Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli
Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli is a delicious quick and easy week-night dinner that’s ready in a few minutes! This tasty stir-fry has lots of flavor from Ginger and Ponzu Sauce, and it uses a little cornstarch, but it’s still pretty low in net carbs with tips to make it even lower in carbs.
PIN Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli to try it later!
I went to Beijing in 2001, thanks to my brother Rand who was in China helping the Hong Kong office of DDB, where he worked in those days. Then having the Olympics in China got me in the mood for stir-fry dishes, and this Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli with Ginger seems like the perfect quick option for a healthy meal!
Now before the Asian Food Police swoop in here and reprimand me, let me make it clear that this is not an authentically Chinese dish, in fact one ingredient I’m using is Ponzu Sauce, which is Japanese. Ponzu sauce does have some carbs too, so switch that out for soy sauce or use a lower-carb stir-fry sauce if you prefer.
What ingredients do you need?
- beef sirloin
- soy sauce or Gluten-Free Soy Sauce (affiliate link)
- Ponzu Sauce
- rice vinegar
- cornstarch
- broccoli florets
- Peanut Oil (affiliate link)
- fresh ginger root
- garlic cloves
SAUCE INGREDIENTS:
- ginger puree
- soy sauce or Gluten-Free Soy Sauce (affiliate link)
- Ponzu sauce
- canned chicken broth (affiliate link)
- cornstarch
How can you make this recipe lower in carbs?
If you wanted to make this for a stricter low-carb diet, substitute another type of seasoned soy sauce or Chinese cooking sauce without sugar for the Ponzu Sauce. The cornstarch adds 3 carbs per servings but you can use less if you don’t mind a thinner sauce.
Tips for Stir-Frying:
If you’re not familiar with stir-fry cooking, you might want to read the basic rules for stir-frying that I learned when I took Chinese Cooking many years ago.
How to Make Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli:
(Scroll down for complete recipe with nutritional information.)
- Cut beef into thin strips and marinate in mixture of soy sauce, Ponzu sauce, rice vinegar, and cornstarch. Use Gluten-Free Soy Sauce (affiliate link) and Gluten-Free Ponzu Sauce (affiliate link) if you need this recipe to be gluten-free.
- It’s important that meat and vegetables are cut into same-size pieces for stir-fry cooking.
- Some people like to blanch broccoli in boiling water for 1-2 minutes before cooking it in the wok. I never do this because I like raw broccoli and prefer it kind of crispy in stir-fries, so take your choice on whether to do that or not.
- Heat pan until it’s very hot, then heat half the oil until it’s shimmering and “season the oil” by stir-frying a few slices of ginger root and garlic for just about 30 seconds. Discard ginger root and garlic.
- Stir-fry broccoli for about three minutes, or until it has turned bright green and is barely starting to soften. Remove broccoli to a plate.
- Add more oil if needed, then add beef and stir-fry for about 2 minutes. (Don’t overcook the beef at this point. It will cook more with the broccoli.)
- Add broccoli back to pan along with sauce mixture and stir-fry about 2 minutes more, or until sauce has thickened slightly and all ingredients are hot and cooked through.
- Serve hot.
More Stir-Fry Recipes to Make at Home:
Stir-Fried Tofu with Ginger and Soy Sauce
Stir-Fried Shrimp and Sugar Snap Peas
Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli
Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli is flavored with plenty of ginger, and this is a delicious week-night dinner!
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 1 lb. beef sirloin, cut into thin strips
- 1 T soy sauce (see notes)
- 1 T Ponzu Sauce (see notes)
- 2 tsp. rice vinegar
- 2 tsp. cornstarch (see notes)
- 4 cups broccoli florets, cut into same size pieces
- 2 T peanut oil (depending on your pan)
- 2-3 slices fresh ginger root
- 2-3 sliced garlic cloves
Sauce Ingredients:
- 1 tsp. ginger puree (see notes)
- 1 T soy sauce (see notes)
- 1 T Ponzu sauce (see notes)
- 1/4 cup chicken broth
- 1 T cornstarch
Instructions
- Trim all visible fat from beef and cut into strips (I bought beef already cut into strips because it was on sale!)
- Combine soy sauce, ponzu sauce, rice vinegar and 2 tsp. cornstarch in bowl and add the beef strips.
- Stir to coat meat with the mixture, then let marinate while you prep the other ingredients.
- Wash broccoli and cut into same-sized florets, keeping a few inches of stem on the pieces.
- Combine sauce ingredients in a small bowl, stirring to dissolve cornstarch in the liquid.
- Have all ingredients ready and turner and serving plate ready before you begin to stir-fry.
- Heat wok or heavy metal pan over high flame or hot burner about 1 minute, until it feels hot if you put your hand over it.
- Add 1 T peanut oil and heat until the oil looks shimmery, then add garlic and ginger root slices and cook about 30 seconds, just until you start to smell the garlic and ginger.
- Remove garlic and ginger and discard.
- Add broccoli and stir-fry, stirring often, for about 2-3 minutes, or until broccoli turns bright green and is barely getting tender. Remove broccoli to a plate.
- Add the other tablespoon of oil if needed, (heat about 30 seconds, if you add oil) then add beef and marinating liquid.
- Stir-fry beef about 2 minutes, stirring constantly and being careful not to overcook the meat at this point.
- When meat is not quite cooked through, add broccoli back to pan with sauce and cook about 2 minutes more, stirring until meat and vegetables are coated with sauce and sauce is slightly thickened.
- Serve hot.
Notes
Use gluten-free Ponzu sauce and gluten-free soy sauce if needed. I wouldn't worry too much about such a small amount of cornstarch but you can use less if you prefer and have a slightly thinner sauce. The ginger puree in a jar that I used is also called ground ginger, or use finely minced fresh ginger root.
This recipe created by Kalyn.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 414Total Fat: 24gSaturated Fat: 7.6gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 13gCholesterol: 105mgSodium: 739mgCarbohydrates: 16gFiber: 5.3gSugar: 3.1gProtein: 35g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated by the Recipe Plug-In I am using. I am not a nutritionist and cannot guarantee 100% accuracy, since many variables affect those calculations.
Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
This recipe is relatively low in net carbs, but the cornstarch and Punzu Sauce both have some carbs. See tips above for making a version that’s lower in carbs. This dish is probably phase 2 or 3 and would be a personal choice for the original South Beach Diet, but it wouldn’t be too bad to eat occasionally.;
Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Stir-Fry Recipes to find more recipes like this one. Use the Recipes by Diet Type photo index pages to find more recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You can also Follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.
Historical Notes for this Recipe:
This recipe was posted in 2008. It was last updated with more information in 2021.
18 Comments on “Stir-Fried Beef and Broccoli”
This is yummy! Fantastic as is, but I'm a sucker for sesame seeds, so I toasted some up and added them on top! Mmm, thanks for spicing up phase 1!
DELICIOUS!!! I substituted the ponzu sauce for hoisin sauce. Will be cooking this again soon!
Wow that looks wonderful! I never stir-fry beef and now you have me wondering why…
Thanks to everyone for the nice thoughts about this recipe.
Deborah, congratulations on the 9 pounds. That sounds fun to choose food from a different country each night!
This looks delicious! We have been doing a different country each night of the Olympics, and Chinese is a big favorite in our house. BTW, I am at 9 pounds and still losing.
Thanks for the step by step and links to more informative posts. Never stir fried with ponzu but it sounds like I’ll like the results.
Looks delicious. I’ve never tried ponzu sauce, but I’ve been seeing it around. Must look into that. Thanks for the link!
I’ll have to give this a try. Though I will admit we ordered TONS of Chinese food from our local Chinese place and had that to eat during the opening ceremonies and all the first weekend of the Olympics!
That dish looks extremely good! I love broccoli, ginger, beef and anything stir-fried! Yummy!
Cheers,
Rosa
That looks lovely! I’d never heard of ponzu before. thanks for sharing!
I really like what you have done with this recipe. Very nice. A note for you out there, you do not necessarily have to go out and buy ponzu sauce. Basically the main ingredients are soy, citrus, mirin and bonito flakes. You can even get away with making it with Dashi (a type of japenese stock.)
If you were really hurting, a mix of soy sauce, sugar and citrus will help you on your way.
All in all, a nice recipe and very appetizing as well.
Ponzu! I’ve had this on my shopping list for the next time I get to my local Asian market. It adds a wonderful salty-citrusy note to stir fry dishes.
I love a good stir fry! I don’t think that I have ever heard of Ponzu sauce!
Now I have a craving for beef stir-fry. Looks delicious. And thanks so much for including one of my recipes in your tasty list. I want to try every one! Stir-fries = one of my favorite ways to cook.
Dear Sophie,
I never mind if another blogger makes one of my recipes and posts about it, especially if they are kind enough to mention my site as the source of the recipe. But when another site copies my entire recipe and photograph (something that takes me hours of work to create) and then posts it so there is no need for anyone to visit my site to see the recipe or photo, that does bother me. If people copy my copyrighted material and republish it, I can and will file a DMCA complaint for copyright violation.
I do appreciate the apology. Thanks for taking the time and for removing the recipe. I don’t mind aggregator sites that contain links which send people to food blogs, but I’m not a fan of that type of site which just cuts and pastes recipes which represent the hard work of others.
Dear Kalyn,
I want to apologize to you for having been so brash as to post one of your recipes on another site without your permission. Please feel re-assured that this was not ill intended, but was simply experimenting. In fact I was trying very hard to get the links to your blog, as well as the related post entry and picture to work but without success. For this reason I have decided to remove the recipe.
I just want to say that I really love your site and recipes, and would never do anything which would do you injustice.
My sincere apologies,
Sophie
Looks great, Kalyn! Time to dust off my wok!
Kalyn, I nearly did a takeout from MacDonalds’ for my Sunday lunch, but this easy recipe saved the day.
I skipped the corn starch and it was still really delicious. The boyfriend likes it, too.