Get my Cookbooks! Ground Beef and Broccoli
This Ground Beef and Broccoli is an easy 30 minute meal with a simple, flavorful sauce that your family will love eating with vegetables!
Be sure to try my Greek Chicken Bowls and Burrito Bowl Recipe next!
Ground Beef and Broccoli
I can’t pass up a good stir fry recipe, especially one that is truly a 30 minute meal.
You can make this recipe with ground beef, chicken, or turkey. Feel free to add in whatever vegetables you have on hand as well. It even makes a great freezer meal to reheat for easy, healthy lunches and dinners!
So….you sold yet?! See how easy this is to make below and don’t miss my pro tips for this recipe.
How to Make It
See recipe card below this post for ingredient quantities and full instructions.
Sauté the broccoli in oil for about 4-5 minutes, set aside. Add ground beef and onions and cook/crumble over medium-high heat. Drain grease. Add bell peppers and cook for 1 minute.
Add sauce mixture and bring to a gentle boil. Let it simmer/reduce for 2-3 minutes. Remove cornstarch mixture from the fridge and give it a shake. Slowly stir it into the sauce. Let it continue to bubble gently until desired thickness is obtained.
Reduce heat to low. Add broccoli back and stir to combine and heat through. Garnish with green onions and serve.
Keto Ground Beef and Broccoli
- Cauliflower rice can be used instead of regular.
- Brown Sugar and Honey can be replaced with more keto-friendly sweeteners. I do feel that sweetener of some sort is necessary in this recipe to balance out the savory flavor from the soy sauce and beef broth.
- Consider skipping the cornstarch.
Pro Tips
- Ground Turkey or Ground Chicken may also be used in this recipe. You can also make my Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry with chicken breasts!
- Frozen Broccoli may also be used. Thaw and pat dry and proceed as outlined in the recipe.
- Ingredient Additions include julienned carrots, water chestnuts, celery, kale, and more.
- Topping Options include green onions, roughly chopped peanuts, sesame seeds, crunchy chow mein noodles, and sliced almonds.
- To Control the Sodium in this recipe, consider using low sodium soy sauce and/or reduced sodium broth. Some soy sauce brands contain more salt than others.
- Tip for cooking rice: Add chicken bouillon to the water for added flavor. Let it stand in the pot with the cover on for 10 minutes after simmering to let the rice release from the bottom.
Storage
- Store in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze for up to 3 months. (Leftovers do freeze well!)
Tools For This Recipe
(Amazon affiliate links)- Check out all of my kitchen essentials here.
- Wok– conducts heat well for this recipe and other stir fry recipes.
- Rice Cooker/Steamer
- Rubbermaid Containers with lids– I always use these to combine my corn starch + cold water.
- Better Than Bouillon– This is what I always use for broth in my recipes. It takes very little space and makes it easy to measure out customized amounts of broth.
Try These Next
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- Pepper Steak
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- Greek Chicken Bowls
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- Chicken Lo Mein
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- Beef and Broccoli
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- Chicken Fried Rice
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- Honey Garlic Shrimp
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Tried This Recipe?
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Ground Beef and Broccoli
This Ground Beef and Broccoli recipe is an easy 30 minute meal with a simple, flavorful sauce that your family will love eating with vegetables!
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon peanut oil, can sub vegetable or olive
- 3 cups broccoli florets, washed and patted dry
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced
- Salt/White Pepper, to taste
Sauce
- 2 Tablespoons cornstarch, + 2 tablespoons cold water
- 1 cup beef broth
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons honey
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
For Serving
- 3 cups cooked rice, any kind
Instructions
Prep Work
- Combine cornstarch + 2 Tablespoons water in a covered container and shake to combine. Place in a cool location.
- Combine remaining sauce ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside. *Start with 1 tablespoon of honey and add another at the end if desired.
Cook the Broccoli
- Heat the oil over medium heat. Add the broccoli and toss to coat. Cook for 4-5 minutes, until slightly softened. Remove and set aside.
Cook the Beef
- Season the beef with salt/white pepper if desired. Cook and crumble the ground beef and diced onions over medium-high heat until browned and cooked through. Drain grease. Add sliced bell peppers and cook for 1 minute.
Add the Sauce
- Add sauce mixture and bring to a boil. Let it simmer/reduce for 2-3 minutes. Shake the cornstarch mixture, then slowly stir it into the sauce. Let it continue to bubble gently until desired thickness is obtained.
Add the Broccoli Back
- Reduce heat to low. Add broccoli back and stir to combine and heat through. Garnish with green onions and serve over rice! *See notes for my process on making perfectly cooked, flavorful rice.
Notes
- Ground Turkey or Ground Chicken may also be used in this recipe. You can also make my Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry with chicken breasts!
- Frozen Broccoli may also be used. Thaw and pat dry and proceed as outlined in the recipe.
- Ingredient Additions include julienned carrots, water chestnuts, celery, kale, and more.
- Topping Options include green onions, roughly chopped peanuts, sesame seeds, crunchy chow mein noodles, and sliced almonds.
- To Control the Sodium in this recipe, consider using low sodium soy sauce and/or reduced sodium broth. Some soy sauce brands contain more salt than others.
My process for perfectly cooked rice:
- Bring 2 cups of water to a boil. (I add 2 chicken bouillon cubes to the water for enhanced flavor.)
- Add 1 cup of white long grain rice and let the liquid come back up to a boil.
- Cover tightly and reduce heat to a gentle simmer for 15 minutes. (I set my heat to low.)
- Remove from heat and let it stand in the pot for 10 minutes with the lid on, any rice stuck to the bottom will release.
- This yields 3 cups of flavorful, perfectly cooked rice. I use a Dutch oven for this which conducts heat well.
- Note that other varieties of rice may require different liquid measurements and/or cooking times.
The Nutrition Information is per serving, there are 4 servings in this recipe, and the rice is included. Note that the nutritional information shared is an estimate.
Nutrition
Calories: 488kcal, Carbohydrates: 65g, Protein: 32g, Fat: 11g, Saturated Fat: 4g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g, Monounsaturated Fat: 5g, Trans Fat: 0.4g, Cholesterol: 70mg, Sodium: 1138mg, Potassium: 842mg, Fiber: 4g, Sugar: 21g, Vitamin A: 1357IU, Vitamin C: 102mg, Calcium: 80mg, Iron: 4mg
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Delicious! A bit of work, but at least it was worth the effort. Next time I will cook the rice a day ahead so the rice cooker won’t add to the items needing to be cleaned.
So glad that you enjoyed it! 😍
Love this recipe! I want to give this frozen to a mom when she has her baby, what are the freezing instructions/re warming up?
I’m so happy to hear that! What a great meal to make for a new mom!! 🙂 To reheat, I’d let it thaw (it can be thawed using a ‘defrost’ or ‘melt’ or some sort of lower power setting in the microwave.) It can also be fully reheated in the microwave for convenience, or, once thawed, it can be reheated in the oven. I’d put it in a baking dish roughly the same size as the amount that’s being reheated so that it stays moist. Cover and bake at 325 for 15 minutes, or until heated through. You may want to undercook the broccoli just slightly since it’ll be heated through a second time. What a nice gesture! 🙂
I see some comments on the sauce being too sweet, not true at all in my opinion! I love to cook and I wouldn’t change a thing!! Try this recipe – it’s amazing!!
Happy to hear you liked it Ersillia!! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment!!!💖
You’ve inspired me to try it! I will report back 😉
Can’t wait for you to try it Sandra!
We found the sauce too sweet and next time we make it will skip the brown sugar and add 1 T of honey plus some Sriracha. It was quick and easy and the veggies still had some crunch.
While this was tasty I also found it too sweet and would likely lessen amount of brown sugar and add siracha as well! Otherwise the kids and I loved it !
Definitely feel free to adjust to your taste Terra! 🙂
The recipe was so easy to follow. Once all the ingredients were prepped, it was just a matter of patience to wait out a few minutes of each of the steps for ingredients to get cooked and the flavors to soak through.
I’m so happy you liked it and fond it easy to make Aerin! I agree, getting all the ingredients prepped first really makes things easy. Thanks so much for the review!!🩷