How to Make Delicious Stir-Fried Pumpkin Leaves with Beef - Mytour

For those unsure of what delicious vegetable stir-fried beef to make, consider trying this dish. Stir-fried beef with pumpkin not only smells and tastes delightful but also provides valuable nutrients, suitable for both adults and children. Homemakers can prepare it regularly to make family meals more enticing.

Photo: collected

2. How to make stir-fried beef with pumpkin

This dish can be used as a main course for meals, ensuring all criteria for quick and easy cooking when the cook doesn't have much time.

Ingredients Needed

• 200 grams of beef
• 500 grams of pumpkin
• 1 chili pepper
• 1/2 clove of garlic
• 1 teaspoon of seasoning powder
• 1/3 teaspoon of pepper
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil

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Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Preparing Ingredients

• Clean the beef with diluted salt water, then gently massage with ginger and rinse with clean water. Cut into thin bite-sized pieces, marinate with minced garlic, pepper, cooking oil, and seasoning powder. Marinate the meat for about 10 minutes to absorb the flavors.
• Remove the tough parts of the pumpkin, select the tender parts. Discard the veins from the pumpkin leaves. Then wash the stems and leaves thoroughly with water. Keep the leaves separate for better flavor, gently remove any remaining hair while washing.
• Wash the chili pepper, then cut into small pieces.
• Peel and finely chop the garlic.

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Step 2: Cooking Process

• Heat the pan, add cooking oil and heat it up, then sauté the minced garlic until fragrant.
• Once the garlic turns golden and fragrant, add the beef and stir-fry over high heat for about 3 minutes. When the beef is medium rare, transfer it to a separate plate, leaving the remaining meat juices in the pan.
• Add the pumpkin leaves and stir-fry first, then add the stems later to maintain their crispiness.
• When the leaves start to wilt, reduce the heat, add the stems, and stir-fry evenly until the pumpkin is cooked.
• Finally, add the beef back into the pan, mix well with the pumpkin, adjust the seasoning to taste.
• Stir-fry for another 30 seconds, then turn off the heat, and garnish with some slices of chili.

In addition to stir-frying pumpkin leaves as described above, you can blanch the pumpkin leaves in boiling water, then remove and rinse them with cold water until completely cooled, squeeze out excess water. After stir-frying the beef until medium rare, add the pumpkin leaves and stir-fry until both the leaves and the beef are cooked through, then turn off the heat.

The Finished Dish after Stir-Frying Beef with Pumpkin

The beef is tender and sweet, just right. The pumpkin leaves are sweet, soft, not chewy or bitter. Stir-fried pumpkin leaves with beef are best served with white rice. Additionally, you can add crispy fried shallots to make the dish even more enticing. This is one of the beef stir-fry dishes that is very popular and loved by many.

Photo: @chip.xinh.97

3. Handy Tips for Stir-Frying Pumpkin with Beef

To prevent the dish from becoming tough, with tender, non-fibrous pumpkin, consider these additional cooking tips.

Tips for Choosing Quality Pumpkin

To select fresh, naturally grown pumpkin, you can pay attention to certain characteristics such as the color of the pumpkin stem, the presence of hair, the thickness of the skin, etc. Clean pumpkin usually has short stems, firm stems, and plenty of hair. When touched, the stem is usually rough. The pumpkin stem skin is thick and easy to peel. The stem has short, sturdy tendrils.

You should choose freshly cut pumpkin, which is better than old pumpkin. Choose a bunch of pumpkins with freshly cut stems, fresh pumpkins, not withered. They should have a straight posture, firm stems, and unwilted tendrils.

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Tips for Choosing Quality Beef

Stir-fried beef is usually made with beef sirloin, lean with small, tender pieces that don't become tough when cooked. Good beef sirloin is fresh red in color, with good elasticity when pressed. The best beef is veal, or if not available, choose female beef which is tastier than male beef.

Absolutely do not buy beef that is pale green or dark red, as this indicates spoiled meat. Also, avoid beef with white spots, which feels slimy and sticky when touched.

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Mytour Blog has just introduced to you a simple, easy-to-make recipe for pumpkin stir-fried beef. This is one of those dishes with simple preparation and cooking methods. Save it to cook a quick meal. Don't forget to visit Mytour for more nutritious and delicious beef recipes.