Beef, Broccoli & Snow Pea Stir Fry
This quick and flavorful stir fry is perfect for a weeknight meal! Thinly sliced beef, broccoli florets, and snow peas are cooked in delicious Asian flavors and aromatics.
There are food trends that will come and go. I think creations like cake pops will eventually fizzle out, but stir fry? It’s here to stay.
I mean, what other dish allows you to create a fresh, fast, delicious dinner using a hodge podge of ingredients from your fridge? I don’t know of a dish that does it better than a stir fry. Rummage through your vegetable drawers, pick out a few things, and you can make a great dinner of it.
I’ve done a chicken stir fry on Fifteen Spatulas before, and I think chicken tends to go beautifully with vegetables like bell peppers, carrots, zucchini, and the like. On the other hand, beef is great with vegetables like broccoli, snow peas, and bok choy.
For the fresh flavor base for a stir fry, all you really need is some fresh garlic and ginger.
And actually, I don’t even keep fresh ginger around in the fridge…I keep it in the freezer!
As I mention in my asian beef bites video, I recommend keeping a knob of ginger in the freezer, and just grating it straight into your dish whenever you need it. The flavor still remains very potent and it lasts for several months.
Remember the most important key to success in making stir fry is to not just use a hot pan, but make sure your veggies are all very dry.
Definitely spin them well in a salad spinner or dry with a clean towel.
I had a reader who couldn’t figure out why her stir fry was turning out soggy, and it turns out she was throwing the veggies in the pan after washing, adding a lot of water to the pan.
Drying the veggies did the trick in fixing her stir fry dinners!
Serve with steamed rice or fried rice!
This classic Broccoli Salad is another one of my favorite ways to prepare broccoli. Happy cooking, and catch the recipe below!
Beef, Broccoli, and Snow Pea Stir Fry
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb petite sirloin steak
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/2 tsp grated ginger
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 1 head broccoli
- 1/2 lb snow peas
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Thinly slice the sirloin steak (and if you are having trouble slicing it thinly, pop it into the freezer for 15 minutes, then slice). Toss the beef with the cornstarch, soy sauce, ginger, and sesame oil, and let it sit while you prep the veggies.
- Cut the broccoli head into evenly sized florets.
- Wash the broccoli and snow peas, and make sure you dry them very thoroughly either in a salad spinner or with a towel. If there’s excess water, you will end up steaming your stir fry and it will likely be mushy.
- Heat up a wok or skillet over medium high heat, and test it for heat by adding a few drops of water. If they sizzle and burn up immediately, the pan is hot enough.
- Add the marinated beef. Toss frequently for a couple minutes until the beef slices are cooked, then remove the beef to a big bowl.
- Add the vegetable oil to the pan, and toss in the garlic and red pepper flakes. Immediately add the broccoli and cook, stirring frequently, for 2-3 minutes until the broccoli is bright green, and still crisp, but slightly tender. Remove the broccoli to the same bowl that contains the beef.
- Add the snow peas to the pan and cook for 1-2 minutes, until slightly tender but mostly crisp, then add in the reserved cooked beef and broccoli and stir it all together for 1 minute. The stir fry is now ready! Enjoy with rice or noodles if desired.
Nutrition
Nutrition is estimated using a food database and is only intended to be used as a guideline for informational purposes.
14 Comments on “Beef, Broccoli & Snow Pea Stir Fry”
This was incredible! So quick, and perfect for a weeknight meal. Glad I stumbled upon your site.
I made this last night and it was fantastic! But… I’ve never made stir fry before and we didn’t have a wok, so I had to use my stainless steel frying pan. When I did the meat, I ended up with a lot of burn sauce sticking to the pan. Meat was fine, and I cooked the vegetables just fine on top. But…. the burnt smell left in my kitchen today is terrorizing us. Any ideas what the problem might have been? The pan? Maybe I was too hot or not hot enough still? I thought I had it just right! 🙁
Hi Angela, it’s very easy for stuff to burn when you’re cooking multiple batches and it’s really high heat (which a stir fry is). Usually I mitigate this by having everything ready to go (mise en place) and if things get too dark, you can deglaze the pan with a little water.
I made this for dinner tonight – YUMMY!!! And so easy!
Hi Jennifer, that’s great! So glad you enjoyed the stir fry!
I adore stir-fry but I just don’t make it often enough – this recipe makes me want to break out my wok! Just beautiful!
Yum! I do the same ginger trick: if you grate it fresh, it just ends up a stringy mess all over your poor grater.
I make stir-fry for dinner more than anything else, I think, because I grew up on it. : ) I rarely added ginger in the past but I’ve been enlightened lately and add it all the time now. It’s so good for you and adds a great bit of spice and flavor to everything. And we love beef so it shows up a lot for stir-fry. I’d gladly have yours for dinner tonight!
To this day I’ve never had a cake pop. Why would I want a pop when I can have a slice? Stir fry, on the other hand, is something I could probably have every night! Love this.
We don’t eat beef, but I usually make similar stir-fry’s with chicken or seafood. Yum!
We do a stir fry meal once or twice a week. One of us volunteers to do all the chopping and then we have two woks because my American palate and his Australian palate are miles apart. I would LOVE this dish.
Yummy! I normally eat mostly veggies, but once in a while meat is good, too. I will be making this recipe for sure. Thanks for bringing back the basics of stir fry.
Stir frys Were my go to meal when I moved away from home. It always made me feel so profesional making them 🙂
Stir fry is my favorite. My daughter is a vegetarian and I started making tofu stir fry and stiii9 go back to that occasionally but now I usually make chicken stir fry.