Bursting with spicy, savory goodness, our easy cumin beef recipe is seriously going to knock your socks off! Loaded with ginger, garlic, cumin and the tingling magic of sichuan peppercorns, homemade cumin beef stir-fry isn’t just better than restaurant food — it’s so much faster than waiting for take-out food to be ready, too. Served with some White Rice and Steamed Broccoli, it’s such a simple, healthy, fast way to get your Chinese food fix.
Cumin Beef Ingredients
Beef: for cumin beef, we always use flank steak! It’s tender and lean, and it stir-fries beautifully.
Shaoxing wine: Chinese Shaoxing wine is a rice wine that’s mostly used for cooking and you should be able to find it in most Asian grocery stores. If you can’t find it, though, it’s OK to substitute dry sherry.
Sichuan peppercorns: Sichuan peppercorns are a key ingredient in a lot of Chinese recipes (we use them in our Dan Dan Noodles, and our zingy Hot And Sour Cabbage). They’re not actually a whole lot spicier than black peppercorns, but they are known for their mouth-tingling (or even numbing) quality. You can find them in Asian grocery stores.
Cumin: warm and completely unique, cumin is a spice that we usually associate more with Middle Eastern cuisine than Chinese, and maybe that’s part of why we love this dish so much. It’s surprising and unique (in addition to being a quick and easy dinner!).
Soy sauce: we like to use low-sodium soy sauce, and add a little salt to taste if need be.
Dark soy sauce: Dark soy sauce is a bit different from regular soy sauce. It has a much thicker texture, almost like molasses. You can find it pretty easily at Asian grocery stores (for example,H Mart carries it) but you can substitute molasses if you cannot find it.
Cornstarch: Just a little bit of cornstarch helps the cumin beef sauce stick to the beef pieces.
Neutral oil: You’ll use this oil for stir-frying the cumin beef, so you need an oil that can take high heat. Avocado, canola, corn, grapeseed, regular or light olive oil would all work.
Onion: We treat it more like a vegetable than a seasoning in our cumin beef recipe, but you will want to be sure to slice it into thin pieces so that no one gets a massive mouthful of onion.
Fresh garlic: five cloves of garlic may seem like a lot, but take-out cumin beef tastes so delicious because restaurants do not hold back. Go to town on the garlic, you won’t regret it.
Ginger: Fresh ginger adds a little spicy-sweet heat that’ll make the cumin beef taste restaurant-level delicious.
How To Make Cumin Beef
Whip up a quick marinade for the beef: Add the flank steak pieces to a mixture of Shaoxing wine, salt, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and cornstarch.
Stir-fry the beef! Over high heat, cook the beef slices in oil. You might need to work in batches so that the heat stays high enough to get the beef really nice and almost-crisp (if you overcrowd the pan, the heat will drop). Put the beef aside.
Stir-fry the onion, and once it’s soft, finish the dish by adding all the seasonings — garlic, ginger, sichuan peppercorns, and cumin — along with the beef.
Your cumin beef is done! We always garnish with a drizzle of sesame oil and some fresh cilantro.
Tips + How To Store Leftovers
Serve cumin beef simply over white rice, or as part of a Chinese food feast (that might be a fun dinner party theme!) with other favorites like Kung pao chicken, Chinese Dry-Fried Green Beans, or chicken chow mein.
Like most stir-fry recipes, cumin beef tastes best right after it’s cooked. However, leftover cumin beef will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days (and between us, it’s pretty delicious cold).
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