Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Beef with Broccoli

Yum! I love Chinese food but I don't eat it, way too unhealthy. Most Chinese food (at restaurants) is loaded with oil and sodium. But I have a solution, make my own! The boys were at a lacrosse game in San Francisco, I was left to my own devises...


Ingredients (for 2)


10-12 ounces flank steak sliced very thin across the grain
4 cups broccoli cut into small florets
1/2 cup low sodium beef broth
1/2 large onion chopped into large pieces
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons (or more) low sodium soy sauce
black pepper


First, I always ask the butcher to run my flank steak through the tenderizer two times. This is a machine that pokes a zillion holes in the meat, breaking it up. It is still a whole piece, but very tender like it has been pounded.


Slice it across the grain very thin.


Assemble the ingredients, this doesn't take long to cook. 4 cups of fresh broccoli florets, use the peeled stalk too, its quite tasty; low sodium beef broth; onion; garlic; red pepper flakes.

Heat a large skillet or a wok over high heat, then add a tablespoon of the broth and the garlic. Saute it a minute or two. Add the beef and toss just till barely cooked through. Add the onion, broccoli, red pepper flakes, remaining beef broth (almost 1/2 cup); soy sauce, stir and cover with a lid.


Cook approximately 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season with a lot of black pepper. The onion should still be a bit crunchy, the broccoli barely cooked through, the meat will be cooked through and very tender.


This will not have the thick sauce you get at a restaurant, they use oil and thickeners, and it really isn't necessary.

This can be served over rice if you like, but I had it without starch, I have to drop the weight I just packed on in the last week.


This serves two. Of course, if you have a big guy who eats more, just increase the proportions, it's not very scientific. You can season with additional soy sauce if you like.


This cured my Chinese food cravings!

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4 comments:

  1. Hi, Kristy. This recipe calls for flank steak, which you also mentioned in a post a few days ago -- but cows are cut up differently in different countries, and I don't know if flank steak exists in Spain, and if so, if they have tenderizers here. Or at least not in my working-class neighborhood. What other type of beef could I use?

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  2. Derek, You can use any lean meat cut. Flank is rather flat and big, like a page of a book. It is used in many Mexican dishes, it has great flavor but not the most tender, so it needs to be pounded, tenderized or sliced very thin. So use whatever piece you like, but not one with big veins of fat or it will be tough and chewy. Anything that can be sliced thin and sauteed quickly.

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  3. I made it, and I loved it!

    At the meat shop they had me take carpaccio, which was probably unnecessary: next time I shall just take regular beef and get them to cut it as thin as they can. In any case, the dish was delicious in its simplicity, and even Carlos liked it, which was a surprise because no oil, crunchy veggies, healthy -- he doesn't like all that stuff. But he ate his portion and even ate all the leftovers the next day. So thanks for this one. The next dish of yours I plan to try is the cauliflower chicken curry soup. By the way, you don't have a "recipe" label on your posts, do you? If you did, that would make it easy to isolate all posts that had recipes. A suggestion.

    Love, D

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  4. Oh Dude I am so glad you two liked it! That's great that Carlos liked it without any olive oil!!! Good idea about the recipe label, I will do that. I usually just label by main ingredient but I can always add this, thanks for the suggestion.

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