Orange Zest Beef
This orange zest beef recipe is a much lower fat alternative to Chinese take-out and is a quick, easy and perfectly delicious meal.
You’ll want to use a tender beef for this, since the cooking time is only 4-5 minutes. Cheaper cuts like chuck are going to be too tough, unless you pound it paper-thin, or use some kind of tenderizer. Sirloin works fine or you could use some beef tenderloin trimmings. This will also work with chicken, pork, and textured vegetable protein.
Ingredients:
- 1 lb tender beef, ideally trimmed tenderloin scraps
- vegetable oil spray, as needed
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Sambal hot chili sauce
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 1 tbsp brown sugar, or to taste
- 2 tbsp orange zest
- 1 bunch green onions
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tsp corn starch
- salt and pepper to taste
- white rice as needed
Method
- Combine beef, orange juice, rice vinegar, soy sauce, hot
chili paste, brown sugar, and garlic in a large bowl.
- Cover and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours.
- Strain beef in a colander set over a large bowl, allowing beef to drain thoroughly, about 5 minutes. Reserve marinade.
- Stir water and cornstarch into the bowl of marinade.
- Whisk until cornstarch is dissolved, set aside.
- Spray frying pan with cooking spray and place over high heat.
- Cook beef for 1 minute without stirring; cook and stir for an additional minute.
- Stir in light parts of green onion and orange zest; cook for 30 seconds.
- Stir in marinade and green onion tops; cook and stir until beef is no longer pink inside and sauce is reduced and thick, about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Season with salt and black pepper to taste.
Serves 4 – Nutrition Per Serving
Calories: 267, Fat: 14g, Carbohydrate: 17g, Protein: 19g