Beef Stir Fry with Vegetables

The beef tenderloin marinates in a mixture of fish sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce, sherry wine vinegar, sugar, and pepper. A combination that is already complex before it hits a hot pan. The vegetables go in first: cucumber, red bell pepper, snow peas, carrot, and ginger root, cooked quickly in peanut oil to stay crisp and vivid. The beef follows, with the marinade reducing into the glossy sauce that brings everything together.

The cornstarch in the sauce is what creates the gloss. A small amount, stirred in at the end with a splash of vegetable broth, thickens everything just enough to cling rather than pool. Served in a large flat bowl, this is a dinner for two that looks as good as it tastes, and takes less time to make than it does to order.

Flexibility and simplicity are two characteristics that most stir fry recipes share and this Beef Stir Fry with Vegetables is no exception. Make sure you prep for this dish, and I am referring here to the cutting and marinating, since stir frying is a technique that cooks ingredients on high heat over a short amount of time. So if you think you can cut and marinate while cooking, you will most likely end up with an overcooked dish that lost all its crunchy appeal.

Why This Works

The marinade does two things simultaneously: it seasons the beef and it begins tenderizing it. Fish sauce and soy sauce together add more depth than either alone, the fish sauce brings umami and funk that the soy sauce rounds out. The cornstarch in the marinade coats each beef slice and helps the sauce cling to it during cooking. Cooking the vegetables and beef separately, then combining them at the end, is what preserves the crunch of the vegetables. If everything went into the pan at once, the vegetables would continue cooking while the beef finishes, and by the time the beef is done they’d be soft. Keeping them separate means each component reaches the right texture independently, and the final 60 seconds together is just enough to marry the flavors without sacrificing the contrast.

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Key Ingredients in This Recipe

You’ll find the complete list of ingredients and exact quantities in the recipe below.

• Beef tenderloin
• Red bell pepper
• Carrots
• Snow peas
• Cucumber
• Fresh ginger
• Vegetable broth
• Peanut oil
• Marinade: fish sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce, sherry wine vinegar, corn starch, pepper.

How to Make Beef Stir Fry with Vegetables

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Serve this dish with rice (most traditional) or with noodles (or pasta) or even with potatoes (not very in line with an Chinese cuisine, but still and option).

Alternatives and Substitutes

• If you don’t want to use beef tenderloin, but want to stay with the same type of meat, think about pork tenderloin, sirloin filet or think outside the box and use chicken breast. You could also think about a ribeye, but you will lose some of the tenderness, but get a richer, deeper flavor.
• To change up the vegetables, consider onion, bok choy, sugar snaps, broccoli.
• Instead of fish sauce, you can use soy sauce or tamari, coconut aminos or even Worcestershire Sauce.
• Sherry wine vinegar can be replaced with rice wine vinegar, white wine or champagne vinegar or even apple cider vinegar. Since sherry wine vinegar is slightly sweet, you may want to add a pinch of sugar when you use a replacement.
  

Storage Tip

Beef tenderloin keeps reasonably well in an airtight container in the fridge. However, the delicate meat will be reheated and may lose some of its tenderness as it become a little dryer.

Other Stir Fry Recipes to Try

• Stir Fried Udon Noodles with Bok Choy