Thai Sweet Chilli Beef Bowls
Recipe video above. This quick dinner using beef mince channels Thai Chilli Basil stir fry vibes (but, no basil and not spicy) with poke bowl versatility (but, no pricey raw fish!). I use bottled sweet chilli sauce for simplicity instead of fresh chilli, garlic, sugar and thickener, and it works a treat. Plus, it's more kid friendly because you can barely taste the spice.The key is the Sweet Chilli Drizzle Sauce! It adds flavor to the beef, rice, and veggies (raw or cooked). Jumble it all up and dig in!
Servings: 4
Calories: 585cal
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup roasted cashews , unsalted (or peanuts, Note 1)
- 1 tbsp canola oil , or other plain cooking oil
- 500 g / 1 lb beef mince (ground beef)
- 1 small onion , finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves , finely minced
- 3 tbsp roughly chopped coriander/cilantro leaves (sub green onion)
Sweet chilli stir fry sauce:
- 2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce (I use Trident)
- 2 tbsp fish sauce (Note 2)
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar (sub cider vinegar)
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce (Note 3)
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce (Note 3)
Sweet chilli drizzle sauce:
- 1 garlic clove , minced using garlic crusher
- 3 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
- 2 tbsp lime juice (sub rice vinegar when limes are crazy expensive)
- 2 tsp fish sauce (Note 2)
Serving:
- 2 batches jasmine rice or other plain rice of choice
- Steamed or fresh veg (Note 5) (pictured: chopped cucumber, coriander/cilantro, red onion finely sliced)
Instructions
Abbreviated recipe
- Mix each sauce. Toast cashews, sauté onion + garlic 1 min, then cook beef. Add sauce, cook until reduced/caramelised, serve over rice with veg on side. Spoon over drizzle sauce, top with cashews and coriander.
Full recipe:
- Drizzle sauce - Mix the ingredients in a bowl, set aside.
- Stir fry sauce - Mix the ingredients in a separate bowl, set aside.
- Toast cashews - Heat a large non-stick pan over medium high heat. Add the cashews and toast for 2 minutes. Transfer to a cutting board then roughly chop once cool.
- Cook beef - Heat the oil in the same pan over high heat. Add the garlic and onion, cook for 1 minute. Add the beef and cook, breaking it up as you go, until you no longer see raw meat.
- Sauce it! Add the cooking sauce and cook well, stirring, until it mostly reduces down so the sauce caramelises on the beef, about 3 - 4 minutes. (Don't shortcut this step, it's where the flavour is!)
- Serve the beef over rice with a side of veg. Douse everything with the sauce, top with cashews and coriander (fresh chilli wouldn't go astray either). To eat, jumble everything up then dig in!
Notes
1. Cashews - Toasting brings out the flavour, promise it's worth it. Raw nuts - just toast for a little longer so they are cooked through. Peanuts and almonds would also be tasty, else a generous pinch of sesame seeds. Salted nuts - that's fine, but maybe cut down the fish sauce (in stir fry sauce) by about 1/2 tbsp.
2. Fish sauce - It's stinky in the bottle, but it cooks out so don't be scared! It's the secret ingredient that adds more flavour than other salty things like salt, soy etc. If you really have to sub, use all-purpose soy or light soy (NOT dark soy, too intense).
3. Oyster sauce - Similarly stinky (but also sweet), but is a flavour shortcut. Don't skip it. Sub vegetarian oyster sauce (yes, such a thing exists!).
4. Dark soy sauce gives the beef an enticing deep brown colour as well as adding tasty soy flavour. Substitute with all purpose or light soy sauce, though the beef won't be as dark. While the flavour will also be a little less, it's ok here because the drizzle sauce will save it!
5. Veg - The drizzle sauce will make any veg tasty, whether raw (like cucumber pictured, shredded cabbage, carrot, leafy greens, radish) or cooked (just plain steamed or blanched, like broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, peas). Think: poke bowl situation!
6. Leftover beef will keep for 3 to 4 days in the fridge, 3 months in the freezer. Great meal prep if you use steamed veg because everything in the can be reheated (though I wouldn't keep cooked rice longer than 3 days in fridge). Best to keep the drizzle sauce separate, if you can.
Nutrition per serving, assuming lean beef is used, 1 cup cooked rice, all the drizzle sauce and pictured cucumber side. 206 calories is from the rice, so switch it out with lower cal / lower carb alternatives if you want to reduce the calories (eg cauliflower rice).
Nutrition
Calories: 585cal | Carbohydrates: 62g | Protein: 33g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 11g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 81mg | Sodium: 1617mg | Potassium: 657mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 13g | Vitamin A: 24IU | Vitamin C: 6mg | Calcium: 58mg | Iron: 4mg