Healthy Beef and Broccoli Rollups

What is your favorite Chinese take-out dish? Mine? It's got to be beef and broccoli. Yummy beef drowning in an even yummier sauce (I would like to remain blissfully ignorant about what's actually in that sauce, thanks)? The best part about it is that I can pretend it's healthy since it contains broccoli.

I love making beef and broccoli at home. And after making my chicken fajita rolls ups, I immediately knew that recipe would be a good candidate to be "roll-up-ified"....you know what I mean.

I started with some lovely marbled beef. I then pounded them into nice thin pieces and let them soak in a the marinade.

In hindsight, I should have trimmed off the fat before marinated them, but we all make mistakes.

After the beef had soaked up all that flavor, I sliced them into strips just wide enough to fit one step of broccolini. Now broccolini is just a longer thinner version of broccoli (if you want to actually learn about broccolini, go to Wikipedia), but it works perfectly for these beef and broccoli roll ups.

I just rolled the thin slice of beef around the broccoli. Since the broccoli is so thin and sticky from the marinade, it just sticks to itself, so you don't need a toothpick to hold it together. However, I you want to make sure that it stays together, by all means...use a toothpick.

To cook these bad boys, I just placed them all in one single layer in a hot skillet, turning every few minutes. Once all sides were browned and maybe a little charred, I covered the pan to make sure the beef cooked most of the way through. If you like your beef on the bloodier side, you can skip that step.

Then we just served it up with a side of brown rice instead of yummy fried rice. Have I mentioned this recipe is WAY healthier that the take out version? Have I also mentioned that it's also just as good? No? Well, I thought both were implied, but incase you missed it, this recipe is both way healthier (like WAY healthier) and super tasty. So tasty I may never eat take out again.

Just kidding. A little MSG every once and a while never hurt anyone!

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Recipe

Prep Time: 20 minutes   Cook Time: 15 minutes   Total Time: 35 minutes

Yield: 8-10 roll ups

Ingredients

• 1 lb flank steak, top round, or sirloin
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 tbsp. rice wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp. honey
• 1 tbsp. sesame oil
• 2 tsp hoisin sauce
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp ginger powder
• 8-10 stems of broccolini, trimmed and blanched
• 2 tsp vegetable oil

Instructions

1. Divide beef into 3 or 4 pieces depending on the size. Use a meat mallet to pound the pieces until they are very thin, about 1/8th of an inch. Then slice those pieces into thinner strips, slightly more narrow than the length of the broccolini stems.
2. In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, vinegar, honey, sesame oil, hoisin sauce, garlic, and ginger. Place the meat in a zip top bag or shallow dish and pour marinade over top. Make sure each piece of meat is coated. Let sit in the fridge for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
3. When ready to assemble, lay a strip of beef flat on the cutting board. Place broccolini across the strip so that both the top and the bottom of the stem are peaking through. Roll the beef around the broccolini and press the end into the meat so that it sticks.
4. Heat a skillet over medium high heat and drizzle in vegetable oil. Once pan is hot and oil appears a bit shinier, place roll-ups in the pan so that they are in one layer. Sear on each side for about 2 minutes, until all sides are browned.
5. Reduce heat to medium, and cover the pan to continue cooking for another 2-3 minutes, or longer if you like your beef more medium-well to well done.
6. Remove from pan and allow to cool for about 5 minutes before serving.