I get SO MANY awesome ideas from the wonderfully creative minds of my readers. You offer so much inspiration, expertise, and ideas, which makes blogging so much fun. :) One reader shared with me recently that she put a southwest spin on my classic Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry. I was so in love with that idea that I had to try it myself. I’m happy to report that this Southwest Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry is a tasty way to change things up if and when you get tired of Asian flavors. It’s just as easy and delicious as the original… ‘cept different. ;)
And I regret to say that I can’t find the original comment where the idea for a Southwest Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry was shared with me (was it on Facebook? Instagram? An email? I can’t find it!) to thank you personally here, so if you’re reading this, THANK YOU.
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Keep it Simple or Jazz it Up!
I kept this Southwest Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry very simple to make the preparation easy, but you could go a little further and add things like sliced black olives or even some crispy tortilla strips. I think thin little crunchy tortilla strips would be an amazing texture addition to this stir fry (add after cooking). A few thinly sliced fresh jalapeños would also be amazing on top for those of you who like things spicy (hi, me!). You can really go crazy with this one and top it with just about anything that you like on tacos or taco salad.
But Dont’ Make Southwest Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry Without These…
The two things that I think wouldn’t skip, though, are the taco sauce and green onions. That tangy taco sauce really brightens the flavors and adds another dimension that takes the dish up about ten levels. You can sub your favorite hot sauce if you don’t have taco sauce, as long as it has a vinegar base.
Southwest Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry
Servings 4Ingredients
- 1/2 head green cabbage, shredded (about 5 cups) ($0.85)
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.04)
- 1/2 lb ground beef ($1.99)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced ($0.16)
- 1 Tbsp chili powder* ($0.30)
- 1/2 tsp cumin ($0.05)
- Salt to taste ($0.05)
- 10 oz can diced tomatoes with green chiles** ($0.99)
- 1 cup frozen corn kernels ($0.44)
- 2 green onions, sliced ($0.21)
- Taco sauce or hot sauce to taste ($0.60)
Instructions
- Remove any damaged outer leaves from the cabbage and give it a good rinse. Remove the core, then finely shred the leaves. Set the shredded cabbage aside.
- Add the cooking oil, ground beef, minced garlic, chili powder, cumin, and a pinch of salt to a large skillet. Cook over medium heat, breaking up the beef as you go, until the beef is fully browned. If using a higher fat content beef, drain the excess fat from the skillet.
- Drain most of the liquid from the diced tomatoes, then add them to the skillet along with the frozen corn kernels. Sauté over medium heat until the corn is heated through and most of the liquid on the bottom of the skillet has evaporated. Taste the mixture and add more salt as needed.
- Add the shredded cabbage and sauté for just a couple minutes more, or until the cabbage just becomes slightly wilted. Top with sliced green onions and a drizzle of taco sauce or hot sauce, then serve.
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Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Cabbage is really becoming one of my favorite versatile ingredients!
How to Make Southwest Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry – Step by Step Photos
Begin by finely shredding 1/2 head of green cabbage, or about 5 cups once shredded. If needed, you can use bagged pre-shredded cabbage.
Add 1 Tbsp cooking oil, 1/2 lb. ground beef, 2 cloves of garlic (minced), 1 Tbsp chili powder, 1/2 tsp cumin, and a pinch of salt to a large skillet. Sauté over medium heat until the beef is fully browned. If you’re using a high fat content beef, drain the excess fat away before the next step.
Add one cup frozen corn kernels and a drained 10oz. can of diced tomatoes with chiles.
I used a generic brand of diced tomatoes with chiles, but this is basically Rotel tomatoes. If you can’t find something similar, you can use a small can of petite diced tomatoes and a small can of diced green chiles.
Sauté the ingredients in the skillet for a few minutes, or until the corn is heated through and most of the liquid in the bottom of the skillet has evaporated (it’s okay for there to be a bit of saucy moisture, just not puddles of liquid). Taste the mixture and adjust the salt. You’ll want it to be slightly on the salty side so that it doesn’t get too bland once all the cabbage is added.
Finally, add the shredded cabbage and sauté for just a couple minutes more (still over medium), or just until the cabbage begins to wilt. You want the raw edge taken off the cabbage, but for it to retain a little crunch.
Sprinkle a couple of fresh sliced green onions over top, then drizzle with taco sauce or your favorite hot sauce. You want a sauce that is nice and tangy. I’ll admit the store bought one I used left a little to be desired, so now I have to come up with a recipe for homemade taco sauce! :D
And that’s it! Southwest Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry is on the table!
My Family got mad I was making this because, “our son won’t eat cabbage”. Guess what? He Loved it! Thank you for this tasty recipe.
Yummy! I am not vegan, but I had a package of seitan chorizo in my refrigerator, so I used that as the swap for the beef. It was delicious and very quick to throw together on a weeknight. I chopped up some pickled jalapeños and threw them in since I did not have canned tomatoes with chiles. Thank you for another excellent recipe!
This was delicious! The only changeI made was adding chopped yellow onions with the meat. I servd this on a bed of tortilla chips that were getting a bit stale and needed to be used.🤫 Sriracha sauce, shredded cheese, cilantro, and homemade yogurt (we use it like sour cream) were our toppings. We will definitely make this again. Thanks so much for the delicious recipe!
This inspired my lunch today! I had a little leftover taco meat (mixed with some black beans) and an even littler bit of leftover mexican rice so dumped those in the skillet with cabbage and some bell pepper and a bit of rotel and boom. Since my meat & rice were well seasoned I didn’t even add any seasonings. The leftover rotel is slated for queso later this week so no waste there 👌🏼
For those asking about the taco sauce, Cholula is perfect on this 😋
This is a great recipe! It’s become part of my regular dinner rotation. When I serve it to my family, I call it “Taco Stir Fry.” I add a can of black beans and use a full pound of ground beef, and usually serve it over rice. I let people add toppings they want like shredded cheese, diced avocado, sour cream, pickled jalapenos, hot sauce, etc. Whatever is good to put on tacos is good on this. The shredded cabbage ends up being like the lettuce on a taco. So far this is the only way I can get my husband to eat cabbage.
We get lots of cabbage from our CSA and this is my kids FAVORITE way for me to use it. Thank you! Turns out you add Tex-Mex flavors to anything and my kids will love it, and my husband likes that it’s low-carb.
Made tonight!! Added black beans and jalapeños!!
Was AWESOME!!! $$$
Definitely a winner and will make again soon!
Simple and delicious! I used leftover cherry tomatoes + tomatoes from pico de gallo (squeezed to let excess juice out) + tomato paste mixed with a bit of water as I didn’t have a can of rotell or diced tomatoes. I ran out of fresh garlic yesterday, so subbed garlic powder & I also used leftover salsa verde to add a kick and some extra juice. I accidentally used a whole lb of ground turkey and it was honestly too much. I wanted the cabbage to be the bulk of the recipe, like yours, but it was still yummy (just very meaty – again, my bad!). Don’t make my same mistake!
Thanks so much Beth! I heard about your website on the Food Heaven Podcast and have been excited to check it out ever since. It did not disappoint! I’m looking forward to making more of your recipes :) Take care!
Can you share your taco sauce recipe ? We had a favorite but I can’t find it in the stores anymore so I would love to try yours
Unfortunately I don’t have a recipe for taco sauce (yet). For this recipe I used a bottled sauce from the store. I don’t remember which brand, but the label in the photos looks a lot like El Paso!
I have to tell you that the in my opinion the best taco sauce is the Food Lion brand (no kidding). They have a mild and a medium. If you want hotter, but store doesn’t have medium, then just use mild and add some hot sauce in. This is the tastiest taco sauce I have found. I put it on all kinds of food!
I just looked and we don’t have any food lion stores here. :(
This was fantastic! I was afraid that it wouldn’t make enough food because the calorie count was so low (when I input it all into MFP) but 4 servings was perfect. Super quick to make since I used a bag of coleslaw. Also added a can of black beans for some extra protein. So good! Will definitely be added to my rotation of meal prep recipes.
I have made this three times. The family loves it. I serve it over rice with grated cheese and sometimes crispy tortilla strips.
I make this recipe all the time. It’s in my monthly recipe rotation. I usually use a whole (smaller) cabbage and a regular size can of diced tomatoes. I also add the spices after draining the fat. It’s always a fit! I serve it with a side of sweet potatoes.
Question: What hot sauce can be used? Something like Frank’s or sriracha?
Review: What a great way to incorporate CABBAGE, an under-used veggie, into a tasty and economical family meal. To reduce fat/cholesterol, I browned the beef first and drained it well before adding it back to the pan with the spices. Removing as much fat as possible takes away some of the taste, but that’s become my practice. To compensate, I added a small diced yellow onion and some of the additions mentioned in earlier comments like 1/2 tsp smoked paprika and some Worcestershire sauce.
Thank you for an easy and tasty meal.
It’s really up to you with the hot sauce. If you like hot sauces as much as me, you might like any type of hot sauce on this. Taco sauce definitely goes the best since it has those southwest flavors in it, but if you want to branch out to other types of hot sauce there are no boundaries. :)
This is truly tasty! I think I accidentally started with too much oil and probably lost some spices draining the meat, but it was still yummy. Will definitely try again with turkey. Thanks for the great, cheap eats. You save my food budget every month!
Made this tonight for dinner as I had a half head of cabbage and some frozen corn to finish off. It was seriously good. My people gobbled it up. I made it per the recipe. For garnish, chopped jalapeños, sour cream, Cotija cheese and some hot sauce. This is one of those recipes where the sum is greater than the parts.
Hey Beth! While looking for the original recipe, I came upon your Southwest version. I believe it was me that originally mentioned the idea to you, so you’re welcome! I’m glad to see you enjoyed the idea so much! I might make two half-batches of this tonight, one with Asian flavour and one with Southwest. Also, good call on the corn, I probably wouldn’t have thought to add it.
Thank you, Ashley!! I’m so glad you found this and saw that I couldn’t remember! Haha! :D
That was very tasty. Added quite a bit less cabbage and finished it as a dinner for two.
I did a quick google search for taco meat with cabbage, and this came up. i had a roll of taco flavored turkey meat, and thought i’d add some shredded cabbage to it since i don’t have any lettuce. i’m gonna make a bunch of this, and put it with cheese on top of a pile of chips for nachos.
This was really delicious. We opted to do ground turkey instead of beef but kept everything else as written. Served with a dallop of sour cream. Yum! Thank you for sharing.
Beth, I really do not know how you do it. Simple ingredients, quick and easy preparation, extraordinary result. This is soooooo good, and the alchemy that happens in the pan makes inexpensive cabbage abd ground beef into a great weeknight meal. Thank you!
Thank YOU! ❤️
At my son’s suggestion, the second time I made this I used ground pork and increased the sauce amount to serve over rice. It was totally amazing. I really prefer the taste of pork instead of beef.
Will try this for lunch today. I was put on a Paleo diet and this is prefect.
Excellent! Subbed in ground turkey and doubled the recipe. Didn’t think my husband would care for it, but he had two helpings and said it was a keeper!
Wow, this was amazing.
For lunch the next day I mixed the leftovers with rice & black beans (other leftovers) and threw it in a tortilla, which was great too.
I will definitely be making this again soon! Thanks for the awesome recipes!
I made extra of this because I was going to have it for lunch tomorrow; my husband devoured the whole thing.
I’m calling that a success!
Oh my god, this was SO GOOD! I’ve only ever encountered cabbage boiled or in coleslaw, neither of which I like, but it’s just perfectly crunchy and robust here. I subbed a red and a green pepper and white onion for the corn/green onion, added Ancho chili powder and a splash of worchestershire, and topped with spicy monterrey Jack and salsa verde.
PERFECTION! Can’t wait to try the original version.
I made this with some very thinly sliced steak instead and it was awesome. I used half a coleslaw bag and it was a 10 minute meal!
I didn’t have (and don’t care for) taco sauce but I used a bit of your Enchilada Sauce leftover that I had frozen from a different night. Thanks, Beth!
Made this last night. Subbed ground turkey for the beef and added some thin sliced jalepenos as toppings at the end. I loved it, and my boyfriend did, too. I do have to say, this made closer to three and a half servings for us (my boyfriend had 1.5 servings, I had one, and enough leftover for me to bring for lunch today), so anyone who is feeding a family of four, or who has a particularly hungry kid or partner might want to take that into account when cooking. Otherwise, great recipe as usual! Loved the Southwestern twist on stirfry — it tasted like a cabbage taco salad in the best possible way.
Thanks for all the great recipe ideas. I wanted to share one as a thank-you. I live alone and always need another recipe to use cabbage, and 30 count yellow corn tortillas were on sale for $0.99 this week. So:
Corn tortilla, warmed on a cast-iron skillet
Finely shredded green cabbage
Ground pork fried with garlic and onions
Home made chipotle mayo (2 Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce blended with 1/2 cup mayonnaise).
You can put add spices to the pork but the chipotle mayo will probably drown it out.
Yum! Thanks for this easy weeknight recipe. As usual, we are much bigger eaters than you–this was 2-1/2 servings for us. Not a complaint.
Made this one last night for my family. Everyone LOVED it. My 7 year old son cleared his plate. I was in complete shock, he will NEVER clear his plate with my cooking. Since I have been following your blog that has all changed. Thank You so much! Keep the great recipes coming. :-)
Beth , how do I make this vegetarian?
You could probably replace the beef with black beans. :)
I used a crumbled block of tempeh instead of the beef and it was delicious!
Can’t wait to try this one! Your beef and cabbage stir fry has become a favorite at our house, and this one looks like a fun twist:)
I made it last night and it was delicious! Another easy, yummy meal for my gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free daughter. Thanks!
Yum! The beef and cabbage stir fry has made it into almost weekly rotation so will definitely have to try this version.
Anybody can chime in and tell me how well something like this would freeze? Never tried Cabbage re-heated from frozen but this looks like it would be great for Meal-Prepping
I think it just depends on how important texture is to you. If you freeze this one and reheat it, the cabbage will get very soft. I prefer a partially cooked cabbage for this dish so that it still has some crispness. I do reheat the refrigerated leftovers and it’s still great (slightly softer), but freezing further softens vegetables because the ice crystals puncture and break down the cell walls of the vegetables.
Oooh! I’ve got a half a head of cabbage in the fridge right now. I’ll probably do black beans in place of the beef and maybe add some onions to toast the spices with.
I’ve never bought taco sauce before, I’ll have to look for that.
Thanks for another great recipe!
I made this last night and it was a success! My fiance enjoyed it as well.
I chopped up a medium yellow onion and put that in the skillet with the oil and spices. I added about 1 tsp of Adobo Seasoning and about 1/2 tsp smoked paprika.
I used one can of rinsed and drained black beans in place of the beef and added that with the tomatoes and corn.
For sauce, I actually made some of the sauce from your cumin lime slaw and that worked really well with this. It also tasted great with some ranch drizzled on top. We crumbled tortilla chips over it for more crunch.
This sounds great! I have to make it as is and then if I like that, I might try a vegan version for my son.
This sounds awesome, can’t wait to try it. A healthy southwesty addition would be a small can of rinsed and drained black beans. Too me that would add to the presentation and the flavo
Yum!!!!!!!!!!
This looks like an instant hit.
Quick, simple, everything easy available; who could ask for more ? Thank you !
I love adding asian flavors to various dishes to “mix things up”. Weeknight dinners can get boring so easily, and often I fall into the trap of eating out because I can’t think of anything to cook at home. Thanks for sharing this idea/inspiration!