Holle's Tangerine Beef Stir-Fry

I created a great recipe for leftover roast beef the other night. Standing rib roasts were on sale at our local grocery store, so I bought a big one. I had the butcher slice the roast into one roast and several rib steaks, and I cooked the roast in the oven last week. Hubby and I enjoyed the beef that night, and the next day we made sandwiches from the leftovers. There was still a lot left, however, so I came up with a plan for a recipe for leftover roast beef. We rarely throw away food, so I’ve become pretty creative with recipes for leftovers that I use as dinner recipes. I tried to get some ideas from cookbooks, to no avail. When I searched for leftover roast beef recipes, I didn’t get excited about any of the recipes I found. I even searched online for leftover roast beef recipes but didn’t find any that sounded tempting.

At the time, we also had a big bowl of tangerines. I began to wonder if I could somehow incorporate the fruits into my recipe for leftover roast beef. I did, and it was delicious! I’ll share it with you here.

I used leftover rib roast, but any kind of roast beef would work. In fact, I think leftover steak would also be a good choice for this and for other dinner recipes that call for leftover roast beef.

I sliced the roast while it was cold so that it would be easier to cut. I made strips about four inches long and one-half inch wide. As I was slicing the meat for my recipe for leftover roast beef, I removed any gristle and fat. I then placed the beef in a large ziploc bag and squeezed the juice from four tangerines onto the meat. Because the roast had been a little tough, I also added some meat tenderizer. I allowed the beef to sit overnight in the fridge. I’m sure orange juice would work just as well as the tangerine juice.

The next day, I went to the store and purchased two medium zucchinis and a large onion. I sliced these into julienne strips. I bought about seven or eight crimini mushrooms and sliced them, too. Now I was ready to cook my creation.

I drizzled some oil into a large skillet and heated it over medium-high heat. I added the zucchini and the onions and stir-fried them until they were almost tender. I then added the mushrooms and seasoned all the veggies with garlic, salt, and ginger.

Just before all the veggies were tender, I added the contents of the plastic bag – meat and juice. Since the meat was already cooked, it just needed to be heated until warm. Next, I spooned the stir-fry over a bed of rice and added my own special peanut sauce. Here’s the recipe for my peanut sauce:

Holle’s Peanut Sauce

2 heaping tablespoons creamy peanut butter

2 tablespoons soy sauce

½ cup orange juice or tangerine juice

1 tablespoon vinegar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Directions: Blend all ingredients together with a wire whisk and heat in microwave until hot. Drizzle over beef stir-fry and rice.

Low carb recipes

Looking for dinner recipes that double as low carb recipes?  To keep my blood sugar within normal range, I make a lot of low carb recipes. The above recipe for leftover roast beef can easily be made into low carb recipes. The beef has zero carbs, and the onion, zucchini, and mushrooms are all low carb veggies. Of course, you’ll need to leave off the rice and make some tweaks to the peanut sauce.

To make a low carb version of my peanut sauce, use sugar-free peanut butter. Instead of the orange or tangerine juice, use Diet Hawaiian Punch. I did, and it turned out great! Also, instead of the brown sugar, use Splenda. You can even marinate the meat in the punch instead of in tangerine or orange juice to cut out even more sugar. Use my recipe as a guide for you own recipe for leftover roast beef recipes, dinner recipes, and low carb recipes!