This delicious Beef and Cabbage Chow Mein is a quick and easy weeknight meal. It has become a much loved family favourite in our house over the years!
Chow Mein is technically a Chinese noodle stir fry dish but in our household it as always been made without the noodles. Instead of noodles we add lots of shredded cabbage! You will probably say that it is not really Chow Mein if it doesn’t have noodles but what does it matter what it’s called; as long as it tastes good I say!
This Chow Mein is one of my favourite dishes to prepare because it comes together so easily. There is not a lot of vegetable prep for this one so I will normally relax and sip on a glass of wine as I cook. Shredding the cabbage is the most work required for this dish, but let’s face it, that isn’t very hard either!
The recipe is designed so that you can cook the cabbage as little or much as you like. I add it right at the end and then simmer it for a few minutes. I like it to be wilted down a bit but for the cabbage to still have a bit of crunch. Feel free to cook the cabbage more or less to your liking.
You can also adjust the amount of curry powder to suit your taste. Our family prefer mildly spiced dishes but you can add more curry if you would like a bit more heat.
This recipe makes four very generous servings but you could stretch it to 6 if you have planned appetizers and/or desserts. It also reheats very well so if you are cooking for two just put half in the fridge for later!
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 500g mince beef
- 2 teaspoons of beef stock powder
- 1 teaspoon of curry powder
- 1 packet of chicken noodle soup mix
- ½ cup of uncooked rice
- 1 cup of water
- ½ small cabbage, shredded
- Heat oil in a large frying pan and brown the mince.
- Add stock powder, curry powder, chicken noodle soup, rice, and water.
- Mix well; bring to the boil and then simmer covered over a low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add the shredded cabbage and again simmer covered for around 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Serve immediately when cabbage is cooked to your liking.
Dont have a Clue as to how much 550g is so won’t try it!!..Sorry
Hi Pety, 500g is just over a pound or about 17 ounces if that helps. I hope you do try it because it’s delicious!
Pety,
Not sure if you have tried using Google before to do conversions?
Try typing in the following either in the address bar for Chrome or in http://www.google.com:
convert 500g to lb
With that you should get clarity to what weight 500 grams is.
Hey Pety
only 3 countries in the whole world use imperial USA, Liberia, and Burma/Myanmar the remaining 192 countries use metric.
You might want to use a very easy converter easily googled you can even just type 500gm to lb and it will instantly show you.
Be a bit more open minded as your military and many other major things you would experience in your everyday life use the metric system without you realising hope this link help to broaden your views on the metric system.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_the_United_States
You won’t try a seemingly good recipe because you can’t convert 550gr? You have google, right?
Where do you get the chicken noodle soup packet?
Hi Melanie, it is just a packet of dry chicken noodle soup mix that is available in the soup isle at the supermarket. I hope this helps!
I needed to add much more water asks curry.
1/2 cabbage is tricky as my cabbage was large I really only needed 1/4 of a cup .
Otherwise just as Mum used to make it.
Glad to hear that you were able to adjust the recipe to suit your taste. My mum used to make this recipe for me too!
My sisters and I grew up eating Mum’s chow mein at least once a month and always when parties at home meant casseroles for the meal. Mum’s recipe had a couple of extra ingredients… a can of crushed pineapple in juice and a handful of sultanas that swell up when they get heated. I make this quite often and load it up with cabbage (about 3 cups) and a full packet of bean shoots that I buy from Woolies. Also I leave the rice out because I prefer more juice. The tin of pineapple also provides more liquid.
Hi Jan, this is a meal that I had often too when I was growing up. My mum sometimes added pineapple but I prefer it without! I’m one of those people that doesn’t like pineapple with savoury dishes! A recipe like this is great though because people can vary it to suit their tastes!
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Can u leave out the chicken noodle soup
Hi Lindee, this recipe might be a bit bland if you leave out the chicken noodle soup. You probably wouldn’t miss the noodles but you might need to add some more seasonings. Perhaps some chicken seasoning and maybe some onion powder. You could even add some dried parsley if you have it. I hope that helps!
Try the left overs drained in a strainer to make spring rolls, just need spring roll wrappers from frozen section in your supermarket ( usually found with the frozen pastry)
I’ve been making a very simular recipe for over 40 years and my kids loved it and loved the spring rolls, they make them now for their kids,
Been a big favourite in our family for many many years
What a great idea Auntyflo, I have never thought of doing this but I’m going to give it a try now! I can imagine puff pastry parcels filled with these leftovers too. Thank you very much for your suggestion!
i’ve used the left overs to make pasties as well
They sound nice too! 🙂
My mother made this recipe back in the 1960’s and she called it Kie Sie Ming. We all loved it.
Sounds like it’s been around for a while then Leonie! Certainly tasty whatever you want to call it 😉