Paleo Mongolian Beef
Paleo Mongolian Beef with juicy sizzling tender steak stir-fried in a savory and naturally sweet sauce. Better than PF Chang’s and much healthier, lower in carbs, and with no added sugar. Guarantee everyone will love in the family!
If you love authentic Taiwanese cuisine, you’ll also love my Mongolian chicken and Mongolian shrimp!
What is Mongolian Beef?
Mongolian Beef is the western translation for 葱爆牛肉 Cōng bào niúròu in Mandarin. It literally means beef with scallion and ginger stir fry. Originally Mongolian beef was a BBQ dish, created by chef Wu Zhaonan in Taiwan. The dish features sizzling hot and tender beef, stir-fried with garlic, ginger, chili peppers, and scallions in a light and sweet soy sauce.
Is Mongolian beef spicy
Mongolian beef is not a spicy dish. Although chili peppers are often included in the recipe, it’s mainly used to fragrant the oil and to add color contrast. You can use fresh or Chinese dry red chilies. If use fresh chilies, remove the seeds will make the dish less spicy. If use whole dry red chilies, leave them in whole and don’t slice or dice them open or otherwise it will be too spicy.
Is Mongolian beef healthy
In Chinese-American style cooking, Mongolian beef is often made with hoisin and soy sauce, and it’s often thickened with cornstarch. The starch in the sauce adds extra calorie and carbs to the dish. Store bought hoisin sauce often contains added sugar. If you want to lose weight or maintain your blood sugar level, you’ll need to pay closer attention.
Be that as it may, there are many healthy version of Mongolian beef stir-fries has no added sugar and no cornstarch, and is gluten-free. The dish tastes super flavorful because of the aromatics (ginger, scallions, and chili peppers) and I guarantee you’ll love it the first bite!
Is Mongolian beef gluten-free
Mongolian beef can be made gluten-free with special seasonings such as gluten-free soy sauce or coconut aminos (gluten-free and soy-free soy sauce substitute). Although it’s not difficult to find gluten-free hoisin sauce – an ingredient often found in Chinese-American style dish – it’s often made with high content of sugar, cornstarch, and other additives. You can try adding my homemade gluten free hoisin sauce.
Pairing suggestions
Mongolian beef is often served with steamed or fried rice. For a lighter and lower in carb version, serve with cauliflower or broccoli fried rice. It also goes well with creamy mashed sweet potatoes.
To add more vegetables, I recommend serving them on the side. Here are some great recommendations – Chinese broccoli stir-fry in garlic sauce, Sauteed snow pea leaves, lemon garlic broccoli, baby bok choy dim sum, and Chinese cabbage stir-fry.
If you give this dish a try, be sure to rate the recipe and leave a comment below.
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Paleo Mongolian Beef (Whole30, Keto, Gluten-Free)
Video
Ingredients
Beef Marinade:
- 1 lb skirt steak, beef flap, or sirloin , thinly sliced against the grain
- 2 tbsp coconut aminos
- 1 tbsp Red Boat fish sauce
- 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 tsp arrowroot starch
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3-4 tbsp avocado or olive oil
Aromatics:
- 3 large cloves garlic, , finely minced
- 3-inch length thinly sliced ginger, , from index through ring finger quantity
- 2 whole red chili peppers (fresno or serrano), , remove seeds, slice to thin strips
- 3 bulbs scallions, , cut into 3-inch length. Separate white and green parts.
Instructions
- Thin slice beef against the grain. Add ingredients from coconut aminos to baking soda. Mix well and set aside in the fridge.
- In the meantime, prepare garlic, ginger, scallions, separate white and green parts, and remove the chili pepper seeds and slice them to thin strips
- In a well-heated stainless steel skillet or cast iron, add 2 tbsp cooking fat. Pan fry the beef in one layer without disturbing over medium-high heat until crisp brown, about 2 minutes then quickly sear the flip side, about 30 seconds. Set the beef and the pan juice aside.
- Start the skillet dry and add 1 more tbsp cooking oil, saute aromatics with a pinch of salt until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Add beef back to the skillet and green scallion parts. Quickly toss to coat the flavor for another 30 seconds. Serve hot and immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Want to learn how to make beef stir-fry tender? check out this blog post on beef stir-fry technique 101!
WAY better than any restaurant Mongolian beef I’ve had and so easy to make!! One of the best recipes I’ve made for sure.
THank you so much, Jess!
Made this for dinner tonight, and it was delicious. Will definitely be making this again very soon. Thank you for a lovely recipe!
That’s awesome!
Admittedly, I hate anything sesame and can’t eat chili peppers (too hot). But, this is a go to dish for me now. So simple to make- and delicious. I may have needed a tad more beef, or maybe needed to use a bit less coconut aminos. Will make again!
Super delicious, easy and quick! All of her recipes are flavorful – this was no exception!
Thank you, Tessa!
THIS WAS EASILY ONE OF THE BEST RECIPES I HAVE EVER MADE! Thank you so much!! 🙂 I will be making this all the time 🙂
Thanks so much, Meg! Appreciate it!
This is the best Mongolian Beef we’ve tried on the internet that’s gluten-free, low carb, and easy to make! So much flavor packed in this dish and it’s absolutely delicious!
Thanks so much, Gene!
I made a one serving portion of this, with a few of very minor adjustments due to what I had on hand, I used a flat iron steak, I subbed 2 ounces of red bell pepper for the chili peppers. I subbed “hot oil” into the marinade (an oil spiced with chili peppers) for the toasted sesame oil, to add a little heat since I was missing the chili peppers. I added one tablespoon of finely diced white onion instead of the spring onion bulb to the aromatics, and after they had cooked I added the red bell pepper (very thinly sliced) to them and sauteed until tender.. At the very end, when I combined the meat and aromatics, I added one tablespoon of Surkin gold “brown sugar”. I served this over steamed cauliflower rice, and it was absolutely, totally amazing. Out of this world good!
So happy to hear, Janine! And thank you for sharing it with us. Appreciate it!
Omg this is by far the best Mongolian Beef stir-fry we’ve tried and believe me I’ve tried a few and this is the best. Even me kids love this dish. Will add this dish to our meal rotations and can’t wait to try more if you dishes!
Thank you, Terry!
Best Mongolian Beef Stir-Fry! It’s so simple to make and full of flavor. We served it over a bed of salad greens and it was so healthy and delicious. Will be making it again and again for sure!
This was fantastic! So many stir fry recipes have the same sweet flavor (which is great too) but this was more savory and it was sooooo delicious. We all loved it and I just wanted to eat it all day long.
Aww, thanks so much, Sara. I so appreciate it!
We made this dish! OMG so much flavor and I can’t believe it’s so simple to make. The whole family devoured it in no time. The only thing is I need to make a double batch next time!
Thanks, Laura!
I have made this dish about 10 times now, it’s my boyfriend’s absolute favorite! It has so few ingredients, yet so much flavor. I actually like it better than restaurant Mongolian beef! I totally admire your ability to write recipes that use clean and healthy ingredients while still making the dish taste amazing. I’m a fan for life!
So flattered. Love this Mongolian beef very much, too!
Made this for dinner tonight. Really, really good. I’ve made a number of your recipes now and they are all great. Thank you for showing us how to eat healthy with lots of flavor!
You are welcome, Audre. Very happy to share and thank you so much!
I love Mongolian beef. This looks so mouthwatering!
I used to adore mongolian beef, and i know I will love your version as I have loved ALL your dishes I make!
Delicious dish as always!! No surprise there!❤️
Thank you, Christina!
Would this dish work with shrimp? I recently changed my diet and I used to get Mongolian shrimp out at restaurants. I miss it and was hoping this would work out.
Hi Cassie, yes ! For shrimp, I’d skip the seasonings and keep the sauce the same. Here’s a more specific recipe written for shrimp stir-fry – https://iheartumami.com/paleo-chinese-shrimp-tomato-stir-fry/
Great recipe, already made it twice. Would it work with chicken?
Thank you, Cathy ! Hmmm…haven’t tried chicken yet but I have a lot of chicken stir-fry recipes on my site 🙂
I was attracted to this recipe because it wasn’t soy sauce and brown sugar. This was my first time cooking with coco aminos and fish sauce, but definitely not my last. This dish is so simple but SO DELICIOUS. I added mushrooms and onions to stretch the dish, doubled the sauce and served over cauliflower rice. Thank you for sharing this AMAZING recipe.
So very welcome !
Sounds divine. Could one use flank steak?
Yes. I would thin slice against the grain.