What readers are saying about this recipe
I have made this multiple times and LOVE ❤️ it. The flavors are amazing! Thank you for the great addition to our “go to” recipes.
Jen
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5 reasons you’ll love this easy ground beef recipe
- Quick prep + cook – It’s seriously the best weeknight meal. Prep a few ingredients and cook them up with the ground beef, that’s it!
- So versatile – Keep it simple and serve with with rice or cauliflower rice. It also goes well with just about any veggies, check out the comments below to see what other people are serving with this Korean ground beef.
- Family friendly – This is a meal even picky eaters will love. It’s also a hit with the kiddos!
- Great for meal prep – Double the recipe to make a big batch for meal prep or to freeze for later.
- That spicy sauce – The 2-ingredient spicy mayo sauce is optional, but highly recommended. It’s just the right mix of creamy and spicy with the beef.
This recipe is a reader favorite, with over 400+ ratings! Browse more reader comments below.
How to make Korean-inspired ground beef bowls
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Ingredient notes
- Coconut aminos – Gives the beef that sweet-salty flavor, similar to soy sauce. These are NOT liquid aminos, which are much saltier. If using liquid aminos you should cut the amount in half. See the recipe card notes.
- Fish sauce – Adds more salty, umami flavor (and doesn’t taste “fishy”). You can omit this if desired and replace with a little coconut aminos and/or a pinch of salt to taste.
- Serving variations – There are tons of serving options in addition to what’s listed in the recipe. Use whatever you have on hand for rice or veggies.
- Toppings – We love homemade sauces and toppings. Some good options here are fresh green onions, red pepper flakes, avocado – whatever you want!
Tips from an expert home chef
- Follow these instructions to cook cauliflower rice perfectly every time (it’s delicious mixed up with the beef and sauce for this recipe).
- Cook the beef in the sauce at the end until the sauce caramelizes the beef bits. Medium-high heat is needed to get those delicious, crispy bits.
- For a different take on this recipe, try it with ground chicken, turkey or pork – they’ll all work!
- The red pepper flakes and spicy mayo can be left out if you don’t want any spice with this dish.
We hope you love this recipe as much as we do!
Don’t forget to leave a quick star rating and review below, we read every comment and truly appreciate your feedback. Also, be sure to browse the rest of our easy, delicious recipes to find some other favorites too!
Get the Recipe:
20-Minute (Super-Easy!) Korean Beef Bowl
A lightened up take on a traditional Korean beef bowl with no soy or sugar, this easy and versatile weeknight meal is ready in around 20 minutes! Made with ground beef, serve it with either white rice or cauliflower rice for a fast but delicious dinner. Mix and match the veggies or sauces to make it seem like a different meal every time you make it.
Ingredients
- 1 shallot, diced
- 2 inches fresh ginger, peeled and grated on a microplane
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 pounds ground beef, (see notes)
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 cup coconut aminos, (see notes)
- 2 tbsp fish sauce, (see notes)
- 4 cups cauliflower rice, (can sub white rice if you’re not doing Whole30)
- 6 cups greens of choice, (chopped romaine, arugula, spinach, etc.)
Optional sauce:
- 1/4 cup mayo
- 1 tbsp hot sauce, (adjust to taste)
Optional toppings:
- chopped green onions
- sliced avocado
Instructions
- Start by preparing rice to have it ready. If serving with cauliflower rice, wait until the beef is almost done as it only takes a few minutes to cook.
- Dice shallot and grate ginger to have it ready.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add sesame oil. Once hot, add in ground beef. Break the beef up into small bits.
- Add the shallot, ginger, red pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder and mix with the beef. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until the meat is browned and developing some crispy bits, about 8 minutes.
- Add the coconut aminos and fish sauce and cook for another 3-4 minutes.
- If you are making the optional sauce, mix the mayo and hot sauce in a small bowl.
- Serve beef in a bowl over a bed of greens with rice or cauliflower rice. Top with optional sauce and enjoy.
Notes
- The recipe can also be made with ground pork, chicken or turkey.
- The coconut aminos linked to in the recipe are the aminos we use (Coconut Secret coconut aminos). Braggs brand aminos are NOT the same thing. Braggs liquid aminos are a soy-based and much saltier than coconut aminos. If you use Braggs aminos, we suggest using only 1-2 tbsp to start and adjusting to taste. You can also omit the salt from the recipe.
- As an alternative to coconut aminos, you can make your own using our DIY coconut aminos substitute recipe.
- If you wish to omit the fish sauce, you can replace it with more coconut aminos. Since fish sauce is salty, you may need to add more salt to suit your taste.
Did you make this recipe?Tag @realsimplegood with hashtag #realsimplegood on Instagram. We love to see what you make!
This was so easy to make and tastes amazing! I used soy sauce instead of coconut aminos. I will be making this again.
Looks so delish! Love coming across new tasty dinner ideas.
Hope you give it a try! It’s a reader favorite! 🙂
Delicious and easy! So flavorful. We are adding this to our regular rotation. We made a couple of minor adjustments. Our store didn’t have shallots or fresh ginger, so we subbed red onion and ground ginger. We served it over microwave jasmine ready rice and fresh spinach, with avocado on top. I totally forgot the green onion. Oops! Can’t wait for the leftovers tonight!
One of my new favorite meals!
Super easy and delicious, thank you!
So happy you enjoyed it! Thanks for coming back to leave a review! 🙂
Hi, if you’re not posting a video would you kindly delete the video link. Thanks!
Hi there! There actually is a recipe video in the post! It looks like the link up top is going to the wrong place for it though. Thanks for bringing that to our attention. We will work to get that issue solved.
This was awesome. So easy too. served over a bed of raw spinach w/ rice.
Love hearing you enjoyed it! Thanks so much for taking the time to come leave a rating and review! Appreciate it! 🙂
The Korean Beef was delicious ACS so easy to make. The whole family enjoyed it, which is always a bonus!!!
SO GOOD! Ate this with roasted cauliflower and brussels sprouts over greens and a bit of rice and I will definitely be making this again.
That’s great to hear Olivia, thanks for coming back to leave a rating and review 🙂
So good and so easy! My young kids loved it!
I loved this recipe but wish I had put it in the nutrition calc before making it as my meal prep for lunched for the week. It came out with
733 cal,
Total Fat 48.7 g
Total Carbohydrate28.1 g
Dietary Fiber2.6 g
Sugars1.5 g
Protein 39.1 g That seems crazy high for one recipe that is 4 servings. And I used organic and lean Ground beef etc. Anyone else get a crazy result when entering it in a nutrition calc?
If your using my fitness pal some of the spices enter in as powdered sugar. Double check your ingredients to see if this happens to you. Also if you decrease the ground beef to 1.5 lbs it drops the calories to 454.
This was great!! All three teenagers and my husband liked it!! We will be adding it to our weeknight rotation for sure!
I absolutely loved this recipe. It’s so simple and delicious and pretty good for you! I love coconut aminos over soy sauce any day!
So good! I added a jalapeño for some extra spice but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. It was delicious! I will definitely be making it again.
No nutritional info? Fat/calories/carbs, etc.
We don’t have the nutrition info for this recipe but you could use an online calculator like myfitness pal if needed.
I didn’t want to do all the entries so thought I’d ask
I agree. I know everyone uses different brands but even a rough estimate would be helpful to even know if I should bother with the recipe and putting it in a calc.
So easy to make and a family favorite!
This is so good! My husband can’t say it enough! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
You’re very welcome, glad your husband likes it! Thanks for coming back to leave a comment and review, we appreciate it 🙂
this recipe is amazing!! i’m currently doing whole60 and this is a definite “go to” if i’m feeling any food boredom. this recipe has so much flavor, it’s the furthest thing from boring food 😉 this is definitely a staple recipe in my household now <3
We absolutely love hearing that! We think it is the opposite of boring too! 😉 Thanks so much for taking the time to come back and share!
This is so good! My kids liked it too. I served it with rice and a big green salad. I think it will make a great lunch tomorrow. It was easy, relatively fast, and used ingredients I happened to have on hand.
This is just SO good. Even my toddler is alllll about it, minus the spicy sauce. Thank you!
We love hearing it’s a hit for the whole fam! Thanks so much for giving our recipe a try and for taking the time to come back and share! 🙂
I do wish those would have been mentioned in the ingredients. I bought the ingredients on the list at the grocery store then realized I didn’t grab avocado and green onion. I’ll have to go back to the store.
I’m really sorry for any inconvenience caused Mandy. Those items were just topping items for the pictures, but I am adding them as optional toppings in the recipe card for anyone in the future.
This was soooo yummy! I made it with rice on the side and on a bed of butter lettuce. Added green onions and avocado and it was fabulous. For the sauce, I did a mixture of mayo, siracha, and rice vinegar. Thanks for the recipe! Will have this in our meal rotation!
You’re welcome Angela, glad you enjoyed the recipe!
This is an amazing recipe!! SOOO GOOD!! Thank you!
Simple and delicious!
Ummmm this is sooo good!! I can’t believe how tasty it is! Thank you for this awesome recipe!!
You’re very welcome Johanna! Thanks for coming back to leave a rating and review 🙂
This was absolutely delicious!! Definitely going in regular rotation!
This recipe was easy and hands down delicious! I had to make a sub with the sesame oil due to allergies, but it was still amazing. The hubs even went back for more!
So happy you guys enjoyed it! It’s a reader and personal favorite for sure! What did you end up subbing for the sesame oil? Just another cooking oil?
Yes, I just used some olive oil and it turned out great! That’s one thing I for sure love about your recipes: they use whole food ingredients so finding subs for my other allergies isn’t as challenging as with other recipes!
That’s great! We are so glad it’s easier for you!
This is easy and yummy, but the extra salt is not needed and makes the dish very salty. Next time I will omit the salt.
Sorry if yours turned out too salty, did you use the coconut aminos recommended in the recipe? Either way, hope you enjoy it even more with a less salty version next time.
Was absolutely delicious. I used low sodium soy sauce as I didn’t have coconut aminos, that was only change. Also served with avocado. Yummy!!
This was really delicious! I skipped the cauliflower rice and added avocado and served with cilantro. I did use Bragg’s coconut aminos (which don’t contain soy, at least mine didn’t) and still went with 1/2 a cup. I will probably use less next time, but I didn’t find it too salty (in fact, I added more salt) but I’m eating very low carb right now so I need the salt.
So glad you enjoyed the recipe Madeleine! We are happy you found us 🙂
This continues to be a family favorite. We switch up the greens to make it versatile and love it every time!
We love that!! We’ve been hearing lately so many little kiddos loving it too! 🙂
Love this, and LOVE it for meal prep. Thank you so much for sharing!
You’re very welcome Linda 🙂
Switching over to an all paleo diet, I absolutely LOVE this recipe. The sauce is literally AMAZING – i put it on EVERYTHING. Not just the beef bowl! Keep the paleo recipes coming 🙂
We love hearing that you enjoy this one so much!! Thanks so much for sharing for on IG and for visiting to leave a rating! We really appreciate it! 🙂
I’ve made this recipe several times and I can’t get enough of it!
My favorite part is that you can make it your own by adding your favorite toppers and vegetables of choice 😬
Yes!! It’s easy to customize and make work with whatever veggies you have on hand! Thanks so much for taking the time to come back and share! 🙂
Oh my gosh! I made this last night. Used spinach (greens on hand) and brown rice instead of cauliflower rice. I cut the recipe in half and we still had enough for a repeat tonight. Absolutely delish!
I absolutely loved this bowl!! I have been looking for ways to eat less simple carbs and more complex carbs and this is just the best! I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get the beef to not taste “ground beefy” haha, but the flavors mixed together wonderfully and the crunchy bits were sooo good!! And layering on top of my power greens…I mean come ON! What did I do to deserve eating this good?!! 😆 I literally want to eat this every night 😬 Thanks so much for the recipe!
You’re so welcome Jen!
Delicious–and so simple to make! Great for meal prep. Our whole family LOVED it, so it’s earned a primo spot in our regular meal rotation! Thank you so much for sharing.
This was really good. Didn’t make the sauce or the cauliflower rice.We used lettuce leaves to wrap the meat with avacado, cilantro and hot sauce. This we will make again.
We’re glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for taking the time to come back and share! 🙂
So yummy! I’m practicing Whole30 so this was served over spinach.
Whole family loved this recipe!
So good! ?
Delicious! Little spicy, which I loved! My kids loved it and it reminded us of a Korean place we used to eat at all the time. Thanks for sharing! ?
You’re very welcome!
I made it too spicy but the flavor was amazing! This dish is going to help me get through my Whole30!
Hello! My family loves this recipe! Thanks for sharing. Do you know if it would freeze well? Thanks!
Absolutely, the beef can be frozen and reheated later.
I made it with ground bison, and it was soooooo good!
So good and filling! The recipe was very easy to follow even for someone like me who is not culinarily inclined at all. Definitely one I’ll be making again!
We’re so glad you loved this one and found it easy! Thanks again for sharing on IG and for taking the time to come leave your rating and review. We appreciate it! 🙂
I have made this multiple times and LOVE ❤️ It. The flavors are amazing! Thank you for the great addition to our “go to” recipes.
You’re very welcome!
Such a flavorful and easy recipe! Love how simple it is and that our whole family enjoys it.
Yummy!!
This is a favorite in my house! It shows up regularly on our weekly meal plans!