Stir-Fried Orange Beef with a Side of Seasoned Bean Sprouts and Mustard Greens

Hi Friends! It’s another Food Matter’s Project Monday! This week’s recipe is Seared Bean Sprouts with Beef and Sesame Orange Sauce chosen by Dominica of WINE FOOD LOVE. Head on over to her website for the original recipe.

Mark Bittman sure is teaching us a lot about how to eat meat and I couldn’t agree more with his philosophy. We don’t need too much meat, a little bit of it in our food can go a long way. He encourages the use of meat as a garnish to vegetable dishes and shows us that food can taste good or even better when we cook like this. Previous misconceptions of a huge slab of meat and a small helping of vegetables are definitely a thing of the past. Thank you Mark Bittman!

When eating my meals, especially dinners, I like a combination of different dishes. The more variety, the better. So for this dish, I decided to cook the bean sprouts separate from the beef and then had some leftover quinoa on the side.

Stir-Fried Orange Beef

The thick orange slices added some sweet and tender, juicy bites.

Seasoned Bean Sprouts and Mustard Greens

The mustard greens added a nice, bitter bite, and color.

Both dishes that I made were good, but as I was eating them I realized how the original recipe would’ve been so much better. The problem was easily solved though… I just mixed both dishes on my plate and it was just like they were cooked in the same pan.

Stir-Fried Orange Beef

Marinade

8 ounces beef sirloin, very thinly sliced
salt
pepper
2 tbsp soy sauce
a little less than ½ inch ginger root, grated (warning: I used more and it was too overpowering)
1 tbsp honey
zest of 2 oranges
juice of 1 small orange

Pan
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
beef slices with all the marinade
orange slices of a large orange
half of a bunch of scallions, green parts, chopped
1 tbsp sesame seeds (roasted)

On a meat cutting board, sprinkle each side of the beef with salt and pepper. Cut into thin slices. 

In a medium sized glass bowl, stir all the marinade ingredients together well and add the beef slices. Let sit in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Heat the olive oil in a medium sized pan over medium heat. Sauté the garlic until golden brown. Throw in the beef with the rest of the marinade and cook one side for 3 minutes. Turn the beef slices and cook the other side for another 2 minutes. Add the orange slices in and cook for 2 minutes, stirring often. Add scallions and cook for a minute. Turn off the heat and garnish with roasted sesame seeds.   

Serve warm.

Seasoned Bean Sprouts with Mustard Greens

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp hot chili sesame oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 shiitake mushrooms, sliced
12 ounces mung bean sprouts
8 leaves mustard greens, roughly chopped
1 tbsp soy sauce
half of a bunch of scallions, white parts and some green, chopped
1 tbsp sesame seeds, roasted
salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil and sesame oil over medium heat in a large pan. Sauté garlic until golden brown, about 1 minute. Add the mushrooms and cook until soft, 2-3 minutes. Add the bean sprouts and cook for 4 minutes. Toss in the mustard greens and stir until wilted, about 2 minutes. Pour in the soy sauce. Throw the scallions in and stir for about 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and garnish with sesame seeds.        

Serve warm!

As mentioned above, if I cooked both of these dishes as one, it would have tasted even better. However, mixing them together on my plate worked just as well!

P.S. Make sure you have a lovely dessert… thank you DFJ for making this peach-strawberry tart. And, I’m sorry for throwing a fit about the ¼ cup of sugar that you added.

Have a great week everyone!