Spicy beef mince stir fry with eggplant and mushrooms (2024)

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This spicy beef stir fryis perfect for a quick meal! Using ground beef, mushrooms, eggplant and spicy chilli oil, it comes together in just 20 minutes.

Serve with rice, noodles or zoodles, add more vegetables or top with a fried egg – it is endlessly customisable and Slimming World friendly too.

You will also love my deliciousChilli Con Carne

I wish I could give this recipe an official name but it’s kinda sorta totally made up! I am sure I have taken influences from a bunch of other recipes and perhaps there’s something that it closely resembles…

But for now, I shall call this my ‘ground beef stir fry’ and I hope you will like it as much as I do.

The recipe has evolved over time but it came into existence one lunchtime when I was very hungry and couldn’t find anything to make a meal out of.

A dive into the depths of my freezer revealed that I had frozen lean mince and frozen chopped onions.

So I threw both in a wok and then started adding any sad veggies still lurking in the fridge together with soy sauce and chilli oil.

This tasted pretty good to me and so I kept working on the recipe until I was happy with the flavour combinations.

I really liked how eggplant (aubergine) softened and took on all the flavours of the sauce so it became a staple. I love mushrooms, so in they went.

Ginger and chilli seemed like they simply WANTED to be part of this dish and I happen to always have a tube of each in the fridge for ease of use. Let’s not forget lots of garlic too 🙂

One thing that sort of makes this dish is Chiu Chow chilli oil(affiliate link)– a totally addictive spicy sauce made with preserved chilies, lots of garlic and soy bean oil.

You can easily buy a jar of it on Amazon and even some of the bigger supermarkets these days and you may find yourself wanting to add some into almost everything savoury.

How to customise your stir fry

Use shredded firm tofu instead of beef mince for a vegetarian/vegan version and leave out the Worcestershire sauce which contains anchovies
Add frozen peas or edamame
Stir in some kale or spinach
Top with a soft-set fried egg (I almost always do this)
Add more veggies: courgette, broccoli, mange tout, peppers
Stir in wok-ready noodles – I prefer udon noodles in this stir fry
see below and check the recipe card for Slimming World variation

How to make spicy beef mince stir fry

Step 1. Combine the soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, ginger and chilli paste (or fresh minced ginger and finely diced chilli) in a small bowl.

Step 2. Heat 1 tbsp of toasted sesame oil in a large frying pan or wok. Fry the onion for 5 minutes until softened. Stir in the garlic and fry for a minute more.

Step 3. Add the beef mince, stirring until it breaks down and starts to brown.

Step 4. Add the eggplant and mushrooms and cook over high heat for 5 minutes, adding more oil if needed.

Step 5. Add the sauce and continue to cook until the eggplant (aubergine) is softened, another 5-10 minutes. If using noodles, stir them in a few minutes before the end.

Step 6. Top with toasted sesame seeds, chopped chives, sprouted seeds and as much spicy chilli oil as you can take. Add a fried egg for some truly extra yumminess!

Slimming world variation

This recipe is perfect for the Slimming World plan! Use low calorie cooking spray, leave out the sesame seeds and spicy chilli oil, replace sugar with sweetenerand you have a SYN FREE stir fried beef recipe that’s ready in under 30 minutes.

Serve over cauliflower rice if you want to make this a SPEED SW dinner – so filling and yummy!