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. :)
oh, oops, I should note that instead of ground beef I used ground venison (this may have helped keep the WW points so low as venison is very lean)
Oh. Em. Gee. This is so flavorful and so easy! And a hearty 1.5 Cups is only 4 points on WeightWatchers!
Another great recipe. Even though it’s not “technically” Paleo due to the Soy sauce, the rest of the family who hates my Paleo attempts like it.
Made this for dinner tonight! It was awesome. The whole family loved it.
Very tasty! I added a package of cooked ramen (the cheap kind) to stretch it a bit. It’s a keeper!
This recipe turned out amazing! Made it as a meal prep for the weeks lunches and had to sample a little bit first. I subbed the green onion for white onion and the fresh ginger for ground ginger, just because that’s what I had on hand and it still tastes amazing. Definitely going to make this again. Thanks for sharing :)
We made it tonight. I only used a little siracha, maybe 1/2 tsp, because my 3 year old doesn’t like the taste. I wish I would have used more, it needed a little something more. Any suggestions for siracha substitutes?
PS – thank you for this blog! We make a lot of the recipes because they are easy, tasting, mostly healthy, and oh so budget friendly!
Hmmm, maybe oyster or hoisin sauce. Both are mild, but will give the sauce more flavor than just soy sauce. :)
Absolutely divine!!! My picky family devoured it and my husband – a man who hates vegetables – told me to make sure I put him some in a bowl for lunch tomorrow!!!
DEFINITELY will be making this again!!
Delish!! Husband didn’t want to warm up the cabbage but it was still very tastey!
I always get “that smells amazing” comments when I take these leftovers to work. Well done. Great recipe!
Yummy! I used blended sesame oil cuz that’s what I had. Delicious, will be making this a lot. Thanks for this recipe.
I was worried my husband & son wouldn’t get full enough so I added pad Thai noodles. Yum!
This is just awesome. I hate it when people mention how they changed the recipe but I didn’t have fresh ginger (used ground) and had only another kind of hot sauce to use. It was still wonderful and I’ll bet it will be even better when I have what I this recipes calls for on hand for next time. There will be many next times. Affordable and so very yummy.
Another great recipe! I made this tonight with ground beef, green cabbage, and a salad mix containing lettuce, carrots, and red cabbage. I went a little easy on the ginger and sriracha and left the sesame seeds and sriracha off my family’s servings (but use them on mine) and it was great! My husband and I each had a couple of servings and my pickiest child actually ate most of his. Total success. :)
This recipe looks amazing!!
Do you have the nutritional facts for the recipe?
My mother is diabetic and has to carb count each meal for her insulin.