These Korean Beef and Mushroom Bowls are made from ground beef and mushrooms, with Bulgogi-inspired flavors. Tasty, quick, and easy to make!
This year, one of my goals is to post more quick-and-easy dinner recipes. I'm on to a quick start with these Korean Beef and Mushroom Bowls.
This tasty recipe definitely fits the quick-and-easy bill as the list of ingredients required to make it is short and easily accessible, and it can be on your table in less than half an hour.
I show this Korean-inspired beef and mushroom mixture as a rice bowl, which is what my kids prefer. But it's also great served as lettuce wraps, over a plain green salad, with noodles, or with whole grains like barley or quinoa.
This dish features bulgogi-inspired flavors that kids are sure to love. It's slightly sweet and salty, with a hint of spice that can be easily adjusted by adding or removing red pepper flakes.
How to make Korean Beef and Mushroom Bowls:
Making this quick-and-easy meal starts with a blended-beef technique in which mushrooms are used to replace or "extend" the ground beef in a dish. This technique can be used in many ground beef-based dishes, including burgers.
This blended-beef technique starts with coarsely grinding the mushrooms so that they resemble the texture of ground beef. The easiest way to do this is with a food processor.
After grinding the mushrooms, sautee them to remove all the extra moisture in them before mixing them with the meat and seasonings. Using this method will ensure that the mushrooms blend right in with the beef. Even the biggest mushroom skeptics won't notice them!
Korean Beef and Mushroom Bowl Ingredients:
- White or brown mushrooms
- Reduced sodium soy sauce - substitute with Tamari or gluten-free soy sauce if you need this recipe to be gluten-free.
- Brown sugar - or replace with coconut sugar. You can even use regular granulated sugar in a pinch.
- Grated or minced fresh ginger - find it in the produce section. Pro tip: always keep a piece of ginger on hand in the freezer. It can be grated with a microplane from frozen.
- Sesame oil - this adds lots of nutty flavor. Find it in the international aisle, or with specialty cooking oils
- Red pepper flakes - add more if you want it spicy, less if you don't want it spicy at all.
- Canola oil - or any other neutral cooking oil
- Small onion
- Garlic
- Ground beef - any type will do, but if you want your meal to have less fat and calories, opt for lean or extra lean.
- Cooked rice, noodles, salad, or lettuce leaves - use any of these (or a combination) depending on your serving preferences. I've shown rice bowls in my photos, but I also love it as lettuce wraps.
Want more ground beef recipes?
Korean Beef and Mushroom Bowls Nutrition Notes:
The nutrition facts in the recipe below include only the beef and mushroom part of the meal. They don't include the grain or vegetables that you might serve it with.
Quick and Easy Korean Ground Beef and Mushroom Bowl
Ingredients
- 1 pound white or brown mushrooms
- ⅓ cup reduced sodium soy sauce If you need this recipe to be gluten-free, make sure you choose gluten-free soy sauce or tamari
- 3 Tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 Tablespoon grated or minced fresh ginger
- 2 teaspoons sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes Add more if you want it spicy, less if you don't want it spicy at all.
- 1 Tablespoon canola oil
- 1 small onion thinly sliced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 pound ground beef
- Cooked rice, noodles, salad, or lettuce leaves To Serve
Instructions
- Wipe any dirt off of mushrooms using a damp paper towel. Break into pieces and place into the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until the mushrooms are coarsely ground.
- In a small bowl or measuring cup, stir together the soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, ginger, and red pepper flakes. Set aside.
- Heat canola oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add ground mushrooms and cook until all excess moisture has evaporated, about 8 minutes. Add onions, and cook until soft, about 3-5 minutes. Add garlic, and cook until fragrant, about 30-60 seconds. Add beef and break into pieces. Cook until beef is no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Add the soy sauce mixture, and cook until the sauce thickens, about 3 minutes. Serve over rice, noodles, salad, or as lettuce wraps.
Nutrition
Debbie Barnes says
I substituted ground turkey for beef, and coconut aminos for soy sauce. I also added red bell pepper for color. It smelled wonderful while cooking. Unfortunately, when I took a bite- all I could taste was sweet. The amount of brown sugar should be drastically reduced, at least for my taste.
Bonnie says
This was a very easy meal. I love the mushrooms for some bulk. I would definitely make this again.
Carissa says
Thanks so much for your comment. I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
Ann says
AMAZING!!! We loved it.
Rob says
Definitely make again! I was looking to use up some Costco bulk mushrooms, some frozen ground beef and not have to do stroganoff again (my kid can tell there are mushrooms in there) This recipe solved that problem! Adjusted ingredients for a large batch. Processed mushrooms with some olive oil to almost a paste, added some short ribs (ground using some rough salt and processor) and used a teaspoon of Sambol sauce for a touch of heat.
Melissa G Pruitt says
Definitely cut the sugar in half (at least), increase aromatics to your taste, and you will have a very easy, and very delicious meal. I've added sliced fresh chili peppers (between adding onions and garlic) and various veg: baby bok choi, baby kale etc. It's all good!
Helen K says
Hi Carissa! Many thanks! I tried this for the first time - we loved it. Interesting, subtle. I served it with basmati rice and Lacinato kale.
Small changes: I used a bit less garlic. And I added some cold water after adding the aromatic liquids to make it a bit runnier. To that I also added a little bit flour to thicken it for 3-4 minutes. I used EVOO b/c I don't like canola oil. I might add a dash of rice vinegar next time, too.
I used the pepper flakes and the raw ginger exactly as suggested, and it was not hot at all. I hadn't noticed the photo, so the next time I will use sesame seeds and the scallions on top.
I use a desktops pc. I was a little bit disappointed that I couldn't click Print, and then, with the new page that popped up, I wasn't able be able to highlight/copy/paste the nicely set out recipe - onto a Word document. Instead when I tried to do that, all the ingredients and directions were shown in running lines on the Word document.
I finally copied it by highlighting/copying/pasting the first page's recipe - but then I had to make more tweaks on my document. Not a biggie.
Perhaps this is done this way in order that the writer gets credit (as she shud!). Likely not many people do this, but whenever I copy a recipe from the Internet onto a Word document, I ALWAYS add the website to the recipe document under the title.
Thanks again! It's an easy and delicious recipe that I will make again and again. Helen.
Karina says
This was so great! I had ground beef & wasn’t sure what I could make in such a short time but found this recipe. I needed to use my mushrooms from Costco too so this was perfect, easy & tastes amazing! The specific time to cook each part helped a lot as I was also feeding my daughter breakfast as I was cooking & didn’t want to think about it too much. It tastes really good with just white rice but I made a little cucumber salad on the side & it was a delicious meal.