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.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
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. :)
Thank you so much for this recipe! I made it with ground turkey as the only substitution. Will make again.
Congratulations on the Saveur award.
Wow!! This dish is delicious. I am a vegetarian so I didn’t cook the beef—I substituted it for Edamame, but followed everything the same. Even my husband loved it, and he is not a huge veggie person. I will definitely tuck this one away for future meals.
How good is this?! This is my second time through. This time I added half of a thinly sliced red pepper (had to use it up) and used coconut sugar instead of brown sugar (bought it for something else and it’s just taking up space). Delicious! Tonight I served it with about 1/2c of brown rice miXed in to bulk it out for additional meals. This is going to be on my meal plans all winter long!
This is darned good. Making it for the second time, and even tho it’s simple, it is soul satisfying. Thank you Beth so much for these recipes. You are my favorite food blogger.
This is delicious–a grown-up and kid pleaser. We have started serving it over a bed of Jasmine rice and like it best that way.
Does this reheat well? I would like to make this for my lunches this week but I’m afraid it will be soggy.
It does get a little more watery with time in the fridge, but it’s still insanely delicious, IMHO. I’ve made it a few times already and thoroughly enjoy the leftovers.
I can vouch for leftovers reheated the next day as still delicious but not after that – I finished it all!
This was so amazing! I’m definitely adding this to our home menu. I love the spice but for my 8 year old I added a little sweet chili sauce to his plate to cut down the heat.
Thank you for the clear pictures and directions.
$3.90 for 1/2# of beef?!? Where do you live and why so expensive? Are you on the other side of the country where there are no cows?!? Here it goes on sale for $2.90/# for 80/20 ground beef.
Well, it was lean ground beef for one (so that’s always more expensive than 80/20) and I bought it at Whole Foods (personal choice). :)
Hoo-boy this was good! I used veggie crumbles, love how easy it is to adapt so many of your recipes to make them vegetarian/vegan. This would be good in lettuce wraps. Thanks again for another winner!
This was delicious!
P.S. Sesame oil is expensive! Going to have to find more recipes to get my money’s worth out of it.
I use it in a LOT of recipes, so you can pop “sesame oil” into my search bar at the top to find more. :)
Price per ingredient?!? Per serving?!? For the whole dish?!?! AMAZING!!! Having been laid off a while ago, these details are awesome. I found this through a Buzzfeed post, so I’ll be looking through the rest of this site for sure!! Oh, and of course give this recipe a try!! :D
I love your blog. I can’t tell you how many times you post a recipe that is perfect for that week’s meal planning…I add the ingredients to my grocery list and I make it that same week! Lots of repeat favorites have come from your blog (the recent jambalaya, this cabbage stirfry, among them–I added mushrooms, bell pepper, celery, carrots, and snap peas to the cabbage). Thank you!
Tried this last night, eating the leftovers right now for lunch, and it is delicious! I made three minor changes to the recipe to suit me: veggie crumbles instead of beef, added about 4 ounces of chopped fresh mushrooms while I was cooking the veggie crumbles, and added a dash of Chinese 5-spice powder because I like how aromatic it is. This one is a total winner!
Very good! I used vegan “beef-less” ground beef from Trader Joe’s and tasted great!