Ground Beef and Broccoli
My love of ground meat recipes is no secret. Simple. Fail-proof. Guaranteed to be met with enthusiasm. I sometimes wonder why I bother to cook anything else. My goal with this specific recipe for Ground Beef and Broccoli was to make it a one dish meal and give the ground beef a bit more texture–attempting to approximate the sliced steak that is more traditional in Beef with Broccoli.
I used two pots for the “one dish” strategy, cheating ever so slightly by boiling a pot of salted water as I was heating my wok. Once the water came to boil, I tossed in the broccoli florets and allowed them to cook until tender. This step is optional. If you like your broccoli on the crunchy side, you can toss the raw florets into the wok once the meat is cooked. We prefer our broccoli a bit softer, so the par-boil stage gets the broccoli where it needs to be. Once the broccoli was done to my liking, I scooped the florets from the pot, tossed them into an ice bath to stop the cooking process and returned the water to boil. At that point I tossed in some Asian noodles which cooked while the Ground Beef and Broccoli was coming together. If you prefer, you can skip the noodles and serve the dish served over steamed brown or white rice.
Regarding texture, once my wok (you can use a large saute pan) was heated, I added the block of ground beef and allowed it to sear on one side without breaking it apart. After it had a nice sear, I flipped the block and did the same on the second side. Only then did I start to break apart the meat into larger chunks as opposed to a crumble. The result was a more chunky ground beef that paired well with the broccoli and noodles.
Anyway, I hope that you give these techniques a try and make this off-the-cuff Ground Beef with Broccoli your own as a an easy, weeknight one dish meal. Enjoy!
Ground Beef with Broccoli
Ingredients
- 1.5 lb ground beef
- 2 crowns broccoli cut into florets
- 12-14 oz Asian noodles rice, wheat–whatever your preference
- 1/2 c soy sauce
- 2 Tbls brown sugar
- 1 Tbls minced garlic about 4 cloves
- 1 Tbls corn starch
- 1 Tbls sesame oil
- 2 tsp minced ginger
- 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- 2 scallions, sliced optional garnish
Instructions
- Heat a large pot of salted water to boil while also heating a wok or large saute pan on a separate burner over medium-high heat.
- Once the water is boiling, add broccoli florets and cook until slightly tender (approximately 4 minutes). When cooked to your liking, transfer broccoli from pot with a slotted spoon (or spider) to a bowl of ice water. The cold bath will preserve the broccoli's bright green color.
- Bring the water back up to boil and cook the noodles according to package directions. Once cooked, drain into colander, rinse with cold water and set aside.
- Meanwhile, place the block of ground beef in the large skillet/wok and allow to sear on one side. When the meat easily pulls away from the pan, flip it and sear the second side before starting to break the meat apart into large chunks (Bite-size pieces as opposed to crumbled).
- While the beef is cooking, combine the sauce ingredients.
- When beef is cooked through (no longer pink), addthe drained broccoli, noodles and sauce to the skillet containing the browned ground beef.
- Continue to stir fry over medium-high heat for about five minutes until broccoli and noodles are warmed through and the sauce has thickened, stirring occasionally.
- Serve with optional sliced scallions, if desired.