Meals · Stir-fries & fried rice

Beef and broccoli

Name: Beef and broccoli
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 12 min
Total time: 27 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 1 lb flank steak, sliced thin against the grain; 2 tbsp cornstarch; 2 tbsp canola oil; 1 large head broccoli, cut in florets; 3 cloves garlic, minced; 1/4 cup soy sauce; 2 tbsp brown sugar; 2 tsp sesame oil; 1/2 cup water; 3 cups white rice

The takeout-menu monument, home version: flank steak seared fast, broccoli still bright, a glossy soy-garlic sauce that skips the fryer entirely. Twenty minutes, one wok or pan.

Time: 27 min (15 prep + 12 cook)
Servings: 4
Per serving: 537 kcal
Protein: 34 g

Both directions are legitimate — the score measures fullness per calorie, not virtue. Every version is the same dish, rebalanced.

Ingredients

1 lb flank steak, sliced thin against the grain500 g
2 tbsp cornstarch16 g
2 tbsp canola oil25 g
1 large head broccoli, cut in florets500 g
3 cloves garlic, minced12 g

Sauce

1/4 cup soy sauce70 g
2 tbsp brown sugar25 g
2 tsp sesame oil8 g
1/2 cup water120 g

3 cups white rice600 g

Every ingredient links to its food page — same data, same score, same formula.

Steps

Toss the beef in half the cornstarch — the velvet coating is what makes takeout beef feel like takeout beef.
Sear it in a ripping-hot pan in one layer, 1 minute a side, and remove. Batches if needed; crowding steams.
Stir-fry the broccoli 2 minutes with a splash of water, lid on for 1 more — bright green and crisp-tender, not army green.
Whisk the sauce with the rest of the cornstarch, pour in with the garlic, return the beef, and toss 1 minute until glossy. Over rice.

Why slice against the grain?

Flank steak is a bundle of long muscle fibers. Cut across them and every slice is a stack of short fibers that fall apart when you chew; cut along them and you're chewing rope. Look for the lines and cut perpendicular.

Why this score

moderately filling

No single route carries this one — a moderate amount of protein, volume and fiber.

Three routes to fullness — one is enough

26% of kcal

63% water

8 g/Mcal

What pulls it down

How scores work

Computed on the finished dish, not an average of the parts: 2147 kcal goes into the pot, 1876 g of ingredients comes out as ~1250 g of food → 172 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water, and energy density is the score's biggest lever — so we show the math. Full formula here.

Per

Calories: 172
Protein: (26%); 11 g
Fat: (28%); 5 g
Carbohydrates: (46%); 20 g
of which sugar: 3 g
Fiber: 1 g
Sodium: 455 mg

Percentages are the share of calories from each macronutrient.

Computed from the ingredients' USDA data — nothing typed by hand. Every number is traceable, every score recomputable.

More meals

Photo: AI-generated. Nutrition and score are computed from the ingredients with the published formula — this recipe hasn't been kitchen-tested by us yet.