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. :)
Seriously delicious. I wish I discovered your site when I was in university, I would have saved so much money on take out!! All your recipes are cost conscience and the ingredients are usually pantry staples. Love it!! Thank you!!
I like it, it’s just kinda bland. I doubled the sauce to see if that would help and it didn’t, so I added more garlic and ginger but that didn’t do much either. I don’t know what I did wrong.
Very good recipe.
Super yummy!! I ended up putting this into tortillas and eating it as tacos. I definitely will be making it again
This was very good, but I feel like the portion sizes are way off. I used a full pound of ground beef, and I’m going to be lucky to get 3 meals out of it. I’m still hungry after a serving that did not quite fill a 3-cup tupperware (so more than the 1.5-cup recommended portion) — and I’m not an especially big eater.
After the first portion, I added another 1/2 batch of the sauce. 4.5 tablespoons was not enough for my meat-heavy modified recipe.
Very good. I used about 1/2 Tbsp sriracha but it was still a bit spicy for me so I’ll reduce it the next time. The recipe didn’t say to drain the beef after browning but I did and it still seemed to be okay. Served over jasmine rice.
I am a hater of cabbage so I really didn’t have high hopes for this meal. However, since I’ve been making myself try new recipes and flavors and healthier options, I made it. It is REALLY good! I added a drizzle of hoisin in my bowl and I will definitely be adding in mushrooms and water chestnuts going forward as well. It came together quick and easy which makes it a great option right off the bat and I will be making this on a regular basis. I wish it were freezable so I could just make double batches for meal prep. Thank you for this, Beth!
10/10. My first recipe off budgetbytes.com. I was hoping to find something quick and easy as I detest cooking. I subbed the ground beef with pork, because I don’t think ground beef has a ton of flavor. I used bagged cabbage. Other than that, kept it all the same. It was great!
I’ve made this so least 3 times since moving out on my own–it is super delicious and satisfying but also inexpensive and leaves me leftovers for the week! The note about using a BIG pan is no joke because every time I make this I’m sure I’ll be fine and then end up cooking the meat and cabbage in batches lol.
Was very good! Could have used extra sauce. Surprised me that it didn’t have overwhelming cabbage taste (I like but my kids don’t). I did use flat cabbage though.
Woke up this morning craving cabbage and did this ever satisfy! Leftovers tomorrow will be with an egg on top. This would be delicious in really thin tortillas too!
This is such a great recipe! I make it regularly. It’s fast, easy and delicious. Sometimes I swap out the beef for pork. You could also swap the beef out for veggie ground round, and then you have a great vegan dish!
Not enough sauce and really disappointing.
We love this recipe! I double the sauce though. It’s so easy to throw in extra veggies. The first time I made it I had a few sugar snap peas to use up so I chopped them and put them in for extra color and crunch. Tonight I’m adding water chestnuts. I will also sub ground turkey for the beef.
This is in regular rotation with the coconut rice in our house. As others have mentioned, I use a bag of coleslaw with shredded carrots instead of buying individual veggies. Time saver! Tonight we added water chestnuts for extra crunch and loved it. You gotta love a recipe that comes together so easy and quickly and is also budget friendly!
This was so good. As someone who struggles to keep a consistent routine with cooking because of the sense of overwhelm I get, this was so easy and I love the fact that it’s nutritious. One step closer to not ordering take out all the time!