Korean Ground Beef Bowls are a quick 15-minute dinner recipe that can be served over rice or turned into lettuce wraps. This recipe is inspired by traditional Korean Beef – it’s slightly sweet and a little bit spicy and perfect for a quick meal!
Quick and easy recipes are the best, right? I love when we can pull together dinner in less time it takes to order take-out and this Korean beef bowl recipe is one of our favorites:
- The savory beef cures a take-out craving. It has similar flavors of some of our favorite dishes!
- It’s a snap to make in about 15 minutes
- You can serve it over rice or use the beef filling to make lettuce wraps for a lower-carb dinner
Basically, these delicious beef bowls will save you on busy weeknights! Most of it is made with simple pantry ingredients making it easy to make it when it seems like there’s no time to cook. This Korean Ground Beef Recipe is one the whole family will love!
Ingredients Needed
- Ground beef – we prefer to use lean ground beef or ground turkey but you can use any ground meat, even ground chicken or pork.
- Garlic and Ginger – Mince the garlic small, and grate the fresh ginger with a microplane or zester.
- Sesame oil – This oil is a little expensive but it lasts a long time. A little goes a long way and it adds that traditional flavor you expect from many Asian dishes.
- Soy sauce – This is another staple for copycat take out recipes – we always use low-sodium soy sauce.
- Brown Sugar – A little for sweetness. You can substitute Swerve sugar-free brown sugar!
- Red pepper flakes – For heat, adjust to your liking.
- Rice vinegar – A little acid goes a long way!
- Sugar Snap Peas – we love the crunch of these peas but you can use almost any veggies you want. See variations below.
Variations & Substitutions
This recipe is SO easy to customize to your liking!
- Use honey or sugar-free brown sugar instead of regular brown sugar
- Use your favorite ground meat
- Instead of (or in addition to) snap peas, add carrots or mushrooms or broccoli, bell peppers, or almost anything. We love beef and mushrooms!
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How to make This Korean Beef Recipe
- Cook the ground beef in a skillet over medium-high heat. Break it up as it cooks and once it’s no longer pink, drain off the excess fat.
- Stir in the garlic, ginger, sesame oil, and rice vinegar and cook them with the beef for a couple of minutes. Add the soy sauce, sugar, and red pepper flakes. Cook it all together for about five minutes.
- Add the snap peas and cook them for one minute. At this point it’s ready to serve!
Storage and Meal Prep
Store leftovers in the fridge in an airtight container. You can also freeze leftovers or cooked and cooled ground beef.
This is the perfect recipe for meal prep – simply cook up a big batch of the easy Korean beef, then portion it into containers with whatever sides you want and store in the refrigerator for easy lunches!
Korean Beef Bowl Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon ginger grated
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- ⅓ cup low sodium soy sauce
- ⅓ cup light brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 cup sugar snap peas chopped into bite sized pieces
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet to medium heat. Break ground beef into small pieces and cook until the pink is gone 4-6 minutes. Drain excess liquid
- Add garlic, ginger, sesame oil and rice vinegar. Cook for 2 minutes. Then add soy sauce, brown sugar and red pepper flakes. Cook for 4-6 minutes allowing the liquid to be absorbed into the meat. Add in the sugar snap peas and heat for 1 minute.
- Serve over brown rice and garnish with green onions and sesame seeds
Recipe Notes
- Use different vegetables like broccoli for a different taste and texture.
- Add another 1/4 teaspoon of red pepper flakes if you like a strong bite of heat.
- If you want to make it healthier you can skip the rice and use lettuce for Korean lettuce wraps.
Recipe Nutrition
This looks really good. I’m anxious to try it.
This was so easy to make and very flavorful!
Just made this tonight. I added broccoli, cut up small, instead of the snap peas. Turned out really, really good! Definitely something I’ll make again.
I’ve made this several times although I use broccoli instead of snap peas. It’s great!
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