Orange-Sesame Beef Stir-Fry
with red peppers and kale
Fresh orange juice provides a sweet and tart base for this colorful stir-fry dish. Whether you're using steak or tofu, you'll want to coat everything in this base.
Ingredients
- Flank or skirt steak - 1 1/4 lbs
- Garlic - 3 cloves, minced
- Kale - 1 bunch, leaves torn, stems chopped
- Onions - 1, sliced
- Red peppers - 2, cored and sliced
- Ginger - 1 inch, grated
- Soy sauce, low-sodium - 3 Tbsp
- Rice vinegar - 1 Tbsp
- Orange juice - 1/2 cup ((This is about the juice of 1 large orange))
- Corn starch - 1 1/2 Tbsp
- Cooking oil - 2 Tbsp
- Sesame seeds - 1 Tbsp
- Lemon - 1/2, juice of
- Rice (brown or white) - 1 cup, uncooked
Nutrition Facts
Prep
- Steak - Slice against the grain. Season with salt and pepper and tenderize. (Can be done up to 1 day ahead)
- Rice - Double if making tomorrow night’s dinner. For white rice, rinse until clear. Fill a saucepan or Dutch oven (or rice cooker) with rice, water (use 2:1 ratio for water to rice), and some salt. Cover with lid and bring to a boil. Once water boils, stir, lower heat to a low-medium, and cover. Check white rice after ~20 min; brown at ~45 min. Rice is done when it's absorbed all the water. If it's not done, leave the cover on until all water has been absorbed. Take cover off to release steam and fluff with a wooden spoon after 5 minutes. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Garlic / Kale / Onions / Red peppers - Prep as directed. (Can be done up to 3 days ahead)
- Make stir-fry sauce - Grate ginger. Mix ginger with soy sauce, rice vinegar, orange juice, and corn starch.
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Make
- Heat a wok over medium-high heat. Add in cooking oil and then garlic, kale stems, and onions with a dash of salt. Saute for 3 to 5 minutes.
- Next add in red peppers and kale leaves, and push all ingredients to the side, forming a donut in the middle of the wok. Give sauce a stir and then pour it into the hole. Let it sit until you see it darken in color and start to bubble a lot. When that happens, toss everything through.
- Add in steak and toss until steak is cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes. Mix in sesame seeds, and finish with a squeeze of lemon juice and then season to taste with salt and pepper.
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Nutrition Facts
Reviews
Ratings
48 reviews
A friend cooked it. Might have been better if I, the awesome cook :), had done it. Not sure if I will try it again though.
I should have tenderized the meat more and would have like to brown it in the oil first and then added them back in at the end. My family didn't care for the sauce.
My husband loved this; I thought it was good but not particularly special. I marinated the steak with soy sauce, rice vinegar and grated ginger which I think helped with flavor and tenderness. The kale took up so much room that I couldn't make the donut for a bit -- I threw the top on for a couple minutes so it would steam and cook down. Next time I would add red pepper flakes and/or diced hot pepper for kick.
Never used kale in a stir-fry...yum! Didn't have OJ, but it still turned out delicious. Loved learning about slicing the beef against the grain. Thank you!
Tasty but steak was really tough. May be that I did not tenderize correctly, but other than that - good taste!