Korean-style beef bowls
Sweet, savory, garlicky beef over rice, one of the fastest dinners you’ll ever love this much.
- 30 min total
- 15 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 4
- About $2.57 a serving
- 530 calories
- Good the next day
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: I’d make this on a weeknight. It’s on the table in 30 minutes.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1½ cups jasmine rice
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb lean ground beef (90/10)
- 3 stalks green onions, sliced
- 1 cucumber, thinly sliced (optional)
- 1 tsp sesame seeds (optional)
From your pantry
- 2 cups water
- ½ tsp salt
- ¼ cup soy sauce
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
- 1 tsp vegetable oil
Each serving has about 530 calories, 29 g protein, 68 g carbs and 15 g fat, and costs about $2.57 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No jasmine rice? Long-grain white rice or basmati rice works.
- No lean ground beef? Ground beef works.
- No green onions? Chives work.
- No cucumbers? English cucumbers or mini cucumbers work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the rice in a strainer under cold water until the water runs mostly clear.
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Put the rice, 2 cups water and the salt in a medium and on high.
Saucepan. A saucepan is a pot with tall, straight sides and one long handle. It’s for things that need depth, like rice, sauces or a few boiled eggs.
How you’ll know: The food fills it about halfway, leaving room to bubble without spilling over.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Stir once, cover, turn the heat to low and cook 15 minutes. Then move it off the heat and leave the lid on.
Low heatTimer: 15 min
Dolly’s tip: Set the timer and leave it alone. The rice is done by the time the beef is.Stir the soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, garlic, ginger and pepper flakes together in a small bowl.
Heat the oil in a large over medium-high, add the beef, and press it flat. Leave it 3 minutes, until underneath.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Medium-high heatTimer: 3 min
Break it into and cook 3 to 4 minutes more, until no pink is left.
Crumble. Crumbling means breaking food into small, rough bits with your fingers or a spoon, like feta or ground meat in the pan. Small bits spread through the dish, so there’s some in every bite.
How you’ll know: The pieces are small and uneven, about pea-size, with no big clumps left.
Medium-high heatTimer: 3 min 30 sec
Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
Pour in the sauce and let it bubble 2 to 3 minutes, stirring, until the beef is glossy and most of the liquid is gone.
Medium heatTimer: 2 min 30 sec
Dolly’s tip: The pan goes from soupy to sticky and smells sweet and savory at once. That’s done.Stir in most of the green onions. Fluff the rice and top with the beef, the rest of the green onions, cucumber and sesame seeds.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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