Better Than Takeout Beef and Broccoli
My mother raised five children, so of course she had a budget for everything. Food especially. She always made everything from scratch. It was often very good! Of course, now I can appreciate it much more than I did as a child. Ordering take out was a luxury for us. So I quickly grew to love a good Chinese meal on a Friday night. Convenient. Salty. Usually fried. Yum. Afterwards I would feel terrible though. So, in the past few years I have set out to create better than takeout Chinese food at home.
I have tried many recipes, but no matter what I still go back to the same staple ingredients. I don’t know if I’m the only one, but I often crave a good saucy noodle. Rice is good too. But I love soy sauce and veggies and noodles. Yum. So, what I have learned is this sauce recipe is very versatile. I have used it with chicken and beef, noodles and rice, and even various vegetables. It’s delicious with everything!
Today I’m sharing with you the “beef and broccoli” version. Again, change it up! Be you. Choose what you like. However, I think this is a classic everyone will like. I serve it over egg or rice noodles or just brown rice. This is extra saucy because I like it that way. So if you want to make less than the recipe, you’ll still have plenty to coat your meat and veggies with some leftover for the noodles or rice.
All you really need to do for this is toss your meat (pre-sliced or cut up in small chunks) in some soy sauce and ground ginger and then coat it in corn starch or arrowroot powder. Then set that aside. This helps the meat to crisp and keep all the juices inside so it’s more tender.
Then chop up the vegetables and mix the sauce ingredients. I like to cook everything in my wok, which takes a few steps if you want everything to get a nice flavor rather than just steaming it. It’s worth it though!
If the fish and oyster sauce scare you, it’s okay to skip it, but I promise you it elevates the flavor of this dish and really makes it delicious. I rarely make Asian food without them!
I hope you try this one. It’s really very good and hits the spot when you’re craving that takeout food. You won’t be feeling awful after you eat it either!
Beef And Broccoli
Ingredients
Beef and vegetables
- 1 lb beef sirloin
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp corn starch or arrow root powder
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 onion roughly chopped
- 2 inch piece fresh ginger sliced or grated to taste
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 cup carrots chopped
- 3-4 cups broccoli florets
- 2-3 tbsp vegetable or avocado oil
Sauce
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- splash of fish sauce
- 1/2 tsp chili garlic sauce
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 3 tbsp brown sugar or honey
- few slices of fresh ginger
- 1/2 tsp chopped garlic
- 2 tbsp cornstarch or arrow root powder
- 4 tbsp water
Instructions
- Slice beef into thin strips (or buy the pre-sliced kind)
- Place beef into a large ziplock bag. Add the one teaspoon of soy sauce and ground ginger and shake it up to coat the beef. Set aside.
- Roughly chop onion and set aside.
- Thinly slice fresh ginger. You can also grate it finely if you prefer it that way. Also set aside.
- Mince garlic cloves and roughly chop carrots and broccoli. I use baby carrots, but one cup would be about two large carrots.
- For the sauce, combine all ingredients in a bowl or glass measuring cup. If you are not a fan of fish or oyster sauce, you can skip these or put less, but it really adds a new level of flavor to this meal!
- Steal a bit of garlic and ginger from the ones you already chopped and throw it in. Set the sauce aside to get all the flavors blended.
- Heat a wok or large skillet. Add about 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. I use avocado.
- While the pan is heating, add the cornstarch or arrow root powder to the bag of beef. Shake it up and try to coat every piece well. When pan is hot, pour the beef in and let it brown on all sides. It doesn’t have to be completely cooked through. Remove the beef from the pan and set aside in a covered bowl.
- Add a little more oil to the hot pan if necessary. Then add the onion and cook for a minute or two before adding the carrots. Let these cook down for a few minutes so carrots have time to begin softening. Then add the broccoli. They tend to soak up the oil, so if you need to add a little more, that’s fine.
- If you’re using rice or noodles for this, now is a good time to get that going!
- Let the broccoli brown a little bit. Add in the minced garlic and ginger. Saute for another minute or two, until fragrant.
- Pour a few tablespoons of the sauce in and cover the wok or pan. This allows the vegetables to finish cooking so they’re nice and soft. Check by putting a fork through the broccoli or carrots. Once they’re done, add the beef back in and then the rest of the sauce.
- Bring to a low boil. Add in the cornstarch and water mixture to thicken the sauce. Simmer on low for a few minutes just to marry all of the flavors. If you want the sauce even thicker, you can add more of the cornstarch mixture to get to to the texture you prefer.
- Enjoy this over some rice or rice noodles for a delicious takeout meal that tastes even better than the one showing up at your door.
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