Beef with Broccoli

 

One of our go-to quick weeknight recipes is always beef and broccoli, and usually we would just use a store bought sauce for the dish. However, in our 'Cook This Not That: Skinny Comfort Foods' cookbook we noticed that they had a recipe which includes making your own sauce for beef and broccoli, so naturally we wanted to give it a try to see if it would be better than what we could buy in the store.

Here are the ingredients that the cookbook suggests that you use:

3 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
3 tbsp oyster sauce (this was our first time using oyster sauce in our own cooking!)
2 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine, sherry, or dry white wine (we used sherry)
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp toasted sesame oil (we love this oil!)
1 tsp cornstarch
1 lb flank steak, thinly sliced
1/2 tbsp canola or peanut oil (we used canola oil)
1 lb broccoli, broken into bite size pieces
1 red or yellow bell pepper, cored and sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1/4 cup low-sodium beef stock

And here is how the cookbook suggests that you bring it all together:

1. Combine the soy sauce, oyster sauce, Shaoxing (sherry), brown sugar, sesame oil and cornstarch in a large mixing bowl. Whisk to combine the liquid with the cornstarch. Mix in the beef and let marinate for 30 minutes.
2. Heat the oil in a wok over medium heat. Add the broccoli, bell pepper, garlic and ginger and stir-fry, using a spatula to keep the vegetables moving, for about 5 minutes, until the vegetables have softened. Add the beef and its marinade and continue cooking, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes, until the beef is browned and nearly cooked through. Add the stock and cook for another 2 minutes, until the sauce thickens and clings to the beef and vegetables. Serve over steamed brown rice, if you like.

This recipe was OK but it the sauce (the key element of this recipe) did not meet our expectations (which were to exceed the sauces we could buy in the grocery store). So we will probably continue to buy our beef and broccoli sauces from the grocery store - unless we want to expand off of this recipe and see what other creations we can come up from.

If you try this recipe please let us know your thoughts!

Bon appetite & enjoy!