onion, a bit of shredded carrot. I start with 1-2 T of oil, throw in about 1 T of black mustard seeds, 1/4-1/2 tsp tumeric, 1/4-1/2 tsp garam masala (or ordinary curry powder), 1/2 tsp tumeric, cayenne to taste, or a finely sliced green chili with the other veggies. When spices are fragrant and mustard seeds are popping, add 1/2 medium finely sliced onion, 1/2 small cabbage, shredded, 1 smallish carrot, grated. Stir fry until the cabbage is tender. I often add ground beef to make it a meal, and if I add the meat, usually add some garlic and/or ginger, too–this recipe is made for alterations and substitutions. A bag of cole slaw mix doesn’t help the cost, but greatly speeds up preparation as it usually includes carrot and a bit of red cabbage for more color.
That second mention of tumeric was supposed to be cumin! Sorry
That sounds FANTASTIC! I’m going to have to try it with those spices. Thanks for sharing!
This is food heaven to me. I love the tender bite of fried cabbage but can’t come up with many ways to use it in recipes.
I made this but substituted tabasco for sriracha (that’s what I had on hand) and it is HOT! I really like it though. We grew cabbage in the garden this year (I got 2) and need some good ways to use it, this was excellent.
Oh, totally yum! I made this tonight (I simply had to!). Had some leftover rice (in it went), celery and mushrooms that had to be used before they went bad (in they went), cabbage, onion and the rest of the recipe. Amazing. The sauce was excellent with it. I only used a teaspoon of the sriracha, and next time, I’ll use more. There will absolutely be a next time!
I made this last night and it was great. I used a little extra sauce mixture because it was a bit lacking in flavour (might’ve used too much mince and cabbage) as well as some extra garlic and a brown onion and it turned out really well. The flavour sort of reminded me of san choy bow or the filling of a dumpling. I think it would be nice served with some crispy dry noodles or rice next time too. :)
I’ve been using shredded cabbage for years in my spicy pork stir fry and it’s delicious! Red and green cabbage taste the same when cooked but make sure that the sauce isn’t too soupy to contain the color bleed from the red cabbage.
I have a head of red cabbage in my fridge right now- do you think that would work? I know red and green are similar, but I wasn’t sure if there was a different prep for raw red cabbage.
Honestly, I’m not sure what the flavor will be like here. I DO know that the color will be interesting, though. Red cabbage tends to turn everything purple when it’s cooked, so your dish will be very fun! :D
I’m a little late commenting, but I made it with red cabbage, and it turned out really well. I quartered the cabbage, cut out the core, and sliced it thin, so my prep was pretty much the same. The red cabbage looked really pretty with the orange carrots and green onion. The color bled a bit in the leftovers, so my coworkers questioned what I was eating for lunch, but it still tasted good!
This is one of our favorites, sometimes I use breakfast sausage instead of the beef for more flavor!
Do you ever use the bottled minced ginger? I have problems using fresh, it’s difficult for me to grate and I’ve been using the bottled. Wondering if you notice a difference if you’ve tried both.
I haven’t used bottled before, but someone gave me a great tip a while back–freeze the ginger! When it’s frozen it grates effortlessly and all those little strings that usually clog the grater are like they don’t even exist. :)
Can you grate ginger with the skin on or do you still need to peel it when it is frozen? I am always looking for the least nooks and crannies in the ginger piece I select.
I just freeze with the peel on, but I rarely peel the ginger before I grate it anymore (I was watching an Indian cooking show once and the host said you don’t have to peel it as long as it’s clean!). But you can certainly peel it before freezing, if you like.
I used the bottled ginger for this recipe, I thought it worked just great.
I hate peeling and grating ginger too, I always end up buying too much or not having any at home when I need it, and sometimes fresh ginger is too strong flavored for me. So I buy ginger juice and keep it in the fridge, and add a splash to recipes that use ginger. It’s much easier and usually even tastes better to me, plus I sometimes add the ginger juice to tea for a flavor boost.
Looks amazing! Does the sesame oil have to be labeled “toasted” ? Not sure if there is a difference if I just use sesame oil… Thank you!!
It’s not always labeled as “toasted” but you can tell that you have toasted sesame oil by the color. Toasted sesame oil is a deep brown/amber color, whereas non-toasted sesame oil is a light straw color, similar to canola oil. :) Toasted has A LOT more flavor, so you definitely want to use that.
Sounds like another winner! Yesterday I had some leftovers of your Hoisin Stirfry Bowls with Spicy Peanut Sauce (one of my faves!). I wanted to stretch it, so I added some sauteed cabbage to it. So yummy, and similar ingredients to this new dish. Can’t wait to try it!
Yum! This looks delicious. I love how many veggies are in it.
Do you think it would be possible to do a decent vegetarian version of this, like with stir-fried/baked tofu or with scrambled egg instead?
I’ve made a variation on this without meat and topped with a fried egg and it was great!
I think sliced mushrooms would be a good substitute for the meat, too. Shiitakes come to mind, but whatever is available and affordable.
I think I would do chopped mushrooms to get a similar look/texture, and that umami flavor. :) Egg would probably be good, too!
I too thought veg would be good — I’m going to try it with edamame instead of beef.
I make stir fries often with frozen meatless crumbles! Works great. I have also been using cabbage and broccoli slaw in stir fries for years, who knew it was a thing!