Beef and Green Beans Recipe (With Ginger Sauce)

You’ll forget all about take-out with this mouthwatering stir-fry Beef and Green Beans (with Ginger Sauce). Juicy, seasoned steak is coated with a savory homemade sauce made right in your own kitchen in just 30 minutes. It’s the perfect quick meal on busy weeknights that will quickly become a family favorite.

Beef and Green Bean Stir-fry

This super easy beef and green beans recipe is a classic stir-fry dish that requires a few ingredients, but it comes together in a matter of minutes and cooks up quickly. It’s delicious served over jasmine rice, noodles, or for a healthier option, it pairs great with quinoa, cauliflower rice of Palmini noodles. 

One of the best things about stir fry recipes are they are typically a complete meal in one pan consisting of lean proteins, fresh veggies and healthy fats. And since the beef or chicken is sliced thin, it cooks up quickly making an easy weeknight dinner a breeze. Another super tasty stir fry recipe is this Cashew Pork Stir Fry is always a huge hit and can also be ready in under 30 minutes.

Why We Love This Recipe

• Easy dinner you can have on the table in a snap.
• The savory sauce infuses the strips of beef and gives them incredible flavor.
• It’s a budget friendly meal using flank steak and pantry staples you probably have on hand.
• Super versatile recipe that you can make you own by swapping out the type of meat and veggies with your choice.

Recommended Tools

• Micro plane
• Sharp kitchen knife
• Large skillet or wok pan
• Kitchen tongs
• Large bowl

Variations of Beef and Green Stir Fry?

• Beef options: You can use skirt steak, flat iron steak or flank steak. If you catch them on sale at the grocery store, you can also use New York Strip, ribeye or sirloin steaks. Ground beef stir fry is affordable and has great flavor if you’re looking for ways to eat on a budget.

• Veggies: Have fun and add any veggies you like. Mushrooms, bell peppers, snow peas or white yellow or green onion are always good stir fry veggies.

• Sauce ingredients: If you want a more intense Asian flavor, you can add a little bit of fish sauce or oyster sauce. You can add extra richness with a little tomato sauce or chili garlic sauce.

• Seasonings: One of the great things about this delicious recipe is you can season it with just about anything you like. For some added heat, you can add some red pepper flakes or just a pinch of cayenne pepper.

Ingredients

• Skirt steak, or flank steak sliced thin, across the grain
• Kosher salt
• Ground black pepper
• Cornstarch
• Olive oil, divided
• Fresh green beans
• Soy sauce
• Garlic cloves, minced
• Fresh ginger, peeled and grated
• Rice wine vinegar (optional)
• Sesame oil
• Water
• Green onions, sesame seeds for garnish (optional)
• Cooked rice, for serving (optional)

Step by Step Directions

Wash and trim green beans, set aside. Pat the skirt steak slices dry with a paper towel.

Step One: Cook the Green Beans

Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to skillet. Once hot, add green beans and sauté in the skillet for 2 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon of water and cover. Continue cooking for 5 more minutes.

Step Two: Cook the Beef

Transfer steak to a large mixing bowl and season with salt, pepper, and corn starch and toss to combine. Remove the green beans to a plate and wipe the excess water out of the skillet.

Reheat the same large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil to the hot skillet. Add beef and stir fry for 4-5 minutes.

Step Four: Add the Sauce

Reduce the heat to medium and add soy sauce, garlic, ginger, rice vinegar, and sesame oil. Toss to coat the beef mixture in the stir fry sauce. 

Step Five: Combine Beef and Green Beans and Serve

Add the string beans back to the pan and stir fry everything together for an additional minute. Serve ginger beef over cooked rice (or other low carb choice) and garnish with sesame seeds and chopped green onions.

Tips for the Stir-Fry

1. If you’ve never grated fresh ginger, using a micro plane make things a lot easier. If you don’t have one use a sharp knife to finely mince it as you would with the garlic.
2. If you cannot find fresh ginger root, you can substitute it with 1 teaspoon of ground ginger instead.
3. For best results, you’ll want to use large skillet with high sides or wok for this recipe. 
4. To give the beef nice color, avoid overcrowding the pan when cooking it. As the beef stir fries, it should.
5. Rice wine vinegar is an optional ingredient. Mirin, white wine vinegar, or lemon juice are also good substitutes.
6. To help slice beef into thin slices, place it whole the freezer for 30 minutes or until it is semi-firm. Be sure and slice the beef across the grain.

FAQs

Can I Freeze Beef and Green Beans?

You sure can! You can freeze this stir-fry for up to 6 months if you store it well in an air-tight container or freezer bags. 

What are Some Healthier Options for Rice?

If you love stir fry but want to keep things healthy, you can substitute the white rice with brown rice, cauliflower rice, quinoa, Palmini noodles. Or you can just omit the rice all together because the green beans make it a complete meal.

Can You this in Advance?

This dish is awesome reheated so you can certainly make it the night before. If you want to serve it freshly made, you can save a little time by meal prepping the ingredients in advance. Slice the beef and measure out all the ingredients the night before.

Want More Healthy Recipes?

• Healthy Vegetable Frittata
• Grilled Swordfish
• Dutch Oven Chicken
• Tri-Tip Steak
• Shrimp Oreganata