If you’re looking for a quick and easy dinner after a busy day, you’ll love this simple recipe. This gluten free beef and broccoli is a delicious one-pot meal that’s ready in 30 minutes or less.
With ground beef, garlic, ginger, oyster sauce, and broccoli served over rice, this gluten free ground beef recipe will remind you of your favorite takeout, only it’s cheaper and healthier for you.
As an added bonus, this gluten free ground beef recipe is also soy-free, and dairy-free. It’s a delicious way to enjoy a “normal” meal if your family has dietary restrictions.
Gluten Free Beef and Broccoli Recipe with Ground Beef
Rather than the typical beef and broccoli recipe with pieces of steak, this version uses ground beef instead. There are a few reasons for this, mainly budget and ease of cooking!
Steak can take longer to cook, plus you have to be careful not to overcook or the meat will get tough. Plus, I can often find ground beef on sale, especially in bulk. I rarely find steak on sale!
So when I was developing this recipe, I opted to give it a try with ground beef – or hamburger as some refer to it – and was pleasantly surprised. that makes this savory dinner faster and simpler.
Ground Beef Substitutes
If you prefer leaner meat, you should know that I have tried substituting ground turkey for the beef. While it did work, it was not as tasty in my opinion.
We often enjoy meals with ground turkey, like our Beanless Turkey and Sweet Potato Chili, but I truly think this is one meal that you should stick with the beef.
If you use organic, grass-fed ground beef that’s leaner, such as 90%, you’ll still have healthy meat and a delicious meal.
Which sauce should I use?
This simple ground beef recipe calls for ready-made oyster sauce.
While you could make your own brown sugar with soy and sesame sauce, it’s just easier to buy ready-made.
I’m so busy that I don’t mind using some ready-made ingredients if it means I’m putting a mostly homemade dinner on the table for my family compared to ordering take-out.
Note: some readers have reported this recipe as too salty. This would be due to the brand of oyster sauce. Because of this I only recommend two brands: Kikkoman oyster sauce and Sun Luck oyster sauce. These have always worked great for our family.
How to Make Gluten Free Beef and Broccoli
Let’s talk about how to put together this yummy dinner. It’s so easy – truly takes just minutes to throw together!
Ingredients Needed:
- ground beef
- chopped onions – buy frozen chopped onions in the frozen vegetable section of your grocery store. It will save you the time of chopping, not to mention the tears!
- gluten-free oyster sauce – I use and recommend Kikkoman oyster sauce
– it’s gluten-free, soy-free, corn syrup free, and MSG free. SunLuck is also a good brand. - minced garlic
- ginger paste
- frozen broccoli
- rice
- sesame seeds – optional but highly recommended
– it’s gluten-free, soy-free, corn syrup free, and MSG free. SunLuck is also a good brand.Easy Beef and Broccoli Instructions
In a large skillet, cook the beef until no longer pink, then add the chopped onions, garlic, ginger paste, and oyster sauce.
Simmer and stir occasionally to make sure it’s cooked evenly.
Add the broccoli and stir in. This is one of those recipes where the end result tastes the same whether it’s with frozen broccoli or fresh, so I opt for frozen!
Cover your pan and heat over medium heat for 5 minutes. When you use frozen broccoli, it will release water as it thaws. If you use fresh broccoli, you may need to add a tablespoon or so of water to keep the sauce from becoming too thick.
Stir your ground beef and broccoli every so often and cook until the broccoli is heated through. If needed add a little more water.
Serve with your choice of white, brown, or even cauliflower rice. I personally make my rice in an Instant Pot
before I begin browning the ground beef. I love using my instant pot for cooking rice because it’s fast, plus my pressure cooker is multi-purpose. In fact, I often use my instant pot for cooking dinner, including my kids’ favorite Gluten-Free Instant Pot Macaroni and Cheese.
Alternatively, you could cook on the stovetop or in a rice cooker according to package or cooker instructions, or even buy frozen rice and heat it up in the microwave right before you serve dinner.
This is the point where you can sprinkle sesame seeds on top. Again, this is optional but it really does take the dish to the next level.
Enjoy your absolutely delicious homemade beef and broccoli dinner!
More Gluten-Free Recipes to Try:
- Slow Cooker Paleo Beef Stew
- Easy Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes
- Tasty Chicken and Rice Casserole
- Nourishing Paleo Chicken Soup
Easy Ground Beef and Broccoli
With simple ingredients and quick and easy prep time, Ground Beef and Broccoli will remind you of Chinese take-out only it’s cheaper and healthier!
- Prep Time: 5
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: serves 6
- Category: dinner
- Method: cooking
- Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients
2 lb ground beef
1/2 cup chopped onions
1 (12oz) jar gluten-free oyster sauce (Kikkoman or SunLuck)
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1/2 Tbsp ginger paste
16 oz frozen broccoli,
2–3 cups raw white rice
sesame seeds, optional
Instructions
Begin cooking your rice first.
In a large skillet, brown the ground beef, then add the chopped onions, garlic, ginger paste, and oyster sauce. Cook over medium heat and stir occasionally for 2 minutes. Stir in the frozen broccoli. Cover your pan and cook for 5 minutes. The broccoli will begin to thaw and release water.
Remove the cover, stir, and cook, checking and stirring occasionally, for 5-15 more minutes until the broccoli is heated through and enough liquid is absorbed to reach the desired consistency.
Serve over rice when ready and sprinkle with sesame seeds if desired.
Keywords: chinese, ground beef, broccoli, rice, gluten-free, soy-free, easy dinner
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Kate Berkey says
I was looking for an awesome recipe for the whole family and I stumbled on this article. I read and followed the instructions carefully and I made this ground beef and broccoli deliciously! Every member of my family is so happy! Thanks for this!
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Erika says
I’m so glad your family enjoyed this easy dinner, Kate. Thanks for letting me know! 🙂
Courtney says
Can I sub oyster sauce for fish sauce? It’s what I have on hand.
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Erika says
Do you mean use fish sauce instead of oyster sauce? I don’t mention anything about fish sauce here. I would not use fish sauce instead of oyster sauce as they’re very different. Fish sauce has more of a salty taste and it would ruin the dinner. Thanks for reading!
Sara says
Can I do without ginger paste? Or can I use ground ginger instead ?
Erika says
You can try a tsp of ground ginger, but the ginger paste does give a better, richer ginger flavor.
Jennifer says
Do you drain the ground beef first? Thanks in advance?
★★★★★
Erika says
Yes, you can drain the ground beef. (I need to update the recipe.)
Yolanda says
I think this recipe is awesome. I was looking for a recipe to make with ground beef and this was simple, I had all the ingredients, and it was delicious. I will definitely make this again. The only question I have is about the calorie count. It says that one serving is 841 calories; is that true? Or is it 841 calories divided by six servings?
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Erika says
I’m so glad you enjoyed this, Yolanda. 841 calories is accurate however that includes rice for each person too. The rice by itself adds almost 500 calories per serving. If you want to cut back on the calories, I would reduce the rice. Hope that helps!
Beth says
This is so easy and delicious! Wondering what the serving size of just the beef and broccoli mixture would be?
★★★★★
Kelly says
Just trying to use what we have in the pantry right now…so do you recommend a substitute for the oyster sauce? Thanks!
Erika says
Hi Kelly, I only use oyster sauce for this recipe, but I just googled it and read some people replace oyster sauce with soy sauce or coconut aminos and a little sugar. I haven’t tried this myself, but if I were you, I’d add a tablespoon of soy sauce and adjust it to your taste.
Emily says
Hi! I was looking for new dairy free ground beef recipes and found this – I would love to try it tonight but use the fresh broccoli I have on hand. Do you think this would work? Should I steam the fresh broccoli by itself first so it is cooked? Thanks!
Erika says
Yes, you can use fresh broccoli. I would cook it first. It will then take less time to cook after you add the broccoli to the beef mixture. Enjoy!
Emily says
Thank you! I used fresh broccoli that I pre-cooked and didn’t have a whole jar of oyster sauce so I added a little soy sauce. This recipe is so easy and delicious and I’ll be making again for sure! 🙂
★★★★★
Erika says
Yay!
Kristin says
I really wanted to see your recipe to make it but I couldn’t get past all the ads to even look at the recipe.
Erika says
Hi Kristin, sorry about that! I’ll let my ad network know and see what they can tweak to make it a better experience. I have to run ads because it costs me a lot of money to run this website and provide free content and recipes but we are always re-evaluating to try to find the best balance. Thanks for letting me know.
Shanna says
I really want to make this recipe too, but as mentioned the ads make it nearly impossible to see the recipe without getting in the way, and when you try to exit the ad it clicks through to another page. Not your fault, but thought you should know:)
Erika says
Hi Shanna, did you see the “Jump to recipe” link at the top of the post? It makes it easy to skip straight down to the recipe card. I will check on the settings with my ad provider. Thanks for letting me know.
Cathleen Smith says
I used peanut sauce in the meat and topped with some sweet and sour sauce after plating. I used a bag of stir fry vegetables (broccoli, peas, water chestnuts- my favorite) and I enjoyed it. My husband didn’t use sweet and sour sauce, said the meal was “ok.”
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Avondarcye says
Can we use Gluten Free Hoisin sauce instead of Oyster ( I’m allergic}. I also have coconut aminos
Erika says
You should be able to try hoison sauce. I believe it’s sweeter than regular oyster sauce so you would probably want to use less of it than the oyster sauce. You might also try less coconut aminos so your beef and broccoli isn’t too sweet.
Ashlea says
What can I use instead of oyster sauce?
Erika says
Oyster sauce provides the unique taste for this dish; I wouldn’t recommend any substitutes.
Andre says
I made this but didn’t have gluten free oyster sauce. I used regular instead and it was a bit salty. How much should I have used?? I loved how easy this was to make
★★★★★
Erika says
Hi Andre, I’m glad you enjoyed this dinner! What brand oyster sauce did you use? Every brand is a little different. My favorite is kikkoman but our store is usually sold out, so I usually end up buying SunLuck and that works great.