We love noodles and therefore, we eat A LOT of them! Bean thread noodles are always a big hit around here. We love Chinese food, but takeout often has too much sodium, so we prefer to make our own at home. I think this stir fry tastes just as good as a takeout.
I used bean thread noodles made from mung bean starch. These noodles are a standard Asian grocery store item, very easy to find (I bought these at the Asian grocery store in Ledyard.) Bean thread noodles cook much more quickly than wheat pasta does — in fact, you don’t even need to boil the water. Just soaking in hot water will do!
The only other “ethnic” ingredient here is hoisin sauce which, again, is easy to find in Asian grocery stores. I got my current bottle of hoisin sauce in WalMart.
There’s a lot of cutting involved with any stir-fry. Cutting as much as you can ahead of time will make it easier when dinnertime rolls around. Stir-fries are a good opportunity to use up all the random vegetables lying around in your fridge.
Beef Stir Fry With Bean Thread
Ingredients
- 16 ounces flank steak (cut into thin strips)
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
- 2 packets bean thread noodles
- 2 garlic cloves (minced)
- 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger root
- ¼ cup low-sodium beef broth
- ¼ cup hoisin sauce
- 3 tablespoon reduced-sodium soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon granulated sugar
- 4 ounces broccoli florets
- 4 cups kale (chopped)
- 1 carrot (cut into thin matchsticks)
- 1 bell pepper (thinly sliced)
- 2 green onions (chopped)
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, stir together the beef broth, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, sesame oil and sugar. Set aside.
- Cut the flank steak into thin strips, against the grain of the meat.
- In another bowl, mix together the beef strips, the cornstarch and ¼ cup of the sauce you made in step #1 (reserve the rest of the sauce!) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- While the beef is marinating in the fridge, cook the bean thread noodles according to package directions. They cook very, very quickly!
- Cut up all the vegetables.
- Heat 1 teaspoon of canola oil over medium-high heat in a large skillet.
- When the skillet is hot, add the garlic and the ginger. Cook over medium-high heat for 30 seconds.
- Add the carrots, sliced bell pepper, and white parts of the green onions to the skillet. Cook on medium-high heat until the vegetables are tender-crisp.
- Turn the heat down to medium, add the broccoli, the kale, and the green parts of the green onions. Put the lid on the skillet and steam the veggies for about 3 minutes, until the broccoli is tender-crisp and the kale starts wilting.
- Remove the cooked vegetables to a separate plate and set aside.
- Spritz the skillet with nonstick spray and crank the heat back up to medium-high. Cook the beef until no longer pink. (You might need to do this in two batches– we're trying to get a nice sear on our beef. If you fill the skillet with too much beef, the meat will just stew in the pan and you won't get that crispy sear on it.)
- Leave the beef alone for the first minute of cooking so it can develop a nice seared crust on the bottom. After that, stir-fry the beef until all the pink is gone.
- Add the vegetables, the noodles, and the reserved sauce back into the skillet with the beef. Toss it all together.
