This Beef Stir Fry is loaded with vegetables, tender juicy beef and healthy beef stir fry sauce. Homemade Chinese restaurant style dinner that comes together in 30 minutes.
Serve with brown rice, quinoa or over cauliflower fried rice for a low carb meal.
Beef Stir Fry
This beef stir fry is better than restaurant’s because you control the amount of sugar, sodium and omit MSG. Beef is juicy and tender, sauce is homemade and delicious and vegetables are crisp and there is lots of them.
Stir fries are one of the best healthy and quick dinners if you plan a bit ahead. Another good one is our healthy chicken stir fry we keep on regular dinner rotation.
This beef stir fry recipe is super easy. However, there are a few tips for the end result – tender browned meat with crisp vegetables coated in a delicious Asian sauce.
Let’s talk about everything for the best stir fry!
Best Vegetables to Stir Fry
Look for firm vegetables that cook quickly when sliced thinly (if necessary).
Make ahead tip: Cut and refrigerate vegetables covered for up to 2 days. Or to speed up dinner, buy pre-cut stir fry vegetables or a bag of broccoli, cauliflower and carrot mix.
- Bell peppers
- Zucchini
- Snow (snap) peas
- Carrots
- Onions
- Broccoli
- Cabbage
- Asparagus
- Mushrooms
- Bok choy
- Water chestnuts
- Garlic
What Is the Best Meat for Stir Fry?
- Tender cuts like sirloin, ribeye, tri-tip, tenderloin, shoulder part can be cut into thin strips.
- Make sure to cut against the grain – find the direction of the grain (meat lines lengthwise) and then slice across.
- I used wild meat, venison, many times because my mom’s family is into hunting. It is a bit chewy but works like a charm. Again, depends which part.
Healthy Stir Fry Sauce
Our healthy stir fry sauce consists of the most clean and simple ingredients you probably have on hand right now:
- Soy sauce
- Maple syrup or honey
- Cornstarch
- Fresh garlic and ginger
- Salt and pepper.
Tip: It is not the end of the world if you replace maple syrup or honey with brown sugar if that’s all you have on hand. I also have used dried ginger many times. Flavor is not as great as freshly grated but saved a trip to a grocery store.:)
What Is the Best Oil for Stir Fry?
When you cook on high heat the best oil to use is the oil with high smoke point. The most healthy one is avocado oil with smoke point of 520 degrees F.
However, my favourite oil to use for stir frying is toasted sesame oil because it’s so Asian. I do switch between both, to be honest.
Here is a table with all oils and their smoke points.
How to Make Beef Stir Fry
- Prep the sauce and toast cashews. In a small bowl, whisk together stir fry sauce ingredients. Toast cashews in a wok or large skillet. Set both aside.
- Stir fry beef in the same hot wok or skillet until brown and crispy, for about 10 minutes. You want to stir often and drain juices, if necessary, so beef crisps up.
- Cook vegetables. Move beef to the side of the wok and add remaining oil and veggies. Cook 3-4 minutes.
- Combine everything. Add cashews, pour sauce, stir and cook until sauce has thickened.
Tips for Best Stir Fry
- “Stir fry” means to cook small pieces of food quickly on high heat and stirring constantly. So make sure all ingredients are prepped before you light the stove.
- Use well-preheated wok.
- I also love to use large ceramic non-stick skillet. Its low walls allow meat to brown more than in a wok. Truth about homemade stir fries.
- Add stir fry sauce before vegetables look cooked to avoid mushy stir fry.
- Whisk sauce once again before adding to the wok to mix in settled at the bottom cornstarch.
More Healthy Stir Fry Recipes
- Healthy beef and broccoli
- Shrimp stir fry
- Salmon stir fry
- Chicken and broccoli stir fry
- Instant Pot stir fry
- Buckwheat stir fry
Beef Stir Fry
Ingredients
Beef Stir Fry Sauce:
- 1/4 cup soy sauce I used Bragg liquid aminos
- 2 tbsp maple syrup or honey
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 5 garlic cloves grated
- 1 inch ginger grated
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Ground black pepper to taste
Beef Stir Fry:
- 2 lbs beef sirloin cut into 1 inch cubes
- 3 medium bell peppers cut into 1 inch pieces
- 2 large zucchini cut into quarters
- 9 oz snap snow peas
- 3/4 cup cashews unsalted
- 2 tbsp toasted sesame or avocado oil divided
- 3 large green onions chopped
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together Beef Stir Fry Sauce ingredients and set aside.
- In a wok, toast cashews on medium heat until golden brown, stirring occasionally. Transfer to a small bowl and set aside.
- Return wok to high heat and add 1 tbsp sesame oil. Add beef and cook until brown and crispy, for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Move beef to a side of the wok and add remaining sesame oil, bell pepper, zucchini and snap peas to the centre of the wok. Cook vegetables for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add cashews, pour sauce and stir. Cook stir fry until vegetables are tender and sauce has thickened, about 3 - 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Garnish with green onion and serve hot over brown rice, quinoa or noodles of choice.
Store: Refrigerate covered for up to 24 hours.
Video
Notes
- "Stir fry" means to cook small pieces of food quickly on high heat and stirring constantly. So make sure all beef stir fry ingredients are prepped before you light the stove.
- Use well-preheated wok.
- When you cook on high heat the best oil to use is the oil with high smoke point. The most healthy one is avocado oil with smoke point of 520 degrees F. However, my favourite oil to use for stir frying is toasted sesame oil because it's so Asian. I do switch between both, to be honest.
Nutrition
Recipes and images are a copyright of ifoodreal.com. It is against the law to republish recipes anywhere including social media, print and all world wide web. Nutritional info is provided for informational purposes only and to the best knowledge.
Total cook time on meat seems like alot. 10 minutes by itself, 3-4 more with vegetables and the 3-4 more after sauce is added. Is that correct?
Yes, the recipe has been tested as written! When cooking the vegetables, push the meat to the side of the wok.
This is the second time I’ve done this recipe. First time was excellent, even with my dark, thick soya sauce that darkened everything…
Tonight, I did it with my Bragg Liquid Amino and cooked everything to perfection, no overcooking.
It was amazing! And colourful! And healthy! Definitely as good as, if not better than, in a good restaurant! 😋
Thank you for sharing your amazing feedback Marie!
This stir fry is absolutely delicious, my husband even likes it. The sauce has a great taste and I know it’s healthy. The first time I made it I used garlic powder because I didn’t have fresh garlic. I have made this recipe several times and changed up the vegetables and used chicken thighs instead of beef; delicious every time. Thank you for this recipe.
You are welcome Heidi. Many thanks for taking the time to write this wonderful review!
Thank you, so healthy n meaty. Yummm
Glad the stir fry was enjoyed Sheila 🙂
It sounds yummy and super easy!
Thanks for the clear instructions and great pictures!
A fellow Canadian north of Toronto in Woodbridge Ontario.
Some of my dear friends live in beautiful Victoria too!!
Love it when I visited a few years ago!!!
Much milder and less snow than Woodbridge!
Happy Sunday!
Be well and stay safe during these unprecedented times!!
THIS IS DELICIOUS!! We don’t have to go to fancy Asian restaurants anymore:D
I have been looking for websites to find healthy recipes. They’re either not tasty or hard to do it! Olena, I really wanted to thank you with all my heart. I’ve lost 4.5 kg in one month with your healthy recipes! Me and my husband are eating healthy again!! As a young and newly married couple, it’s so hard to cook every week when you have a busy schedule. But your recipes made our lives easier! I’ll keep following:)
Thank you for sharing your experience with my recipes. I am so thankful that my recipes are making it easier for you to enjoy healthy eating and cooking at home.
Another 5 stars Olena, this recipe is sooooo good?. Hubby approved?
Got leftovers and looking forward to eat it.
My only problem resides in my soya sauce, it’s so dark, and thick, that it really darkens everything and makes the meal less appealing to the eye. I was waiting to finish my bottle before buying the Bragg Liquid Aminos. That’s it, my soya sauce is in the garbage! Bragg is in tomorrow!
I’m so happy to read this! Thanks for your positive feedback, Marie! Haha, perfect. Too funny but my husband made this last night too as it was is turn to cook and he loves this recipe. I even treated everyone with udon noodles in the freezer instead of brown rice.
Funny indeed! And with a treat!
No treat here, we ate it as is..?
Yummy!!!!
This is a delicious recipe! I followed it exactly with no changes. It was a hit with my family. I served it with brown rice & egg rolls I got from Costco. Very yummy!! Thanks for the recipe!
You are welcome Alicia!
It just states make the sauce….how do u make the sauce for this
Hi Bridget! I think you may be looking at the general write-up I do for each recipe. The full list of ingredients and complete instructions are listed below in the recipe card. Just keep scrolling down. Hope this helps!
Best stir fry recipe ever I make it for friends always gets great revit
So great to hear Avril!
I do this recipe often. My family loves it.
This was DELICIOUS! My family was happy. I had half of the products for stir fry but I didn’t reduce sauce. Loved it. Thank you!
Glad your family enjoyed this recipe Zarina!
Scrumpdillyicious
Dead easy recipe to follow, delicious with simple ingredients, easy to halve the recipe for smaller portions, really looking forward to heating and eating the leftovers…not something I usually enjoy.
Thanks for the hints you give in your recipes….you are expanding my culinary expertise!
Thanks for making me day with this positive review 🙂
Really yummy and easy. Thanks for the great recipe
You are welcome Jacqui!
I like your presentation! Its fresh and real food and easy to make. I have a dinner called chicken chowmein. Stir fry chicken with onion and garlic and celery, then I add some Chinese veggies to. Make a well in the center and stir in an egg and toss. Cook rice separately. Top off with lightly roasted crunchy chowmein noodles. Soy sauce on the side. Yum!
This was easy for me but cut it back in quantities as there is only two senior to serve. who doesn’t like stir frys.
also I don’t use salt….love pepper.
Really good. I was looking for an easy, healthy weeknight recipe that was within my dietary requirements but was still delicious for the rest of the family, and this was it. The only real changes that I made were to use sugar-free syrup (I’m diabetic), and because even low sodium soy sauce has a lot of salt, I didn’t add salt to the sauce. No one complained about (or noticed) either change and the leftovers were quickly claimed. Will definitely make again!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it, Christine! Thank you for the wonderful review!
Thanks! This reminded me to look in my cupboard and use my toasted sesame oil. Completely changed the flavor of our stir-fry. Yea!
Thank you for your wonderful review, Carol.
Thank you for the hints! No fun cooking stir-fries on an electric range but your advice for a low-sided pan sounds like it could help a bunch. Another fave high-heat point oil = grapeseed. A fave stir fry from when I was a kid (thank you mom): leftover roast beef or chicken, celery, green onions, almonds (whole or slivers) , oil (duh) and a little soy sauce.
Sounds delish! 🙂
very beautiful dinner and the most important thing is that a man can cook it ???
YESS LOL
I’ve been married 32 years and my husband said this is the best stir fry I’ve made in all of those years. And I make a lot of stir fry. The secrets are to use sesame oil and her sauce. Mmmmmmm.
Yay! So happy to hear my beef stir fry is your husband approved.:)
This turned out great, thank you! It was a dynamic combination of flavors.
You are very welcome, Chelsea!!! Beef stir fry is so perfect for weeknights.
We love stir fry and this one is awesome! Healthy, hearty and great mix of flavors! We will definitely make this again.
That’s awesome, Cynthia! We love this one too!
Can we double this recipe and have it come out just as good?
I don’t see why not.:)
So good!
This was so-so good! Love the addition of cashews! Thank you!
I tried this recipe tonight and loved it. My kids liked it too. I’ve been looking for a great stir fry recipe using fresh, real ingredients. At last, my search is over!
Glad to hear that, Carmen. I totally understand – so many great stir fry recipes use store bought sauce or sugar laden homemade one. Enjoy!
I just tried this recipe yesterday night, I have to say it was very easy, fast and delicious. I didn’t used to make stir fry due to soy sauce, but now that I’ve found one that at least seems to be good for my body, I’m trying different recipes and is awesome, always with a lot of colour and flavour.
Great! Non GMO or better organic say sauce is good in reasonable amounts! All real food is good in moderation.
I can’t find snow peas anywhere. What’s a good substitute? 🙂
Snap peas.
I can’t get enough stir fry in my life! Gorgeous photos and recipe. Love the sugar snap pea addition too -I eat those by the handful. And cashews make everything better! I too buy raw and toast them myself 🙂
I have a hard time finding local snow peas! Thank you:)
Your photos are incredible! Do you use a filter to get the colors so vibrant?
Hi Michelle. Thank you! No I don’t. I adjust the colours in Photoshop just enough to bring the colours to real life. As soon as you take the picture, the food doesn’t look the same, right?! I learnt that certain foods photograph better and natural light plays a huge part in good quality pictures. You are on the right track. Just keep practicing! Your tiramisu looks great!
could you make this dish with chicken instead of beef?
Yes. Check out my chicken stir fry recipe as well.
will do thank you I actually made this dish with chicken and its one of my fav thank you so much love your site