Easy 15-minute Asian Beef Bowls
A quick and easy dinner, that’s so easy to toss together and full of flavor! Ground beef mixed with fresh carrots, scallions, ginger, garlic and Asian flavors to bring a meal with flare. These Asian beef bowls are so delicious, they will become your go-to 15-minute favorite for busy nights!
This recipe is inspired by that one, go-to meal that we all resort to when we don’t quite know what to cook for dinner. Back in the day, it was sloppy joes, or hamburger helper. For some, it’s “refrigerator quesadillas”, tossing whatever you have going on in the fridge on a tortilla with cheese.
These Asian beef bowls are just another quick meal to add to your weeknight dinner repertoire… except, they can go to the top of the list. In fact, this dinner is one of my top requested meals, chosen over other recipes that have me slaving all day. A 15-minute favorite? I’ll take it.
The most time consuming part of this meal, would actually be waiting for the white rice to cook! Which, is so easy if you have a rice cooker or instant pot.
Recipe Snapshot
EASE: Easier to make than you might think
PROS: It’s delicious and healthy
CONS: Absolutely none
WOULD I MAKE THIS AGAIN? Absolutely.
Ingredients needed
Ingredients for this recipe are as simple as pulling beef from the freezer, grabbing your pantry staples, and stopping to grab some scallions if you don’t any on hand! All the other ingredients have a long shelf life and will be ready for the next time you make this meal.
- Sesame oil – used to brown the beef and adds a nice subtle flavor.
- Ground beef – you can also use 50/50 ground pork and beef mixture.
- Garlic – lots of fresh garlic!
- Scallions – this is typically the only ingredient I don’t have on hand, as they turn quickly. But so worth it in this recipe for the bit of crunch on top. We use the whites in place of onions while cooking the beef.
- Fresh ginger – I always have fresh ginger on hand, as I keep knobs of it in the freezer making it super easy to grate for this recipe. I use this grater for zesting and grating ginger.
- Gochujang paste – a condiment staple in my refrigerator for this meal, as well as my gochujang pasta.
- Brown sugar – only a little is needed as the hoisin sauce is already sweet.
- Rice vinegar – adds a little zip to the flavor.
- Hoisin sauce – a classic sauce for stir fry.
- Carrots – fresh whole carrots have a sweeter flavor than precut. I use a mandoline slicer to cut julienne.
Ingredients: mise en place
The cooking of this meal goes quick! It’s best to have your ingredients “mise en place”, a French term for having all of your ingredients measured, peeled, cut and grated before you start cooking.
Note: I keep 1-inch pieces of fresh ginger in the freezer to pull and grate for this recipe! No peeling necessary, just grate the whole piece while its frozen, making it so much easier!
How to make Asian beef bowls
The details for preparing this recipe are so simple, start to finish!
3 easy steps
- Start by browning your beef in sesame oil until cooked through.
- Add in all the remaining ingredients, saving the carrots for last.
- Add the carrots and season to taste with sriracha if you want some extra bite!
fool proof fluffy white rice in the instant pot!
- use a 1:1 ratio of white rice and water (1 cup)
- be sure to rinse your rice well
- set on high pressure cook for 3 minutes
- release pressure seal and let the pressure release naturally for 10 additional minutes
Serve the beef over cooked white rice, topped with sliced scallions and sesame seeds. Et voilà! Asian beef bowls will be your new weeknight favorite!
Recipe substitutions
Ground beef
Ground beef has more fat, which adds flavor, so the taste will differ with another meat. You can use ground pork, chicken, or turkey, or a mixture.
white rice
You can use cauliflower rice or brown rice in place of the white rice.
scallions
You can use 1/2 cup diced white onion cooked with the beef, in place of the scallion whites.
rice vinegar
You can use rice wine (mirin) in place of the rice vinegar. If you don’t have either, you can use red wine vinegar.
Easy Asian Beef Bowls
Ingredients
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 1 lb ground beef
- 5 scallions sliced, whites separated from greens
- 4 cloves minced garlic
- 1 cup carrots julienned
- 1 inch fresh ginger grated
- ½ cup hoisin sauce or stir fry sauce
- 1 tbsp gochujang Chile paste
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1-2 tsp sriracha optional
- cooked white rice for serving
- sesame seeds for serving
Instructions
- Prepare all ingredients "mise en place" (measured, cut, grated, before starting to cook).
- Heat the sesame oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add ground beef and brown it for 6 minutes.
- Add the garlic, ginger, hoisin sauce, gochujang, brown sugar, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and the scallion whites. Stir and cook for 5 minutes.
- Add the carrots and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add sriracha to taste, if you want it more spicy.
- Serve over white rice, with sliced scallion greens and sesame seeds sprinkled on top.
