20 Minute Ground Beef Egg Roll in a Bowl

Ground beef egg roll in a bowl is browned beef, shredded cabbage and carrots, garlic, and ginger cooked in one skillet with a soy, sesame, and hoisin sauce in 20 minutes.

The step most versions skip is letting the beef sit untouched in a hot pan until the bottom is crusty and brown, then pouring off the fat before the cabbage goes in.

That way the cabbage fries in a nearly dry pan and stays crisp instead of steaming in grease, which is the difference between this and the soggy version.

A bag of coleslaw mix stands in for a head of cabbage, so there is no shredding.

Why You’ll Love It

• One 12-inch skillet, 20 minutes
• Coleslaw mix means no cabbage to shred
• About 25 grams of protein per serving (4 ounces of raw 90/10 beef at about 22 grams, plus the cabbage, sesame seeds, and sauce at about 3 grams)
• Low-carb on its own, or a full dinner over rice
• Serves 4 and keeps 4 days in the fridge

Ingredients

For the Sauce

¼ cup low-sodium soy sauce

1 tablespoon hoisin sauce

1 tablespoon rice vinegar

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

1 teaspoon sriracha (optional)

For the Bowl

1 tablespoon avocado oil or another neutral oil

1 pound 90/10 lean ground beef

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon black pepper

1 small yellow onion, diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger

1 bag (14 to 16 ounces) coleslaw mix, the kind with shredded green cabbage and carrots

3 green onions, sliced, white and green parts kept separate

1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

For Serving

Cooked rice, chili crisp, extra sriracha, crispy wonton strips (all optional)

Steps

1. Whisk the soy sauce, hoisin, rice vinegar, sesame oil, and sriracha in a small bowl before you turn on the stove, because once the cabbage is in the pan there is no time to measure anything.

2. Heat a 12-inch carbon steel skillet or stainless skillet over medium-high heat until a drop of water skitters across it, add the oil, then add the beef in an even layer and season it with the salt and pepper.

3. Leave the beef alone for 3 full minutes until the underside is deeply browned, then break it up with a meat chopper or wooden spoon and cook 3 to 4 minutes more until no pink remains and the edges are crisp — gray, wet beef means the pan was not hot enough or you stirred too early.

4. Tilt the pan and spoon out all but about 1 tablespoon of fat (90/10 beef leaves little, 80/20 leaves a lot), since any fat left behind is what the cabbage soaks up.

5. Add the onion and cook 2 minutes, then add the garlic, ginger, and the white parts of the green onions and stir for 30 seconds until fragrant, no longer, because minced garlic burns fast at this heat.

6. Add half the coleslaw mix and toss with 12-inch tongs for 1 minute until it starts to wilt, then add the rest (the pan will look overfull for a minute) and cook 4 to 5 minutes total, tossing every 30 seconds, until the cabbage is tender with a bite left in it.

7. Pour the sauce over everything, toss for 1 minute until it coats the beef and cabbage and the bottom of the pan is nearly dry, and turn off the heat.

8. Scatter the green onion tops and sesame seeds over the top and serve straight from the pan, on its own or over rice.

Helpful Tips & Substitutions

Do not cover the pan at any point, because a lid traps steam and the cabbage goes limp and watery within 2 minutes.

Keep the heat at medium-high the whole way through for the same reason; if liquid starts pooling in the pan, turn the heat up, not down.

90/10 beef is specified because it browns without leaving a pool of fat; 80/20 tastes fine but you will drain off about ¼ cup, and 93/7 needs the full tablespoon of oil or it sticks.

Ground pork is the traditional egg roll filling and works at the same amount, and ground turkey works too but needs the oil and browns less, so expect paler meat.

If you would rather use a whole cabbage, half a medium head (about 6 cups) sliced ¼ inch thick plus 1 grated carrot replaces the bag.

Regular soy sauce is saltier than low-sodium, so cut it to 3 tablespoons; coconut aminos work for a soy-free version but are sweeter, so skip the hoisin.

Hoisin usually contains wheat, so for a gluten-free bowl use tamari and 1 teaspoon of brown sugar in its place.

Keep fresh ginger in the freezer and grate it frozen on a microplane with the skin on; it grates finer that way and never goes bad in the fridge drawer.

For more protein, push everything to the sides of the pan after the cabbage is done, scramble 2 eggs in the center, and then fold them through before the sauce goes in.

A tablespoon of chili crisp stirred in with the sauce adds heat and crunch at the same time, and it is a better choice than extra sriracha, which only adds heat.

Serving Ideas

On its own it is a low-carb dinner, and over jasmine rice or cauliflower rice it stretches to feed 5 or 6.

Spoon it into butter lettuce or iceberg cups and eat it with your hands the way 5 ingredient taco ground beef lettuce wraps are served, which works well for a crowd.

A handful of crispy wonton strips or chow mein noodles on top puts the crunch of an actual egg roll wrapper back in.

If you want a second ground beef skillet in the same style for another night, ground beef broccoli fried rice uses the same browning method with rice in place of cabbage.

For a cold side that shares the flavors, Asian sesame coleslaw uses the other half of the cabbage if you bought a whole head.

A fried egg with a runny yolk on top turns a reheated portion into something closer to a rice bowl.

Make-Ahead & Storage

Leftovers keep 4 days in the fridge in glass meal prep containers; the cabbage softens a little more each day but does not get watery as long as it was not overcooked to start.

Reheat in a dry skillet over medium-high heat for 3 to 4 minutes, tossing, which keeps the cabbage from steaming; the microwave works in 90 seconds uncovered but gives a softer result.

It is fine cold straight from the container, more like a warm slaw that has been chilled, which makes it a reasonable packed lunch.

Do not freeze the finished bowl, since cabbage turns limp and leaks water when it thaws.

The beef alone freezes well, so brown 2 pounds, freeze half with the onion already cooked in, and the next batch takes 10 minutes from a thawed bag.

The sauce can be mixed a week ahead and kept in a jar in the fridge, and an unopened bag of coleslaw mix lasts about 5 days past purchase, so this is an easy one to keep on the list for a night when nothing is planned.

The cabbage keeps cooking in the pan’s residual heat for a couple of minutes after the burner is off, so pull it while it still looks slightly underdone.