Green Pepper Steak

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The first in a new series inspired by vintage recipes cards.  This Green Pepper Steak was originally a from a My Great Recipe card pack, published around 1986.  Today I updated it slightly to reflect more modern food habits, like not drowning food in oil!  So revisit what might have been on your parent’s or grandparent’s table with this Green Pepper Steak.

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Green Pepper Steak

This Green Pepper Steak was originally a from a My Great Recipe card pack, published around 1986.  Updated slightly to reflect more modern food habits, revisit what might have been on your parent’s or grandparent’s table with this Green Pepper Steak.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Asian

Diet Gluten Free, Low Lactose, Low Salt

Keyword Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Nut Free

Total Time 50 minutes

Servings 4

Calories 293kcal

Equipment

• large skillet

Ingredients

• 1 lbs. beef chuck or round thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup soy sauce*
• 1 garlic clove minced
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tbsp oil
• 4 green onions
• 1 green pepper cut into 1" pieces
• 1 red pepper cut into 1" pieces
• 2 ribs celery thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 tomatoes cut into wedges

Instructions

• Cut beef into thin, about 1/8" thick, slices
• Combine soy sauce, garlic, and ginger in a bowl. Add beef and toss to coat. Allow beef to marinate while preparing vegetables.
• Prepare green onion, peppers, celery, and tomatoes.
• Heat oil in large skillet over medium high heat. Add beef and cook until browned on each side.
• Add remaining marinade to pan. Cover pan and allow beef to simmer for 30 minutes.
• Turn up the heat and add onions, peppers, and celery to pan. Cook, stirring occasionally until tender crisp, about 10 minutes.
• Mix cornstarch and water. Add to pan and cook until sauce has thickened.
• Add tomatoes and heat through. Serve hot.

Notes

5 Green, Blue, or Purple WW Points.  

*To keep recipe gluten free, use gluten free soy sauce or coconut aminos. 

Jump to Nutritional Information.

I like old stuff.  I like history.  I like researching my family genealogy.  I love old films and classic novels. 

So when someone on my local Buy Nothing Group offered up a series of My Great Recipe and Great American cards from the 1980’s I knew I had to ask for some! 

Honestly, I hadn’t heard of My Great Recipes or Great American Recipes before this.  What are they?  They were subscription services.  Yes, people would subscribe to one of these services, and periodically receive a pack of cards, each with a recipe on it.  The person giving these away had a nice size collection, all still wrapped in the plastic they came in, save for one pack of each type. 

I’m getting a big kick out of going through these old recipes.  You can see how much our attitudes and cooking habits have changed in the nearly 40 years since these came out.  There are a lot of heavy, rich dishes.  Lots of creams and sauces!  Some a little on the lighter side.  Some look appetizing, some made me a little nauseous just looking at the picture (like baked fish in dilled cheese sauce – ew!).  But even with the heavier dishes, there’s room for improvement and lots of potential.  As I experiment with these recipes, I’ll be sharing my experiences and updates with my new Vintage Recipe Series!  First up: Green Pepper Steak.

Ok, so I picked this one for two reasons.  First, it actually did look pretty appetizing.  The ingredients were similar to a lot of stir fry recipes – garlic, ginger, and soy sauce being three of the main ingredients.  Second, it looked pretty simple.  An assertion verified by the card’s “Quick and Tasty” stamp.

Of course, I did make a few slight changes.  Here’s my version of My Great Recipe’s Green Pepper Steak.

First, start by preparing your beef and marinade.  Combine the soy sauce, garlic, and ginger in a bowl.  Take your beef and cut it into thin slices.  The recipe card calls for beef chuck.  I didn’t have any chuck cuts, so I used a London Broil that had been hiding in the back of my freezer.  It worked just fine.  Add the beef to the bowl with the marinade.  Stir to combine.  Allow the beef to sit and marinate while preparing the rest of the vegetables.

Slice your green onion into thin slices.  Cut your pepper into one-inch squares.  I find it a little ironic that this is a “green pepper” steak, but the recipe card calls for red or green peppers.  I love peppers, so I actually used one of each.  Slice your celery into small chunks too.

The recipe calls for salad oil.  I had no idea what salad oil is.  I googled it.  Apparently, it’s just a term for a little oil.  So take your choice of light tasting oil and heat it in a skillet over medium high heat.  The recipe card calls for a frying pan or wok.  Personally, I wouldn’t do it in a wok. Woks are great for stir frying, where everything is moving frequently.  This recipe however calls for the dish to simmer, and since only a small part of the large wok’s body is touching the burner, I was afraid things wouldn’t cook evenly, so I used a skillet. 

The recipe also calls for a quarter of a cup of oil.  To me, this is complete overkill – your food will drown in the oil!  I just drizzled enough to coat the pan, about a tablespoon.  Once the oil is hot, add the meat and cook until it’s browned.  Since the meat is thin, probably one to two minutes per side will be enough.  Do the meat in batches if you have to in order to brown it.  Cover and reduce the heat to low.  Allow the meat to simmer for thirty minutes.

Just before the thirty minutes are up, combine the cornstarch and water.  The initial recipe called for one cup of water.  I thought this sounded like way too much.  Either the dish would be soupy, or it would take forever to thicken.  I only used a half cup of water – it turned out to be a wise decision.

After the thirty minutes, turn the heat up and add the vegetables.  Stir frequently until vegetables are cooked, about ten minutes.  Add the cornstarch mix to the pan. Stir to coat the beef and peppers.  Continue cooking, stirring occasionally until the sauce has thickened.  It took me about five minutes.  Finally, add the tomatoes and allow them to heat through.

Remove from heat and serve hot.

I liked the recipe.  It had good Asian flavors that reminded me of most stir-fries.  I loved the additions of celery and tomatoes, two vegetables I usually don’t add in my stir-fries.  And most importantly, my husband liked it, so I guess we are calling this one a winner!

Want some more easy beef recipes? Check out my Flank Steak with Garlic Roasted Potatoes or Philly Stuffed Peppers.

How is that chopping going? You’ve probably noticed that in my kitchen, I chop a lot of vegetables. But chopping is easy with a good knife, and to take care of my knife, I sharpen it regularly with my Professional Knife Sharpener. It’s three steps keep my knives in great condition, and take trips to the sharpener off my to do list! Check it out!

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