Mongolian Beef & Broccoli

I first starting blogging about food my sophomore year in college. It was my first time living in an apartment and I was so excited to cook all of my own meals (people thought I was weird because of that). I cooked dinner for my boyfriend, and sometimes all the roommates, nearly every night and loved every second of it. That year I experimented with so many recipes, and many of those are some of my go-to meals even today.

"Mongolian Beef" was one of the first meals I made in that tiny apartment. It is a Chinese-American dish that is in no way a reflection of the food eaten in Mongolian culture, but nevertheless it tastes amazing. It's another one of my favorite make-at-home-take-out dishes (click here for General Tso's chicken recipe). I think PF Chang made the dish famous, but I'm confident this recipe could compete.

Sweet, salty & spicy........ If any dish is described as "mouth watering", this is it. 

I made it this past weekend, as seen in the photo above, and it brought back good memories of making a huge mess in a tiny kitchen in Orono, Maine. My twist on the take-out classic is that instead of using the "traditional" green onions as the veggie in the dish, I opt for roasted broccoli. Instead of rice I serve it over quinoa cooked in beef broth. Both the broccoli and the quinoa absorb the delicious sauce so perfectly, and add nutritional value.

Definitely use reduced sodium soy sauce, because otherwise you'll end up drinking a gallon of water to quench your thirst after the meal. A lot of Chinese-American dishes have a lot of soy sauce, so when mimicking a takeout meal, or in any recipe really, I always use the reduced sodium bottle.

Add as much red pepper as you'd like and load up on the broccoli to get your daily dose of veggies!




Mongolian Beef & Broccoli

Ingredients:
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp fresh ginger
1 bunch of green onions, chopped fine
1/2 cup reduced sodium soy sauce or tamari
1/2 cup water
2/3 cup brown sugar (preferably dark brown sugar but light work fine)
pinch of red pepper flakes, or more to taste
1 lb flank steak, sliced
Pepper
1/4 cup cornstarch
1-2 large heads of broccoli, chopped and roasted or steamed

Directions:

• Heat a couple tsps of oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, ginger and green onions and stir for about a minute, until fragrant. 
• Add soy sauce, water and brown sugar and stir until sugar dissolves. Add red pepper flakes if desired and let sauce boil for a couple of minutes to thicken slightly. Remove from heat and set aside. 
• Toss sliced steak in a bit of pepper and cornstarch and let sit for a few minutes to absorb.
• Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet, about 1/2" thick covering the pan over medium-high heat. 
• Fry meat in oil about 1-2 minutes each side depending on thickness, until edges are slightly browned and crisp, and remove with slotted spoon and set on paper towel lined plate. 
• Remove excess oil from pan and return meat to pan with roasted or steamed broccoli and stir in the sauce. Bring to a boil and cook just a minute or so until the broccoli absorbs the sauce.
• Serve over quinoa or rice.