Gluten-Free Broccoli Beef Stir Fry

Cherie ♦ September 24, 2009 ♦ 5 Comments

I love fresh broccoli. It is good for just about anything – and everything. This morning we had it in a tomato, sharp cheddar omelette. Chopped into small pieces it provided a nice crunch and delicious flavor to an otherwise somewhat boring breakfast.

Broccoli makes a great snack. My favorite part is the stem. The flower ends are a bit too strongly flavored for me but the stems are just right. Crunchy and sweet. No threads like you get with celery. These are good sliced into long pieces and eaten plain or dipped in ranch sauce. Yum.

But broccoli is our favorite when it’s served in a nice stir fry. Tonight I had some sirloin steak that needed to be used up so Broccoli Beef Stir Fry was the perfect way to use both that and my broccoli up.

I love a good stir fry – especially since I discovered fish sauce last year. This one ingredient rounds out asian cooking and I am never without it now. I use it in curry, stir fry, chicken satay, anything and everything thai or chinese in nature. Prior to finding fish sauce, my meals always seemed to be missing something. A bit bland, lacking in the full depth of flavor that you find in eating out at chinese or thai restaurants. That all changed when I made a spicy chicken recipe last year that called for fish sauce. I had no idea what I was missing out on!

This recipe is one that I made up on the fly and as usual, I didn’t measure anything. So a bit of tweaking may be needed if sauce is a bit too heavy in one component or another. It should be pretty close though.

Gluten-Free Broccoli Beef Stir Fry
You can easily sub chicken or pork or even turkey for the beef in this recipe

1 pound thinly sliced beef (I used sirloin steak, very tender)
3-4 cups of broccoli florets
1/2 cup gluten-free soy sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup fish sauce
1/3 cup rice vinegar
3 Tbl corn starch
2 Tbl diced garlic
1 Tbl fresh grated ginger (or 1 tsp ginger powder)
2 Tbl sesame or olive oil

Pour the oil into a large frying pan or wok. Heat until hot and add beef strips. Cook over medium heat until nearly cooked through. Add broccoli florets, cover, and let cook for 5 minutes.

While the broccoli/beef is cooking, mix remaining ingredients together in medium size bowl. Whisk so no lumps form (from corn starch) and set aside.

Remove lid from broccoli/beef and pour sauce over the top. Cook, stirring often, until sauce is thickened and heated through. Remove from heat and let stand 5 minutes with lid on.

Serve over brown or white rice (jasmine is excellent as is a nice nutty brown rice). Enjoy!