Chinese Style Noodles with Carrots and Broccoli

You guys seemed to enjoy the recipe I posted a couple weeks ago, so I’m back today with another one! Asian food might just be my favorite type of cuisine, so I really wanted to give this recipe a try. It’s not too complicated and doesn’t take a whole lot of time to prepare either. Read on to find out how I made this tasty dish!

Recipe from Food.com; adapted 

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 1/2 cups chopped onions
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger*
• 1/2 teaspoon dry crushed red pepper
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 3/4 cup beef broth
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 1/2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 8 ounces vermicelli, cooked
• 1/2 cup sliced green onion
• 3 regular sized carrots, chopped
• 3 cups of broccoli florets

* The original recipe calls for fresh ginger, but I didn’t have any, so I used ground ginger.
** The original recipe includes hoisin sauce. Since I didn’t have any, I added 1 extra tbsp of soy sauce (for a total of 3), 1 tbsp of oyster sauce, and about 1 1/2 teaspoons of brown sugar, instead of the hoisin sauce.

Directions

• Boil a pot of water. Once boiling, add broccoli florets and cook for about 30 seconds, then drain water and set broccoli aside.
• Brown ground beef in a large skillet, stirring until it crumbles; drain and keep warm.
• Pour sesame oil in pan and heat till hot. Saute onion, carrots, garlic, ginger, and red pepper flakes in hot sesame oil until tender (although I like my carrots to still have some crunch, so I added them a little after the rest of these ingredients).
• In a bowl, combine cornstarch and beef broth, whisking until smooth.
• Stir broth mixture and soy sauce into onion mixture and also add brown sugar and oyster sauce.
• Bring to a boil, stirring constantly; boil, stirring constantly,  for 1 minute.
• Stir in ground beef and the cooked broccoli florets.
• Toss with hot cooked pasta, and sprinkle with sliced green onions.

I’m a wimp and can’t handle spicy food, so I definitely dialed down the pepper in my version. If you like it spicy though, feel free to add more red pepper flakes. You could also try making this meal vegetarian by removing the ground beef and beef broth and using mushrooms and vegetable broth instead. If you decide to try this recipe, let me know how it goes!