Make Ahead Freezer Stir Fry-Little Sprouts Learning (original) (raw)

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Stir fry is a really tasty healthy meal that comes together in just a few minutes. With this make ahead freezer stir fry, you can keep it on hand even more easily. I love freezer meals, they are such a huge time saver.

It’s just another easy dinner idea to have in your pocket!

I love to make multiple batches of whatever I’m making and have it on hand for the next time I need to feed everyone. And popping portions in the freezer is a great way to grab a quick lunch or dinner in no time. Goodbye, unhealthy take-out! This freezer stir fry is perfect for that.

If you’re making a mess to cook, you’ll make the same amount of mess if you triple the batch and freeze two as you would if you were just making one. So time saving for the win!

Stir fry is vegetables that are cut into small pieces like a julienne or something similar, and possible small strips of meat as well, cooked at high heat, traditionally in a wok, served over rice. You can cook stir fry even if you don’t have a wok and you can also serve it over pasta or eat it without anything else. They make a great easy dinner for family.

For this recipe, we’ll be doing the traditional way of cooking it in a wok and serving it over rice. But you can change it up however you’d like. The main key to good stir fry is super high heat. It sears the outside of the meat and vegetables and keeps them crisp on the inside.

Broccoli Asian recipe

Asian food is usually served with crunchy vegetables that have been imparted with tons of flavor through heat and sauces. There are many Asian cultures that make stir fry, and they can differ a little. But they are all good!

Broccoli is used in many Asian dishes, and is a great base for stir fry. I love cauliflower too so we did a mixture in this beef and broccoli, cauliflower stir fry.

My kids love broccoli and cauliflower too, so this is a win for a daycare meal for us. The one key I would say is, kids usually don’t like their food mixed together, so I might cook the meat and take it out of the pan and then cook the veggies if I were serving it to them. I’m the queen of navigating picky eaters!

How to make beef tender for stir fry

The first key to tender meat is how you cut it. For stir fry, you slice really thin slices of beef. You can use roast or steak, whatever you have on hand, but make sure you cut it across the grain. If you cut with the grain, you’ll have long, stringy pieces of meat. Cut across the grain as you slice, breaking up the long fibers in the meat.

The second key to tender beef is velveting it. Asian recipes use this technique so they can use cheaper cuts of meat that are tougher and still come out with tender, tasty meat. Place your meat slices in a bowl and toss with baking soda. Let it sit for 30 minutes and then rinse it off and pat it dry. You get the tenderizing from the baking soda but not the flavor.

Once you have the meat rinsed off, you can marinate it or put a rub on it as you wish.

Broccoli and cauliflower stir fry

Make sure you have your beef sliced and velveted and in the marinade before you start. Everything needs to be ready to cook because the cooking is fast! You can cook your rice while the meat is marinating. Or you can start it when you start prepping the vegetables if you have sliced, velveted, and marinated the meat ahead of time.

For our beef and broccoli, cauliflower stir fry, we will slice and velvet the meat, and then marinate it in soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, and corn starch. Then heat the wok to screaming hot.

Beef and Broccoli, Cauliflower Stir Fry Freezer Meal

Rich flavorful beef with broccoli and cauliflower seared at a high heat, infused with tons of flavor, and served over steamed rice.

Prep Time35 minutes

Cook Time30 minutes

Total Time1 hour 5 minutes

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Chinese

Keyword: beef and broccoli cauliflower stir fry freezer meal, freezer meal, stir fry

Servings: 6

1 lb beef steak or roast of choice
2 tbsp baking soda
2 c white rice
3 c beef stock
salt to taste
2 tbsp soy sauce for marinade
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 inch ginger, chopped (or a teaspoon of powdered)
3 c broccoli florets
1 c cauliflower florets
2 carrots, julienned
1 onion, julienned
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/3 c additional soy sauce for cooking
3 tbsp honey
red pepper flakes to taste
Slice beef at an angle as thinly as possible with a very sharp knife against the grain. (Make sure you are cutting through the strands of muscle rather than along them)
Toss beef in baking soda and let set for 30 mintues.
Start rice cooking. (white rice takes about 30 minutes. Use 1 cup of rice with 1 1/2 cups of liquid, we are using beef stock for our liquid, and a dash of salt, bring mixture to a boil in a large sauce pan and reduce heat to simmer, cover and let cook for 20 minutes before checking. If most of the water is gone and the rice has puffed up, remove from heat and let sit covered for at least 10 minutes, then fluff with a fork)
While the beef is velveting and rice is cooking, cut all of your brocoli and cauliflower into bite sides pieces and set aside in two seperate bowls. Cauliflower takes a little longer to cook, so you'll need them separarted. Slice up the carrots and onion into a thin julienne. Peel all the garlic and chop finely. Peel the ginger and chop finely as well.
Remove the beef from the baking soda. Rinse and pat dry. Then toss in a bowl with the soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, and ginger.
Let that sit for at least 5 minutes. Meanwhile, heat your wok or skillet on high until it just starts to smoke. Watch it carefully to make sure it doesn't get too hot, but oyu want it very very hot.
Add coconut oil to the pan and immediately add the beef plus all of the marinade.
Cook and stir for about one minute and add the onions.
Cook and stir for about 30 seconds and add the carrots.
Cook and stir for about 30 seconds more and add the cauliflower and red pepper flakes.
Cook and stir for about 1-2 minutes (the cauliflower will lower the heat, so make sure it's back to searing temperature again)
Add the broccoli, additional soy sauce, garlic, and honey. Cook until broccoli is still crunchy, but edges are slightly browned and it has turned a bright green color.
Remove from heat, serve over a scoop of rice, and sprinkle with sesame seeds and sliced green onions.
Add more soy sauce to taste in individual dishes once served.
Allow to cool in the individual containers, once cool, cover tightly and freeze for up to 2 months.

If you want to double or triple this recipe for freezer stir fry, the rice can be cooked together in a larger pot, but the stir fry would be best cooked one batch at a time. There’s only so much room in the pan and overcrowding will cause it to steam instead of sear, so you could do a batch, then dump it out and do the next, and then so on. Still saves a ton of clean up.

Can you freeze stir fry?

Stir fry freezes wonderfully. Rice keeps even better in the freezer than the refrigerator because of the starches in it. I like to either mix the whole thing together or put a half cup of rice and a scoop of stir fry in individual containers labeled with the contents and date and pull them out as needed.

They reheat better if you set them in the fridge the day before you need them so they aren’t frozen solid. Freezer stir fry reheats best in the microwave but can be reheated in a saucepan on the stove if you add a little bit of stock or water.

Try these other freezer meals too:

Stir fry is so delicious and a wonderful way to learn to love vegetables because it’s so flavorful and the textures are so appealing. So try it out for yourself. You’re going to love it!

For more broccoli recipes, check these out:

For more beef recipes, check these out:

For more rice recipes, check these out:

For even more dinner inspiration, check out 12 Healthy Dinner Ideas for Kids.