Gochujang Beef Fried Rice
with sesame spinach
Smarts: We chose to serve the spinach on the side for some variation in textures, but feel free to just stir the spinach right into the fried rice near the end of cooking if you’d prefer.
Ingredients
- Limes - 1, wedges
- Cilantro leaves - 3 Tbsp, chopped
- Frozen vegetables, any mix - 1 1/2 cups (use a stir-fry or Asian mix if available)
- Oil, cooking - 1 Tbsp
- Beef, ground and lean - 1 lb
- Gochujang Stir-fry Sauce (ingredients listed separately) - 7 Tbsp
- Cooked rice (leftover from Tuesday) - 1 1/2 cups
- Peanuts - 1/4 cup
- Garlic - 2 cloves, chopped
- Gochujang - 3 Tbsp
- Soy sauce, low-sodium - 3 Tbsp
- Brown sugar - 2 tsp
- Vinegar, rice - 2 tsp
- Cornstarch - 1 tsp
- Baby spinach - 5 oz
- Soy sauce, low-sodium - 2 tsp
- Oil, toasted sesame - 1 tsp
- Sesame seeds, white - 1 tsp
- Lemon juice - 2 tsp
Nutrition Facts
Prep
- Garlic - Chop garlic. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Make sauce - Combine garlic, gochujang, soy sauce (portion for sauce), brown sugar, vinegar, and cornstarch. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Limes / Cilantro - Prep as directed.
- Frozen vegetables - Defrost in the microwave.
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Make
- Heat a wok or skillet over medium-high heat. Add spinach, soy sauce (portion for spinach), and toasted sesame oil. Saute until spinach wilts (you can put a lid over the pan to speed this along). Add sesame seeds and continue to saute until most of the water has cooked off, 3 to 4 minutes more. Squeeze lemon juice over spinach and season with some salt. Set spinach aside.
- Return pan to medium-high heat. Add cooking oil and then beef to heated oil. Saute, breaking beef apart, until cooked through, 6 to 8 minutes.
- Add vegetables to beef and stir to combine.
- Give sauce a stir and pour over vegetables and beef. Simmer until sauce thickens, ~2 minutes.
- Add rice and toss everything together until heated through.
- Stir peanuts into fried rice.
- Serve fried rice with spinach on the side (you can also stir it right into the fried rice if you prefer). Top fried rice with cilantro and finish by squeezing lime wedges over top. Serve any extra lime wedges on the side. Enjoy!
Nutrition Facts
Reviews
Ratings
Most Helpful
Had bought Gochujang for another Cooksmarts recipe and was looking for a new way to use it - this was great! I used chicken breast instead of beef. Would probably double the amount of spinach next time since it wilts down so much.
2 Helpful52 reviews
I have to say, the spinach was the star of this meal. I’m legit wanting to just make a huge meal of just the spinach. But the rice was good too.
0 HelpfulEveryone likes it a lot. Very tasty. The sauce is lovely. I might try it with fresh vegetables next time, as I find frozen veggies a bit mushy for my liking.
0 HelpfulTook my own advice from last time and used ground chicken. Also fresh veggies stir fry instead of frozen. Used a whole 5 oz container of baby spinach based on previous recommendations. Added some edamame on the side.
0 HelpfulThis was great! I shredded some leftover roast beef to use instead of the ground beef and it worked just fine. I agree with other reviewers, the spinach was too small an amount for a side. I ended up just stirring it into the rice.
0 Helpful