With a little prep, this Easy Beef and Broccoli recipe can come together quickly during the week for a delicious weeknight meal or it can be made into meal prep bowls ahead of time to enjoy all week for lunch or dinner.
Who doesn’t love Chinese food? We do! A lot.
My kids love ordering Chinese and as much as I love the convenience of it, I don’t love all the sodium and MSG that can often come with these meals. Plus there’s often a lot of oil, and extra calories hidden in these dishes.
Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry is one of those go-to Chinese take-out meals that you think you need to write off once you start a healthier lifestyle. However, by making this delicious and easy beef and broccoli at home, you can enjoy a take-out favorite without any of the guilt!
Trust me, you’ll hardly miss the take out! 🙂
Tips On How To Get High-Quality Meat
Higher quality meat tastes better than lower quality. It falls back to that old adage…you get what you pay for!
To get high-quality organic beef at a great price, check your local grocery store on Thursdays or Fridays (later in the evening) to see if they’ve reduced any of the meats for a quick sale. This happens when the meats are getting close to their sale date and they still have an abundance left over.
The first couple of times I’ve found deals like this it was by chance. I felt like I hit the meat lottery! But, then it occurred to me that every week there is some type of price reduction on organic meats so I make it a point to stop in on Thursdays to see what I can find.
The thing to keep in mind with these reduced-priced items is that you either need to prepare the meats immediately or portion them off to freeze for later. You don’t want to wait too long.
Easy Beef and Broccoli
We are going to jump right into cooking because I cannot wait to show you how to make this recipe!
This is a list of all the ingredients you will need:
- Broccoli – Source for vitamin K and C and helps build up collagen in the skin
- Sirloin steak – Full of iron and is one of the best protein-rich foods
- Beef broth – Helps reduce inflammation and improve gut health
- Cornstarch – Great binder to thicken up sauces instead of flour
How To Make The Marinade
To give this beef a nice and juicy flavor, you are going to marinate it before you cook. This is crucial to really mimic that yummy take-out taste!
For the beef marinade, you will need:
- Soy sauce
- Sesame oil
- Sriracha
- Honey
- Grated garlic
- Fresh ginger
- Scallions
If you typically keep your pantry stocked with Asian-inspired ingredients (which I always do!), then you’ll only need to pick up the fresh ingredients when this is on the meal plan!
There are a few key steps I do in this recipe to make it successful (and delicious).
I grated the garlic into the marinade instead of sautéing them with the beef and broccoli. Personally, I think this adds a lot of flavor to the sauce plus I don’t have to worry about burning the garlic when trying to cook the rest of the meal.
Also, I added Sriracha to the sauce to give it a little kick and another layer of flavor. The honey adds a balance and compliments the stronger flavors.
Once you have the marinade put together, pour it over the sirloin strips (I slice the steak across the grain into strips) in a glass container. Cover and let it sit for 1 hour or longer, if possible. After it’s ready, it’s time to start cooking.
How To Make This Beef And Broccoli Recipe
You are going to start off by cooking the broccoli first!
How to Stir Fry Broccoli
There are a couple of different ways I like to prepare the broccoli for this recipe. If I’m using fresh broccoli, then I’ll blanch It first. This keeps the broccoli nice and tender with a little crunch when you add it to the stir fry.
To blanch broccoli place the broccoli into a pot of boiling water until it turns bright green. This usually takes about 2-3 minutes. Drain the broccoli and place it into a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. Once the broccoli is cooled down enough, then drain and set aside for later.
However, blanching can be a bit of work; so if you don’t feel like making a fuss during the week, you can easily use one or two 10-ounce bags of ‘steam in the bag’ broccoli! If you decide to go this route, I would wait till the end to add the broccoli as it might get too mushy.
Cooking Tip: Make sure to wash off any dirt or residue before you use the broccoli.
Which Kind of Beef Should I Use in Beef and Broccoli Stir Fry?
For this beef and broccoli recipe, I typically like to use sirloin steak (or filet) when I make any stir fry. Even though it’s cheaper to use, I find flank steak to be on the tough side. I don’t mind spending a little extra on a high-quality cut of meat. Especially when I’m using it in a recipe where I can stretch the meat into 4 different meals!
For this recipe, I used about 1 – 1 1/2 pounds of steak and this gets me around 4 good meals.
How to Cook the Beef
Now it’s time to cook the beef!
In a large frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil and add the beef.
Cooking Tip: Reserve the leftover marinade you didn’t use the first; you’ll use this after the steak is cooked to finish the sauce.
It’s likely you’ll need to cook the beef in a couple of batches. You don’t want to crowd the pan because that will steam the beef instead of browning it to get a nice sear on the outside.
After the beef is cooked, remove from the pan and set it aside.
How To Make Beef And Broccoli Sauce
This is where the leftover marinade will come in.
You will first need to make a slurry to thicken the marinade into a sauce. You will need to whisk together 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and 1/2 cup of beef broth. Then, whisk the slurry in with the reserved marinade and pour that sauce into the same pan you used to cook the beef.
Bring it to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for 3-4 minutes or until it starts to thicken. Stir in the broccoli and steak and continue to stir until it is all coated with the sauce!
What to Serve the Beef and Broccoli With
Taste for seasoning and then serve this meal with a side of brown rice or eat as-is for a low carb meal. Sprinkle the top with sesame seeds, the green part of the scallions and add a little more Sriracha for a spicy kick.
If you don’t want to eat this with rice, you can also serve it with quinoa fried rice. If you want a low carb side dish option, then try some cauliflower rice!
Healthy Beef and Broccoli Meal Prep Bowls
This recipe can be prepared into a delicious meal prep bowl. This is a great way to portion out dinners for the week and have it ready for a super quick meal!
Divide the recipe between 4 glass meal prep containers and then put 1/2 cup of brown rice next to the beef and broccoli. Like I mentioned above, you can also use quinoa or cauliflower rice or just leave it out.
To eat for lunch, warm-up in the microwave for 2-3 minutes.
If you’re not going to eat these meals right away then you can also freeze these meal prep bowls for a freezer meal later in the month. It will take a little longer to heat up if you are warming them up directly from the freezing. Heating it up in the microwave for 3-4 minutes should work or take it out the night before and let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight.
More Healthy Meal Prep Recipes
Check out some of these healthy meal prep recipes to have on hand for a quick and easy dinner:
- 10 Healthy Lunch Meal Prep Recipes
- Quick and Easy Freezer Meal to Stock Up On
- The Easiest 10 Ground Turkey Recipes to Meal Prep This Weekend
Avoid all the spending money on Chinese takeout and make your own Healthy Beef and Broccoli right at home! Share a picture and tag me on Instagram or Facebook if you decide to try it!
- ¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 2 garlic cloves, grated
- 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
- 1 - 2 teaspoons Sriracha
- 2-3 teaspoons honey
- 1 bunch of scallions, thinly sliced, green and white parts divided
- 1 - 1½ pounds sirloin, sliced in strips
- ½ cup beef broth
- 1 tablespoons cornstarch
- 3- 4 cups broccoli, blanched
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- To make the marinade, place the soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, Sriracha, honey. and scallion whites in a container and whisk together.
- Pour the marinade over the sirloin strips in a glass container. Cover and marinade for 1 hour or longer, if possible.
- When you're ready to make the recipe cook the broccoli. Place the broccoli in a pot of boiling water until it turns bright green. This takes about 2-3 minutes. Then drain the broccoli and place it into a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. Once the broccoli is cooled then drain and set aside.
- In a large frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil or any cooking oil.
- Once the oil is hot add the beef. Reserve the leftover marinade, you'll use this after the steak is cooked to finish the sauce. It's likely you'll need to cook the beef in a couple batches. You don't want to crowd the pan because then the beef will steam instead of brown.
- After the beef is cooked remove from the pan and set it aside.
- Whisk together the beef broth and cornstarch until the cornstarch is completely dissolved. Then mix together the leftover marinade and cornstarch mixture. Pour into the same pan used to cook the beef.
- Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Let it simmer until the sauce thickens.
- Once the sauce begins to thicken add in the broccoli and steak. Toss to coat with sauce. Let it it cook for another 2-3 minutes or until heated through.
- Sprinkle with the green part of the scallions and sesame seeds. Serve over white rice, brown rice, cauliflower rice, or keep it low carb and eat it as is.
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