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.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
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. :)
Loved this dish. Just as it was. Have two elderly parents that live with me. My mother doesn’t eat very much if anything. She Loved this! I did use the least of Sriracha that I could without losing the flavor. We’ll probably have this every week. Thanks for the recipe!
Love this idea! Looks so good!
I made this tonight because I had all the ingredients on hand (mainly ground turkey and cabbage). I used a full pound of meat, and this recipe makes a lot. It’s very tasty even though I left out the sriracha which I dislike, just added plenty of black pepper for my preferred taste. I like to cook a big pot of food on Sunday night so I’m almost done cooking for the week, and I hope this reheats well–thanks for the inspiration!
Made this tonight for dinner and it was an absolute hit. Thank you for this awesome recipe, it is now added to my cooking repertoire.
I made this dish last night and absolutely loved it! So nutritious and full of antioxidant-rich veggies. I doubled the recipe and made a few substitutions based on what I had available….I used a chopped white onion instead of the green onions and used a bag of coleslaw mix in place of the cabbage and carrots. This is one of my new favorites and I’m going to share it with my readers on my blog- thanks, Beth!
I was just thinking that I’d try this out with the bag of coleslaw mix that I already have in the fridge. Thanks for posting and letting us all know that it’s an easy swap. Cheers!
SO good and SO quick! It was cheaper and quicker for me to buy the pre-packaged shredded cabbage and carrots which cut down on prep time even more. Made this with a full pound of ground beef for extra protein and ate it over white sticky rice. Will be making this over and over again!
My husband, 15 year old son, and I all really enjoyed this. I shredded the cabbage with my food processor, and next time, I’ll chop it by hand to get bigger shreds. Nonetheless, after that, the whole meal came together quickly. Everyone had third helpings…and more left over. It didn’t hurt to tell them it was a take on a “deconstructed egg roll.” Big hit. Thank you for sharing.
I made this with ground pork and doubled the recipe—PHENOMENAL. Mushrooms, as suggested, made a great addition.
I just made this and it just delicous. I never bought or used Sriracha before and consider myself rather used to hot food. Which is why I badly underestimated Sriracha. HOO BOY is it hot now, but tasty!
How does this reheat?
I enjoyed it quite a bit, but just be aware that it does get softer.
This is AWESOMENESS. One of our favorite dishes. It is once a week but we could eat it more.
This is fab. We just made haluski on Sunday and have half a cabbage waiting to be called up to the big leagues. Planning to make this stir-fry tonight! Any ideas on nutrition info on this, or how much you’d guess is a serving?
Is there nutritional information available on this recipe? Did i miss it somewhere? Thanks
I made this tonight with ground pork and it was excellent! Will add broccoli next time!
We made this and loved it. I did not have siriacha but added some tabasco a little vinegar and some red peppers. It is a keeper!