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. :)
A family favorite — even with my picky 21 year old. I’ve subbed ground pork at times — just as delicious. Thanks for such a great, reliable recipe.
Loved this! Have a major pet peeve of when substitutions are made to not lesson the stars…with that said, I used turkey. I only had regular onions, so fixed a half of one and added. Also didn’t realize I was out of Sriracha, so used Frank’s Red Hot sauce and added some red pepper flakes. It was good, but am definitely picking up Sriracha for the leftovers. Will be making this as directed in the future. Thank you for sharing!
I’ve been making this for over a year. I use ground pork or breakfast sausage. I add what ever veggies in frig that need to be used up,. Mushrooms, broccoli, green peppers, zucchini etc. At the end i add 1/ 2 pkg of cooked ramen noodles and increase the sauce. There normally is just me so I usually use slaw mix. Much faster
So delicious and super fast. Reheats well, inexpensive and healthy. You can’t go wrong. Thank you for sharing Budget Bytes, this will be a new go-to!
Made this today, what a great recipe. As we were eating thought of all their other things that would be good instead of hamburger. Pork, chicken, shrimp. Just want to say I used the full day lb of hamburger.
This recipe was awesome and a perfect new way to combine beef & cabbage. I wanted to add peanuts but had none on hand so I added slivered almonds instead, really good! Husband LOVED it!
This has quickly become a family favorite! The leftovers hold up well (reheated on the stove not in the microwave). I bring it to another whole level by topping it with sriracha mayo and furikake.
This will be a staple for me going forward. I made a few modifications. First I doubled the amount of beef. I also added a full onion (highly recommend). Also I used more sauce and used regular sugar and maple syrup as a substitute for brown sugar. I made this super fast, while I was on hold with my cable company (lol). Sent a picture of the final product to two friends who will also be meal prepping this tonight for the week. Thank you!
Easy and delicious! Made a couple slight modifications…I don’t eat meat so I used a “hamburger” substitute and I used regular chopped onion since that’s what I had on hand. I loved the sauce – just enough siracha without being too hot. Just loved this and am looking forward to leftovers tomorrow.
Made this tonight for dinner and it was delicious. I did double the sauce except for the Sriracha used 6 cloves of garlic with the meat and 2 minced garlic gloves in the sauce. It wasn’t garlicky at all.. I added mushrooms, uncooked shrimp and used ground pork. Topped with chopped Cilantro.
Will definitely make again.
Really gear recipe. Trying to eat paleo for a little while and this fit. Didn’t use hot sauce at all. Not my thing. Great and filling….
When I first made this I wasn’t too convinced. I thought maybe it was my fault for doing something wrong (I didn’t cut the cabbage thinly enough, I only had regular sesame oil…) As it turns out, this recipe reheats really nicely! It made amazing leftovers. A couple extra splashes of soy sauce, a tiny bit of oyster sauce, served over rice, and I did a complete 180 on this recipe. I went back for seconds. Loved it.
I normally always use pork when I make fried noodles. The mix of soy that I use is the one used in “pad see ew”, but this sounds and looks absolutely delicious as well – so will definitely try it out! I’ve never tried adding carrot either!
We were out of ground beef, so I substituted ground lamb. I also used a mix of green and purple cabbage that I had on hand from making coleslaw last week. Served over basmati rice with chow mein noodles. We will definitely have again.
This is a very tasty meal and quick and easy to make. I made it lectin free by adding grass fed beef or Quorn and I also used slaw mix instead of the chopped cabbage and it all ready has the shredded carrots . Makes it even faster to make. This is a keeper and would also be great with chicken or turkey I’m sure.
This was fabulous! I added a little purple cabbage and served it over coconut rice. Nutritious, and delicious!
I have made this several times now and it has become one of our favorite weeknight meals. The sauce and ginger are the secret ingredient. I have used beef, chicken, ground Turkey and I will have to try the ground pork someone mentioned. I also have switched out the cabbage for broccoli and snow peas, added the carrots or used Cole slaw mix and red and green peppers, this is always a hit. Goes great with some Jasmine rice if you aren’t watching carbs. It’s just plain good, easy and quick.