Sunday: Beef & Broccoli in Black Bean Sauce

Black bean sauce is one of those ugly duckling ingredients; it looks (and smells) no bueno, but smear it all over some meat and stir fry it? Gor-geous. Maybe it's the whole fermented thing that turns people off, no matter, give it a try! Smear your meat with it! You will not be disappointed.

You will need:

8 oz flank steak
1 tsp sesame oil
8 oz broccoli, cut into florets
3 Tbsp water
1 small onion
1/4 green / orange / red pepper

For the marinade:

2 Tbsp black bean sauce (can be found in the Asian section of most grocery stores)
2 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp brown sugar
1 garlic clove, sliced thinly
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced

For your prep, first slice your steak across the grain. Flank steak is awesome when you cut it that way and not so great when you don't. Like one long string for your teeth. I find the easiest way is to cut it into 4 pieces first.

This is a big hunk of meat

In half...

Flank steak trims so easily

Slice as thinly as possible

Place all your marinade ingredients in a shallow non-metal dish, add the sliced steak, stir, cover and keep in the fridge for up to 6 hours.

Onto the rest of the prep! Floret-tize your broccoli, slice your onions, peppers, whatever ya got. When you are good and ready to go, drain the steak and reserve the marinade. Heat the second teaspoon of sesame oil in a non-stick frying pan and cook the steak for 3 minutes-ish and then remove to a plate.

Add the broccoli to the pan with 1/4 c water, cover and let steam for 5 minutes. Add in the onion and peppers, cook for a couple of minutes until the onions seem soft-ish.

Return the steak and the marinade back to the pan, stir and cook until everything is heated through.

I separated this into 3 portions (because my husband stole all the meat) at 223 calories per serving.

 Enjoy!