Cabbage and Vegetable Stir Fry, with Beef

This is a recipe of my husband’s creation. He calls it a stir fry, but there isn’t much stirring that is going to happen till it cooks down quite a bit. It’s low calorie, low carb, low fat, and low sodium.

It does have some Pinot Grigio wine in it, but not very much. The purpose of the wine is for a bit of flavor, but not enough to give it a wine taste. It helps make up for the missing salt in this recipe.

You are going to need a really big stir fry pan, or maybe it would be better to cook it in a large pot, if you don’t have a stir fry pan big enough.

If you decide to go with the stir fry pan, you’ll need one that is at least 14 inches, and a lid to fit it. This is the pan I have, and this pizza pan is what I use as a lid.

You’ll also need a spiral cutter. This one is quite sturdy and doesn’t have the issues that some cheaper ones have, with the steel teeth breaking off and ending up in your food. So, for safety’s sake, whatever spiral cutter you get, make sure it’s of good quality.

Ingredients:

• 1 to 1.5 LBS lean beef round strips
• 1 TBS extra virgin olive oil
• 1 large, fat carrot, peeled and spiral cut.
• 1 zucchini, spiral cut with the skin on
• 1 yellow squash, spiral cut with the skin on
• 1 large Spanish onion, cut in half and sliced
• 1 celery stalk, sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, cut into thin strips
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
• 4 TBS minced garlic
• 2 small cans mushrooms, stems and pieces, no salt added, undrained
• 1 whole cabbage, about 2 to 3 LBS, shredded
• 2 TBS Pinot Grigio wine (Not cooking wine. Use the real thing!)
• 1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce, no salt added
• 1/4 cup dried oregano
• 2 TBS dried basil
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder

Directions:

1. Brown the beef strips in the olive oil.
2. Add the spiral cut carrot and stir fry to soften them a bit.
3. Add the zucchini, yellow squash, onion, celery, red & green peppers, garlic, and cabbage, in that order, building a huge mountain in your pan. (see before photo, above)
4. If there is room, add the 2 cans of mushrooms, liquid and all. If there is no room, just add the liquid and set the mushrooms aside.
5. Add the wine.
6. Cook over medium flame till the cabbage cooks down enough to put the lid on.
7. Continue to cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
8. Stir in the tomato sauce, oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, and onion powder. (and the mushrooms, if you didn’t add them before)
9. Cook for another 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

This can be served over rice, if you are not on a low carb diet.