Oregon Transplant: Spicy Sesame Beef Rice Bowls

What, what? It's January, and I've already posted as many Asian-style recipes this month as I did all of last year? (That would be 2!)

I told you guys I was going to get more Asian dishes on the table, and what do you know? Another for the books! You are going to love these rice bowls. There is soooooo much delicious flavor, and guess what? A ton of veggies! I have to ask myself, what's not to like about these bowls? Crisp red and yellow peppers, tender spinach, flavorful marinated sirloin, plus crunchy wanton strips, sesame seeds, and plenty of dressing?

Sign me up!

And you know what guys? This dish couldn't get any easier. There's barely any cooking. Really, you only cook the steak. A quick sear to get it to the "doneness" of your choosing (always medium rare in my house), and that's about it. You throw the peppers, spinach, and dressing into the pan at the last second, really just enough to get them warm. I spiralized my peppers (more on that in a minute!), so if your peppers are a little thicker, you may want to cook them longer.

I bought a 1-lb sirloin cut from Kroger for this. The hubby and I don't eat a lot of red meat, mainly because I do like to buy organic, grass-fed beef. Which, as many of you know, is expensive. For us, any kind of beef is a treat and not a mainstay.

The sirloin needs to be cut very thin. I put my cut in the freezer for 20 minutes, and then used my chef's knife to carve it up oh-so sveltely.

The dressing/marinade can be made by hand, or in lazy girl fashion in the food processor. I chose the lazy girl route.

Cover your steak with just enough marinade to let it soak in. I let my steak marinade all day actually, about 8 hours. I'd say you'd be good after 2 hours of marinating, though.

You will have leftover marinade, and that's good! It's the sauce for the dish. Just put it in another container, and stick it in the fridge until you need it.

All right, let's talk about those spiralized peppers! After a summer of nothing but zoodles clogging up my Pinterest and FaceBook feeds, I decided to bite the bullet and join the ranks. These gadgets really aren't too expensive, I got this for $30. Expect to see lots of spiralized veggies and a few zoodle recipes soon :-)

Spiralizing is actually pretty easy. You just put the whole veggie up in there, turn the crank, and voila-

Spiralized vegetables!

I learned (only afterwards) that bell peppers can be tricky to spiralize. On my very first try, I cut the top off the pepper, removed the seeds, and then tried to put it in the machine. That was a no-go, as the pepper broke into about 10 different jagged pieces, of which NONE were spiralized.

The next day, I put the whole pepper in there. Yep, I didn't even remove the top. And I ended up with perfectly spiralized peppers. I did have to pick out a couple of seeds, but worth it! Moral of the story? Put the whole pepper in if that's what you are spiralizing.

How many times did I just use the word "spiralize?" Because, that's actually not a word. Spellcheck is going crazy over this whole post. Who thinks "spiralize" will probably be added to the dictionary in the next couple of years?

I'm over here raising my hand because I do! I don't see the zoodle (also not a word) craze dying down anytime soon.

You are going to need rice to serve your stir fry over. You could always do noodles too, I'm not opposed to noodles. Or zoodles! Geez, I can't believe I only just now thought of that one. Ha ha.

Toppings. Because you always need toppings.

There you go my friends! My second Asian dish of the year in as little as 29 days. Go me!

I hope you try this dish (you won't regret it!) and I hope you all have a great weekend! Happy Friday!

Recipe adapted from: Pinch of Yum

Ingredients (serves 4):

2/3 cup low-sodium soy sauce

1/4 cup mirin (substitute 3 tbsp rice vinegar + 1 tbsp sake or dry white wine)

1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced

1 tbsp sesame oil

2 1/2 tbsp brown sugar

1 heaping tbsp sambal oelek (spicy chile paste)

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb sirloin steak, thinly sliced

1 tbsp peanut oil

2 bell peppers (one yellow, one red), spiralized or thinly sliced

2 cups spinach

1 bunch scallions

hot cooked rice

toppings: wanton steps, sesame seeds

Directions:

1. Combine soy sauce, mirin, ginger, sesame oil, sugar, sambal oelek, and garlic in a food processor. Pulse until smooth.

2. In a large ziplock bag or container, combine steak with 1/4 to 1/3 cup of dressing. Seal bag, and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Turn bag occasionally.

3. Heat oil in a skillet over high heat (you want the pan screaming hot). When hot, add steak. The pan should sizzle loudly. Let sear for 1 minute, then flip the steak. Let cook for another 30 seconds, then remove pan from heat. Add peppers, spinach, reserved dressing, and scallions. Toss until the stir fry is well-coated and the spinach begins to wilt.

4. To serve, fill a bowl with 1/2 to 3/4 cup of rice. Spoon stir fry over rice. Top with wanton strips and sesame seeds. Serve immediately.

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