Beef Stir Fry Snow Peas (Printable)
Tender beef with crisp snow peas, carrots, and fresh ginger in a savory, quick sauce.
# What You'll Need:
→ Beef
01 - 1 lb flank steak or sirloin, thinly sliced against the grain
→ Marinade
02 - 1 tbsp soy sauce
03 - 1 tbsp cornstarch
04 - 1 tsp sesame oil
→ Vegetables
05 - 7 oz snow peas, trimmed
06 - 2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced diagonally
07 - 2 spring onions, sliced
08 - 2 cloves garlic, minced
09 - 1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated
→ Sauce
10 - 3 tbsp soy sauce
11 - 2 tbsp oyster sauce
12 - 1 tbsp rice vinegar
13 - 1 tbsp honey or brown sugar
14 - 2 tbsp water
15 - 1 tsp cornstarch
→ For Cooking
16 - 2 tbsp vegetable oil, divided
# Directions:
01 - Combine sliced beef with 1 tablespoon soy sauce, 1 tablespoon cornstarch, and 1 teaspoon sesame oil. Toss to coat evenly and let marinate for 10 minutes.
02 - In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice vinegar, honey, water, and cornstarch until smooth. Set aside.
03 - Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a large wok or skillet over high heat. Add marinated beef and stir-fry for 2 to 3 minutes until just browned. Remove beef and set aside.
04 - Add remaining 1 tablespoon vegetable oil to the wok. Stir-fry garlic, ginger, and spring onions for approximately 30 seconds until fragrant.
05 - Add sliced carrots and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add snow peas and continue stir-frying for an additional 2 minutes until vegetables are tender-crisp.
06 - Return beef to the wok, pour in prepared sauce, and toss for 1 to 2 minutes until sauce thickens and evenly coats beef and vegetables.
07 - Plate immediately and garnish with additional spring onions if desired.
# Cooking Tips:
01 -
- The entire thing finishes in under 30 minutes, which means you can actually make dinner on a weeknight without losing your mind.
- Everything stays tender but with a real bite to it—there's zero mushiness if you follow the timing, and the vegetables taste like themselves, just elevated.
- The sauce coats everything with this balanced savory-sweet thing that makes you want to eat it with rice just to soak up every drop.
02 -
- Do not walk away from the stove once you start cooking—stir-fries move fast and the difference between perfectly cooked and overdone vegetables is literally seconds.
- Prep everything before the wok gets hot; there's genuinely no time to chop a carrot once you've started cooking, and I learned this the hard way by nearly burning my garlic while finishing my knife work.
- If your vegetables look too wet after cooking, it usually means the sauce temperature dropped when you added them; just keep the heat high and stir for another minute or so until it tightens up.
03 -
- If you don't have a wok, a large skillet works just fine—the wok is nice because of the curved sides, but any large pan with some depth will do the job.
- Pat your beef dry with paper towels before marinating; any excess moisture will create steam instead of a sear, which is the whole reason marinating exists in the first place.