Corned Beef and Cabbage Stir Fry

I love corned beef and cabbage … but only when someone else cooks it! My Irish friends say, “Oh that! ‘Tis nothing to make it!” But my corned beef never quite turns out as tender and tasty as I’d like. Plus, making it does seem like a project to me. I suppose it’s because “my people” didn’t make it. I don’t think I even had corned beef until I was in my 20s … in fact, what IS corned beef anyway? And what’s this whole “St. Patrick’s Day” thing about?

Well, well, well … after just a tiny bit of not-very-thorough research, I have discovered some interesting things:

  • Corned beef is just beef that’s been cured by brining or salting.
  • Apparently the term “corned” refers to using large nuggets of salt to cure the beef. I guess corn-sized nuggets of salt? I have to say I still don’t quite get it … but that’s what I read, so it MUST be true!
  • Serving corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick’s Day is an Irish-American tradition. They have bacon and cabbage in Ireland. Huh.
  • St. Patrick was not Irish! He was a British dude. Huh.
  • There’s some business about him driving snakes out of Ireland, but I’m not sure if that’s legend, lore, truth or consequences … the details seem a bit fuzzy on that.
  • I have no idea what corned beef has to do with Ireland or St. Patrick – or cabbage, for that matter – but it tastes good. And since I find this whole business very confusing, let’s cook something.

St. Patrick’s Day is on its way, and if you have Irish heritage you probably know just what to do. The recipe today is for the rest of us … because we want to celebrate with you, we just don’t know how. So we need this to be easy. That’s why I created this “Corned Beef & Cabbage Stir Fry” recipe – because stir fry is one of the easiest things in the world to make. 

Happy St. Patrick’s Day … and may the luck o’ the Irish be with ya!

j*a*N*e

Corned Beef & Cabbage Stir Fry

Ingredients

Directions

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the onion and stir fry for 1-2 minutes on medium-high heat. Add the remaining veggies, corned beef and Garlic Pepper Seasoning; stir fry until browned. Add the Vidalia Onion Dressing; stir until heated through. Serve warm. Makes 4 servings.

Tips and Hints

  • It was fun to use all that beautiful fresh produce! Such a pretty picture, and it made me feel like I was making a nutritious meal from good, earthy ingredients!
  • I had baked potatoes yesterday, so I used 4 leftover potatoes in this recipe. I cut them into quarter lengthwise, and the peel came right off. Then I chopped them up. Easy! You could also boil the potatoes before stir frying them.
  • I sliced the carrots at an angle then boiled them until they were still just a little firm. Carrots “al dente!”
  • I bought a “real” cabbage instead of the bagged, pre-sliced stuff because I wanted the cabbage chunkier. You could use the bagged kind though.
  • To prep a head of cabbage, just peel off the outer leaves, rinse it and cut out the core. Then cut it into wedges and chop it up. I used less than half the head of cabbage, so I’ll need to come up with another use for that. Maybe another stir fry with chicken and Honey Teriyaki Sauce? Or some fish tacos.
  • I had the deli slice the corned beef a little on the thick side, but you could use any thickness. You could even have them cut a slab of corned beef for you and then dice it so the beef is roughly the same cube size as the potatoes. Your call.
  • Note that this is a very forgiving recipe … feel free to vary the amounts of anything based on what you have available. You could use other veggies too – the cabbage, potatoes and carrots are true to the Irish tradition, but this is pretty non-traditional corned beef and cabbage anyway, so do your own thing!
  • I thought this was fab-U-lous! I la-la-love sautéed cabbage with lots of pepper, so this was right up my alley. My husband thought it was good … he gave it a 4.5 on a 1-6 scale. He also added more Vidalia® Onion Dressing to his. My daughter’s ranking was probably a 5. I was a 6 – two thumbs up!