Name: Ground Beef and Bok Choy Rice Bowl Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 1 lb extra lean ground beef; 450 g Baby Bok choy; 1 cup uncooked brown or white rice; 1/3 cup soy sauce (tamari for gluten-free); 3 tbsp brown sugar; 1 inch ginger cube; 2 cloves garlic; 1 tsp sesame oil; 1 tsp Rice vinegar; 2 tsp corn starch; green onions; Sesame seeds for garnish

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This ground beef and bok choy rice bowl is slightly salty, slightly sweet and very addictive. There is something about the ease of the recipe combined with the phenomenal flavour that keeps you coming back for more.

The first time I tried the combination of ground beef and bok choy was through a meal delivery service. It was so tasty I remembered it years later. I tried to find the recipe again but the variations that were out there just weren’t it.

So, I decided to try to replicate it myself. I will admit that it took me many tries to get to this perfect recipe but it was so worth it. Those that have tried it at my house always ask for the recipe so I decided it must be shared more widely.

As far as recipes with bok choy go this is a winner. It’s the most popular recipe on our website and we constantly get rave reviews from anyone trying it.

The beauty of this dish is that it uses relatively cheap meat with a delicious and affordable vegetable. You can feed four people with it for under $12, maybe even $10 if you skip the garnish, and all that in only 30 minutes!

It’s also easy to substitute ingredients if you don’t have everything you need on hand. You can easily use different ground meat like pork or chicken.

You can also use kale instead of bok choy to make this a ground beef and kale rice bowl. I have also used both to increase the amount of greens in the recipe. Or maybe to use up wilting kale, but you get my drift. Kale is A-ok in this recipe.

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Ground beef and rice are such a great combination. They are both affordable ingredients and you can change them up so easily with different spices and veggies.

Try our Morrocan-style Ground Beef and Kale bowl for another take on ground beef with turmeric rice or quinoa.

Preparing a Ground Beef and Bok Choy Rice Bowl

Ingredients

Extra Lean Ground Beef: Ground beef can come from many parts of the cow, so if you have a preference make sure to read the label. It is usually made from the trimmings of other, larger cuts of beef and is then ground. It is the star of this dish so you want to make sure it’s not too fatty. With that said, if you prefer the flavour of fattier ground meat then by all means. Don’t let me take away your joy!

Baby Bok Choy: Bok choy is a type of Chinese cabbage. It has white stems and light to dark leaves. My preference is to use baby bok choy as it is more tender and cooks down faster. The smaller leaves also make chopping easier for this recipe when we

want a relatively small size.

Soy sauce: Made from fermented soybeans and wheat, this Chinese condiment is salty and very dark in colour. There are many different varieties of soy sauce but we use dark soy sauce for this recipe.

Brown sugar: Brown sugar is a mixture of white sugar and molasses. Molasses is responsible for the darker colour. We use dark brown sugar for this recipe but any brown sugar will do.

Ginger: For this recipe, we use fresh ginger which is the root of the ginger plant. It is native to Asia and is packed with antioxidants. Ginger is often used for medicinal purposes in eastern medicine and is potent with flavour.

Garlic: Garlic is a bulb that is edible and is grown in soil. Though the green shoots it sprouts, called garlic scapes, are also edible, we are referring to the actual bulb that the scapes grow from. Garlic bulbs are made up of multiple cloves and depending on the variety you may have anywhere from 4 to 10 cloves, if not more. This is important to know because recipes will often call for a specific number of cloves.

Sesame oil: Sesame oil is a vegetable oil made from sesame seeds. It has a nutty and earthy taste that is very strong. Its use is often limited to flavouring foods versus other oils that are milder and are used for more general cooking.

Rice vinegar: Rice vinegar is made from fermented rice. It is slightly sweet in flavour and milder than some other kinds of vinegar. It is a popular ingredient in many Asian dishes.

Corn starch: Corn starch is flour made from corn kernels. It is a white powder, finer than other flours and is most often used as a thickening agent, as it is in this recipe.

How to Make a Ground Beef and Bok Choy Rice Bowl

This is yet another straightforward recipe. It’s also quick to make. All you need is a microwave-safe dish for the rice, a pot if you prefer to cook rice on the stovetop, and a large deep pan.

Cook the Rice

Most of the prep and cooking happens while the rice is cooking so start with that. Add the rice and water to a microwave-safe dish with a lid. I like to use CorningWare for most of my microwave cooking.

Cover and place the dish in the microwave. Set the cooking time to 20 minutes and the power level to 60%. If you’re not sure how to do this on your microwave google it. There are a ton of results for many different types of microwaves. Below are the steps that I follow using my microwave, which is an LG countertop unit.

Here is how I set the power level on my microwave:

Start with entering the cooking time.
Next, select the power level function. This is where we reduce the power to prevent the rice from boiling over.
Lastly, press 6, which translates to 60% power.
Press the Start button.

While the rice is cooking you can make the beef saute.

Cook the Ground Beef and Bok Choy

Start by chopping and washing the bok choy. I like to soak it in a water bath for a few minutes to loosen the dirt. After a few minutes, the dirt will settle on the bottom of the sink or bowl. Scoop the bok choy out by skimming the top of the water.

If you have a salad spinner, move the wet bok choy to the salad spinner and spin it dry.

If you do not have a salad spinner, lay the bok choy flat on a tea towel and either pat it dry or roll up the towel to dry it.

TIP: If you are making a ground beef and kale bowl you can treat the kale the same way as the bok choy but instead of cutting off the stem you will need to remove the spine of each leaf. Then chop and wash as directed above.

Next, turn on the stove to medium-high heat under a large deep pan. Add the ground beef and cook until browned. This should take about 5 minutes or so. Stir the meat occasionally and break it up using a spatula.

While the beef is cooking wash and chop the green onions and set them aside.

Once the beef is browned, add the bok choy and cook for another 6-7 minutes or so, until the bok choy has wilted. The darker greens will wilt faster than the white stems cook so you want to make sure the stems have softened.

You can cover the pan with a lid to speed up the process a bit as this will steam the bok choy from all sides.

Make the Sauce

While the bok choy is cooking make the sauce. Combine all of the sauce ingredients in a small bowl or measuring cup. Start by peeling the garlic and ginger. If you freeze ginger grate it from frozen on a microplane or fine grater.

Whisk the sauce well to make sure that the flour and sugar have fully dissolved and there are no lumps.

Add the sauce to the pan and stir everything until it’s fully coated in the sauce. Cook for a final 3-4 minutes stirring often.

Substitutions

Soy Sauce: If you are gluten-free, substitute soy sauce with Tamari. You can also use other varieties, not specifically dark soy sauce if that’s all you have on hand.

Basmati Rice: You can use any white rice or brown rice for direct substitution. As mentioned below, rice noodles or even chow mein noodles will also work well.

Ground Beef: Though this recipe is definitely best with ground beef you can always substitute it with any other ground meat. Poultry will not have the same fat content so may taste a little drier. You can always add a few tablespoons of stock to dilute the sauce a bit more.

Bok Choy: There are a few other greens that you can easily use to replace the bok choy. Kale is my favourite go-to. I have entirely replaced the bok choy with kale and have used them together to up the greens content. Both work great and have the same prep and cooking requirements. You can also use spinach. It’s a more gentle green so you need to add it when you’re ready to add the sauce to let it wilt. It also usually comes pre-washed so you can save a couple of steps.

Serving the Ground Beef and Bok Choy Rice Bowl

Divide the rice among four plates and top with the ground beef and bok choy. Finish off with a sprinkle of green onions and sesame seeds.

If you don’t have rice or don’t like it, this ground beef and bok choy are great on rice noodles, or chow mein noodles as well.

Let us know in the comments if you have any questions. And if you like this recipe be sure to leave us a five-star rating below.

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Preparing a Ground Beef and Bok Choy Rice Bowl

Ingredients