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!
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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
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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. :)
Sounds like a great recipe. Can I substitute savoy cabbage here, instead of the green?
Yes, that would be great! :)
This turned out very good. Being rainy
Bad weather I had to substitute some things
Because I didn’t want to get the ingredients
Listed-bad rainy weather no thank you.
I had all the sauce ingredients garlic and
Ginger on hand. I don’t eat read meat but
Used a ground vegan meat instead. I fried
Tofu in garlic and ginger – cut it up. I sautéed
Raw peanuts in garlic & ginger n put aside.
I didn’t have cabbage but I used onions, mushrooms, spinach and cilantro- stuff I had at
Home because I didn’t want to drive in the rain!
It came out pretty good ! I will try it original
Recipe next time! Thank you so much!
Quick, easy, spicy, and hits the spot.
Did not add any salt during the beef-browning step as the low sodium soy sauce already has enough sodium.
I also toasted the sesame seeds a bit in the toaster. Next time for extra kick I’ll substitute chili-garlic sauce (Tuon-Ot-Toi-Viet-Nam) for the sriracha.
Good recipe, Beth!
This recipe is so delicious, and even more amazing with go chu chang added on top once in your bowl. It really gives it that authentic asian taste to go with the toasted sesame oil. Warning, go chu chang is spicy, but oh so delish.
I will be honest, I was doubtful – how can something so simple be that good. But it really is a fabulous super quick weeknight fix. Changes are not necessary but I started by frying some thinly sliced red onion and finnished with two handfuls of bean sprouts. I also made more sauce. Loved it and will certainly make it again. Next time I will add some shitake
Yummmy! I have had this in my saved pins for a while and finally made it tonight. Hubby said “ you can make this one again”. Easy and delicious my favorite kind of meal!
I was on a quest this week to use up some extra produce I bought last week, including a bag of shredded cabbage and a red pepper, so this was the perfect solution. I made it vegetarian by using an 8 oz bag of steam-able edamame instead of beef, which I microwaved, drained and threw in with the cabbage. I sauteed the red pepper first with the ginger and garlic. The 1 tbsp sriracha in the sauce was plenty spicy for me without any extra. We rolled the filling into tortillas like moo shu wraps and it was perfect. Fast, easy, full of veggies=perfection in my book! It fed two of us with no leftovers. I’m keeping this in rotation!
I totally took the short cut and used Trader Joe’s bagged cole slaw mix and this was such an easy slam dunk in my house. We used vegetarian beef crumbles as well, so we just cooked that up in oil, made the sauce, cooked the veggie, and combined for a super easy dinner that took care of our take out cravings. This one is a winner!
This was excellent!!! I did have to add some addl brown sugar and soy to the stir fry sauce to make it taste right. I also used powdered ginger instead of fresh ginger, which I will use next time. Thanks for this recipe. It will be a staple in our house!
LOVE THIS! So quick, easy and good! Definitely will make again.
Made this last night and it was sooo good! Everyone enjoyed it. Thank you for sharing :)
I love this idea!! I’m trying to make big batches of food for future consumption – do you think it would freeze well??
This one won’t freeze quite so well because the cabbage will break down further from freezing and will seep a lot of liquid as it thaws.
I’ve actually frozen it with no problems. Either cook the cabbage part well, or reheat long enough to cook off some off the liquid. Works great for lunches/dinners in the future.
Hiya,
I think there may be an issue with the link from Pinterest?
I saved it some time ago, made it many times (thanks!) but the link no longer works?! I did a search on your website, found it and saved again in Pinterest, but when I click on it same error “404 – not found”.
It seems the recipe is actually there but Pinterest links aren’t working??
Many thanks
About 14 carbs per serving according to the numbers posted previously.
Very good! I used coleslaw mix and it works great! Also added oyster sauce and five spice :)