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. :)
Another great Budget Bytes recipe! This sauce was SO tasty–I plan to use it for other recipes! I had half of a head of cabbage and some ground beef in the fridge, so it was a perfect recipe. Thank you!
My daughters and I made this recipe, today. None was left! I would definitely make this again. Next time, I might add something different, like season my ground meat. This recipe was great. The meal was delicious.
Had all of the ingredients, so I thought I would give this a try based on reviews. It was edible and okay, but not worth the effort. There is something missing from this recipe to elevate it. Fish sauce, maybe? I got the heat from the siracha, and the salt from the soy, but no real flavor. Beef and cabbage are pretty boring.
Just made it. Already had all of the ingredients in hand so this was a nice last minute fix. Super yummy and easy.
So So Good!
This is the 3rd time in a month that I’ve made this recipe! Delicious!
Delicious ! We made it vegetarian by adding vegetable textured protein instead. Also served over egg noodles.
Delicious! A recipe keeper ! We all loved it. We didn’t have sriracha so I used Cholula. I sliced my onions on the thick side. We like onions
Came out way better then I expected
Bless this recipe. It hit our craving for takeout!
Sub’d Chili Garlic Paste for Sriracha (since we didn’t have any). Served with long grain white rice and a fried egg!
Made an extra batch of stir fry sauce for drizzle since the egg and rices soaked up the heat.
Thank you!
I couldn’t really imagine cabbage and ground beef together but it was really tasty, although i had to substitute a few things (for a lack of the original):
Peanut oil instead of sesame oil (it’s the closest thing i had)
Gratious amount of chili flakes instead of sriracha
No ginger, but i added some onions. I didn’t add any sides. So i took a bit more of the vegetables.
Thanks so much for this recipe (even if i changed a few things)
We love this recipe. We use about 1/2 the suggested amount of sriracha sauce and I used ground ginger instead of fresh ginger (I’ve tried it w/fresh as well and we didn’t notice a discernible difference) and doubled that, because we love ginger. Also, we’ve used purple cabbage and with the carrots and onions, it is really pretty on the plate!
Can I freeze leftovers?
My hunch is that this one wouldn’t freeze well because the cabbage will probably break down further and seep a lot of water.
Another awesome recipe! I used beyond beef to make it vegetarian. Also added shredded brussel sprouts. Yummy!!
My family has been using this for years. We love it! The main change we like is to use pork and Napa cabbage. We also like to use chili garlic sauce if I have it in the fridge.
This is delicious. Sadly the ‘rona has meant I can hardly get beef, so I chose chicken instead. Everything tasted like heaven!!