Korean Ground Beef with Vegetables made with lean ground beef, a sweet and spicy Korean sauce, and plenty of vegetables makes for a quick and easy healthy dinner. Love Korean recipes? Try this Slow Cooker Korean Chicken or Shredded Korean Pork.
This meal was our impromptu dinner last week when I stared aimlessly into the fridge after deciding I wasn't in the mood for what I initially planned. You know those nights when everything is planned for dinner but then 5 o'clock rolls around and that's the last thing you want to eat.
Instead of opting for take-out, or cereal (let's be honest), this night I was determined to use at least some of the ingredients to create a different meal that we would all love. That meant utilizing the lean ground beef, a veggie mix that was intended for a big salad, and the brown rice I had precooked earlier in the week.
After staring at everything for a few minutes and doing a quick survey to find out if anyone had any dinner ideas (they didn't), I remembered a simple Korean sauce that I make all the time to marinate protein and knew it would be the perfect thing. It's sweet, savory, and slightly spicy and makes pretty much anything taste good.
From there it was a simple matter of adapting things to work for ground beef and giving the veggies a quick saute. When using a sauce like this for ground beef, it's a similar approach to making ground beef tacos. First, you brown the meat and drain any excess fat. Then you add the sauce and let things simmer. Easy and quick.
Serving Ideas fro Korean Beef
So now let's talk about serving this easy Korean beef recipe. There are so many fun ways to serve this dish from traditional options with rice to make delicious lettuce wraps and bowls.
- You can go the traditional route and serve it over white or brown rice.
- Try it in lettuce wraps for a lower carb option or served over a bowl of spaghetti squash or cauliflower rice.
- Now if you want to get really creative, this makes amazing Asian inspired tacos. Fill up warm corn tortillas with the ground beef. Top with either cooked Asian veggies (like in the recipe) or a fresh slaw using cabbage, cilantro, green onion, and lime juice.
- Throw the leftover meat into a quick quesadilla. It may sound weird but it's seriously delicious.
- Grab a bunch of crunchy veggies like cabbage, cucumbers, and carrots and top it with this Korean beef for an easy salad. Add cilantro and mint for even more flavor.
- Don't be afraid to add a fried or soft boiled egg for an authentic Korean touch.
Tips and Recipe Ideas
There are lots of ways to personalize and customize this recipe. Here are some things to consider:
- The sauce for the beef will be on the liquidy side. Personally, I like this since I can spoon the extra sauce over the vegetables. However, if you want a thicker sauce, stir in a little cornstarch before adding it to the beef. This will thicken up the sauce nicely.
- Any vegetable combination will work for this recipe. Usually, I opt for a bag of mixed Asian veggies but you could choose any single vegetable or an assortment of your favorites. Consider using broccoli, green beans, bok choy, or even Brussel sprouts.
- If you don't like things spicy, leave out the Asian garlic chili paste, and let people add their own afterward. You can also substitute the sambal olek for Sriracha or some red pepper flakes depending on what you have on hand.
- This recipe will work great with ground turkey, ground chicken, ground pork, or ground bison so use whatever you have on hand or prefer. It also works with vegetarian crumbles.
- If you fall in love with the sauce, which you will, it can be used for marinating just about any type of meat. We use it all the time for chicken, steak, and pork.
Can I make this with ground turkey?
This recipe will work great with ground turkey, ground chicken, ground pork, or ground vegetarian meat products. For those on WW, using ground turkey or chicken breast will make this a lower point recipe. On Blue and Purple, it will have just 3 points and 4 points on Green.