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. :)
This is one of my favourite weeknight recipes. The whole family loves it. I usually serve it over rice noodles!
Love rice noodles! Great work Coral.
This recipe is one of my favorites. Great with leftover steak or chicken.
Thank you!
I’ve made this recipe a few times. Today I made it with a chopped salad kit that had kale, brussel sprouts, cabbage, and radicchio. I followed the rest of the recipe as written. This is definitely a good sub if you don’t have cabbage, and don’t want to go to the store!
Love hearing folks use what they have on hand!
Excellent recipe! Used thin strips of flat iron steak and bagged cabbage.
Sounds perfect and simple!
Was very easy to make, and for once I had everything for it in my pantry, we all loved it.
Happy to hear it!
I have not made this but it sounds wonderful. I would need to make one substation tho. Due to other dietary restrictions I must use ground turkey or ground chicken. I still think it would be yummy. Thank you.
Yes I’ve made it with ground chicken and it’s great!
I have made this several times now and its so easy and everyone loves it. CHEAP and nutritious thank you!
Happy to hear it!
This is easily my favorite recipe for a quick and delicious weeknight dinner. I have made it several times and will continue to do so, it never gets old! I use ground pork instead of the ground beef that the recipe calls for- I think the first time I made it I already had some so I just used that instead, but it’s so good that now every time i just use ground pork (cheaper, too). I’ve also used regular sugar instead of brown sugar for the sauce and it still came out great. I also tend to go a little heavy on the soy sauce and ginger and just eyeball the measurements and it always turns out good. You really can’t mess this recipe up!
Happy to hear it Kate! Love that ground pork works too!
Yummy! I made this for lunch the other day instead of going out to eat (big win for me!) I used a lb of ground turkey and Go-Chu-Jang sauce instead of Sriracha because it is too spicy for me! I also added a green pepper because I like the crunch. Very easy and yummy.
Great work Camille!
So delicious she wasn’t joking when she said use chopsticks to slow yourself down! I opted for only a tsp of sriracha and it was the perfect balance of flavour/warmth and “mild enough to serve to kids/elderly parents”. Biggest advantage of this one was how freakin’ quick it was to make (if you bought bagged “coleslaw mix” instead of whole cabbage/carrots”. Definitely going to be a go-to in future!!
Thank you Catherine!
Such a great weeknight dinner: quick, tasty and healthy. I have made it several times, and toss in whichever veggies need to be used up. Even non-cabbage loving family members vote thumbs up on this.
Winner! Happy to hear it Colleen.
I added red bell pepper, white onion, snow peas, bean sprouts, water chestnuts. Doubled the sauce since I added so much. Was quite spicy, but super delicious. Even my not stirfry-friendly husband really liked it!!
Happy to hear it Jenn!
We’ve made this twice now. Really good, but missing something so we added some rice vinegar and it is perfect!
Oh that sounds like a delicious tangy addition!
This is a go-to recipe in our house! I’ve added red bell pepper, which goes well and adds sweetness. We also love to put it over Soba noodles or brown rice.
Recently, I ended up prepping and freezing all the ingredients and it tasted just as good as fresh! This could be a good hack if you’re making with the half-head of cabbage and want to save the other half.
That’s a great tip Sarah!
One of mine and my husband’s favorites! I used the time saving hack you mentioned and used the bagged coleslaw mix. Just another one of your recipes that is regularly cooked at my house!