Japanese-Style Beef With Marinated Cucumber And Carrots
The idea for this Japanese-style beef came after I had been to a couple of Japanese restaurants. I felt an urge to cook Japanese food afterwards. Everything I’d eaten – from sushi to salads and hot main courses - had been so incredibly tasty.
So I started to look at recipes for Japanese food and goodness me, what an amazing amount of sugar they use in a lot of dishes!
It seems counter-productive to me when you add 3 tablespoons of sugar to a marinade and then pour it over otherwise healthy vegetables. I can’t see the need for the sugar when there are so many other tasty ingredients in the marinade.
I used a recipe I had for Japanese-style beef with marinated cucumber and carrots and swapped the sugar in the vegetable marinade and stock for the beef for a bit of honey, and cut down on the amount of soya in the stock. It tasted amazing!
For 4 people:
Vegetable marinade
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 heaped teaspoon honey
A good pinch of salt and pepper
½ cucumber, sliced really thinly
1 medium-sized carrot, cut into thin ribbons (use a potato peeler)
Stock:
½ green pepper (bell pepper), diced
½ green apple, diced
½ yellow onion, diced
1 fat garlic clove, sliced
Thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, sliced
200ml, 7floz, 0.9 cup water
4 tablespoons soya sauce (I use organic gluten-free Tamari soy sauce)
1 tablespoon mirin (you can find this in most well-stocked supermarkets)
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1-2 tablespoons vegetable or groundnut oil
500g, 1lb2oz, sirloin or fillet of beef, sliced very thinly
Salt and pepper
Basmati rice - or use quinoa (healthier and better for your weight)
1. Using a whisk, mix together the ingredients for the marinade in a bowl. Add the thinly sliced cucumber and carrot ribbons to the bowl, mix well, cover the bowl and place it in the fridge. Leave to marinate for 1 hour (give the vegetables a stir half-way through).
2. Once the vegetables have been marinating for 30 minutes, place all the ingredients for the stock in a pot and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes before straining the stock through a sieve into a clean pot.
3. While the stock is simmering, cook the rice or quinoa according to pack instructions.
4. Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok over quite a high heat. Once the oil is sizzling, quickly stir-fry the sliced beef - until browned - and season with salt and pepper. Transfer the beef to the pot with the stock and bring to a simmer for 1 minute.
5. Place a portion of rice/quinoa in 4 bowls or deep plates, divide the Japanese-style beef and stock between the bowls and top with the marinated vegetables.
“So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.” Franz Kafka
Get delicious and nutritious tips and tidbits in my monthly Newsletter. You will get time-saving cooking tips, ideas for how to make your diet more nutritious and flavourful recipes.
Subscribe today and you will get an instant download to my Ebook “A Tasty Way to Salsa, Dips & Sauces” which includes new recipes which are exclusive to this Ebook and not on my website.
Click on Tasty & Healthy Nuggets to subscribe..
Useful Information
Recipes
Additionals
A Tasty & Easy Way to Healthy Eating
This ebook is filled with a combination of healthy ingredients, lots of flavour and a quick way from stove to plate. A combination to make it as easy and tasty as possible for you to have a healthy diet.