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
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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. :)
This was a hit and a good way to use up vegetables! It’s going on the meal rotation.
Perfection! I almost always have slaw mix and the sauce is amazing! Served it over basmati rice.
I found this recipe like 4 years ago and I make it a couple of times a year, but that sauce recipe my husband LOVES. We put it on so many stirfries. He loves that its a little spicy and really easy to make. I just wanted to come back and finally comment on the post because this is definitely a family fave.
I think Ostrich beef will work well with this beautiful dish 😍
YUM!! I had to use Gochujang because I didn’t have any sriracha and I doubled the sauce. This is a keeper! Thank you!
I hope to make this soon!
Do you drain the grease from cooking the ground beef before adding in the vegetables?
That’s up to you and probably depends on the fat content of your beef. I kind of like having a little of the beef fat coating everything, but it can be overwhelming for some. If you use anything lean, like 90/10 or higher there probably won’t be anything to drain off.
This recipe is a family favorite!
A favorite, the flavors are addictive! All the ingredients listed are necessary for this yummy & simple recipe.
I used this recipe just finish up a pkg of slaw mix. It is so good that I will purposely buy slaw mix to make it again. So much flavor!
I love this dish! It’s easy and every time I make it, I tailor it to my preferences. This time I used a pound of hamburger and was careful to saute the cabbage to keep some crunch. The sauce is delicious and can be used with many other combinations. Yum!
Can you freeze this?
This one isn’t a good candidate for freezing, unfortunately, because the cabbage will get super limp after thawing and reheating.
Late to the party here – I have successfully frozen this. The cabbage was not too wilty for me, and I’m not a soggy cabbage kind of gal.
I made this recipe for my whole family, 7 people, PLUS my grandparents and younger cousins, and they LOVED it! People went back for seconds and even thirds! I used a HUGE cabbage, so it was a bit more cabbage-y, but still DELICIOUS. I made it with rice, and my grandma and I both agreed that the rice made it taste a bit bland, but by itself it was full of flavor.
It’s also super good if you add sweet Thai chili sauce!
Just made this again, for the eleventy-billionth time. LOVE it. I have one kid who won’t eat things with shredded carrots in it, if he knows about them. My CSA had rainbow carrots, and whadya know the pale yellow ones passed right by unnoticed. My fam likes it with rice and Beth’s sesame cucumbers. The no-carrot boy likes shredded raw radish on his.
I’ve been thinking about making this recipe for a long time. Well, tonight I needed a dish to use up cabbage and ground turkey before grocery shopping day tomorrow and this fit exactly! I had a half a head of purple cabbage which was really colorful and I also had some grilled pineapple on the side that worked perfectly with the sweet/spicy sauce. Super easy, flavorful, and healthy!
Such a good, quick and flavourful dish. It’s perfect as written. The whole family loved it. Thank you!