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.
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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. :)
Excellent and easy to make. So much flavor! I used 1 lb of ground beef, the head of cabbage, pre-cut matchstick carrots and doubled the sauce. Definitely will make this again.
Thank you for such a deliciously simple recipe. It’s nice to have alternative ways to eat cabbage, and this is yummy.
This was so easy and delicious! Left out the carrots bc my son doesn’t like them but otherwise followed the recipe and it was a hit! My 13 year old was skeptical but loved it. Keeping the cabbage crisp made a big difference and is a great idea!
I served with brown rice drizzled with sesame oil. Thanks for the great idea!
Delish! Next time I would double up on the sauce. I used ground pork and added a sliced onion and used the cole slaw mix. Served over stir fry noodles and crunchy chow mien noodles. Husband loved it. Super easy to make. It’s a keeper!
This recipe is so easy and so delicious!!
What size ( eg 1 c) is considered 1 serving?
Please and Thank you.
Joan
About 1.5 cups, but it will definitely depend on how much you cook the cabbage. If you cook it longer, the volume will be less because the cabbage will wilt more. I estimated one serving to be one-quarter of the total recipe, the volume can vary.
Excellent recipe, must have been my most used go-to of 2021.
I have added rice noodles in the past to bulk out for more leftovers, might need a little extra sauce if adding those in though.
best new recipe I have come across. i’ve made this at least 7 times now. Affordable ingredients, healthy and delicious. Doesn’t take more than 30 minutes to make. Freezes and reheats well.
I used a bag of shredded carrots to save time. I add some bell peppers occasionally when available. I also forgo the ginger powder. Serve with rice.
turns out delicious every time.
Fair to middlin IMO probaby because I don’t use Sriracha. Also, made a second batch of the sauce because it seemed slightly dry.
Love love love this! Super easy! Super yummy!! So glad I ran across this recipe! I did put some of it inside egg roll wrappers and air fried them!!! Soooo good!!
Ingredient measurements were a bit on the big side for me, but I’ve made this twice and it’s turned out wonderfully each time. Very cheap, too. Only issue is, well, the prep time estimate was a little off for me. It takes me like 30 minutes to prepare for this meal. Great recipe
Yummy, healthy and easy — the triple combo! I call this “healthy gyoza” because it tastes like gyoza but with the higher cabbage to meat ratio it’s much healthier 😂 only thing I did differently was use pork mince instead of beef.
Super delicious. Perfect mix of sweet and spicy. I added most of the veg you recommend as well. Will be making this again. As soon as tomorrow!
Wow – loved this! I used ground turkey and sautéd it with some avocado oil which I find to be pretty mild in taste.
I find chopping cabbage to be a bit labor intensive, so I suggest to double the recipe to make it worth the effort. And so you have great leftovers.
Healthy, simple ingredients, and great flavor! Will definitely make it again.
Thanks for a GREAT recipe. I come back to this recipe over and over to refer to the stir fry sauce. I put that on almost every stir fry I make! Today it was bok choy, onions, mushrooms, and snow peas, with leftover char sui. So good!
I love the flavors in this but it came out kinda liquidy? Did you drain your beef off mb?
Love the videos now 🙂
I didn’t drain the beef, but that will depend on the fat percentage of the ground beef you’re using. Another reason it might become liquidy is from the water content of the cabbage. If you cook it at too low of a heat and cook the cabbage too long, it will begin to release water into the skillet that won’t evaporate very quickly. Increasing the heat some and cooking it a little less will allow the water to evaporate at a more even rate with how fast it’s being released from the cabbage. I hope that makes sense! :)