Quick n Easy Wasabi Beef Fajitas

Wasabi Beef Fajitas

Alright, let me set the stage for you: It was a Monday night, I wanted to cook something, but didn't want it to take forever to get ready. Let's face it, when I cook something for the first time I take my time in the kitchen. I don't want to rush anything and I certainly don't want to make mistakes. I really don't want to ruin the food either because then it's a waste of money and time...and then I'm still hungry. So I flipped through some of my cookbooks and this. It was in the "30 minutes or less" cook-time section and I was in the mood for some beef. Double win in my book. Also, if I hadn't been so lazy over the weekend I would have gone to the store to buy the stuff to make these anyways. But I waited until Monday night.

So after a quick run to the grocery store, I started in on these. Fairly simple recipe and pretty quick to put together. Especially if your grocery store has fajita beef (or chicken) already sliced up for you and put in about a 1 pound package. These are already nicely cut up into the strips of meat you want for fajitas or stir-fry dishes. That took some time off my prep-time.

It was the wasabi in these fajitas that caught my eye. My dad is big on sushi and so are a couple of my uncles. I remember one time, my aunt found wasabi at the grocery store and bought some just because who knows when you'd like some wasabi? I don't know it was just so random and my uncle thought she was crazy for buying it. They didn't make sushi on their own, they went out to a sushi restaurant...where they provide the wasabi. There was no need for wasabi in the house. I was younger when that happened. Just cracked me up when I was at the grocery store, buying wasabi in a tube.

So here's what you'll need:

2 teaspoons cornstrach

3 tablespoons reduced-sodium soy sauce

2 teaspoons prepared wasabi

2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger root

1 teaspoon minced garlic (about 1 large clove)

1 large red pepper, julienned

12 green onions, cut in half lengthwise (I only used about 10...)

2 tablespoons sesame oil, divided

About 1 lb uncooked beef stir-fry strips

Flour Tortillas (8 inches), warmed up a bit (6-8 depending on how stuffed you want your fajitas)

1 cup coleslaw mix OR I just used some sour cream and cheese

**Important possibly!!**

So I didn't want to use 3 tablespoons of soy sauce because even the sodium-reduced stuff is still really high in sodium. So I substituted some things. I used about 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of Hoisin sauce

I would chop up the green onion first. I took the very tops off then chopped them in half lengthwise then cut them in halves or thirds depending on how long the onion was. So they should look pretty close to this:

Next I chopped up the red pepper. To chop something up julienne means to cut the vegetable into longer, thin strips. When things are julienned it makes the presentation of the dish look nicer. The green onions, the way I did them at least, ended up being mostly julienned as well. The fajitas would still taste the same if you chopped them up, but this way they look nicer. In my humble opinion.

So there you go. You got those cut up and out of the way. So set them aside and grab a small bowl to get started on the next part of this recipe.

In that small bowl you're going to combine the cornstarch, soy sauce, wasabi, ginger, and garlic until everything is well blended. OK once you have that all put together and it's all blended nicely, set it aside for a few minutes while we get the beef going.

Grab a large skillet and stir-fry the red pepper and green onions in 1 tablespoon of the sesame oil. This should take about 3-5 minutes depending on how hot your skillet gets and how quickly. I put my skillet on a medium-high temperature to do this stuff.

So this is the sesame oil that I use. Surprisingly I already had some from when I made some salad dressing a little while ago. So that was nice to have one less thing to get at the store. I like this sesame oil, it's not crazy expensive like some of the other ones I saw and it taste pretty yummy.

Alright so here are your veggies once they have cooked for a few minutes. They should be tender, not mushy. If they're mushy you over cooked them. You want them to still crunch, but obviously you don't want them to be raw. Once those are done, remove them from the heat and set them aside for a bit...just like the wasabi sauce!

Now it's time to grab your meat! See what my grocery store has all ready for me? Love it!! OK so go ahead and throw that in the same skillet you were just using along with the remaining tablespoon of sesame oil.

Do your best to separate the beef as you put it into the skillet. You're going to cook the beef until it is no longer pink. This should take about 5-7 minutes depending on how thinly sliced the beef stir-fry/fajita strips are cut.

Once the beef is cooked you're going to add in the wasabi/soy sauce mixture. Mix it in with the beef and bring that to a boil. Cook and stir for about 2 minutes or just until the sauce has thickened up a bit. 

The beef should look like so...

Alright so if your beef looks like that, which I'm sure it does, it's time to return the red pepper and green onions to the skillet. I also sprinkled a little bit of chili powder on everything at this point, just to add a little extra kick. I enjoy spice and I figured a touch more wouldn't hurt these fajitas.

Stir it all up to get everything nicely coated with the sauce mixture, and also to heat the veggies and meat together. You don't want hot beef with cold veggies, that's just playing tricks on your mouth. So heat everything throughout then you're pretty much ready to serve!

So warm up your tortillas and grab either your coleslaw mix or sour cream and cheese. Or if you just want the meat and veggies in a tortilla and have that be your fajita? That works just the same!

You want to spoon about 1/2 cup of the beef/veggie mixture down the center of the tortilla then top with the coleslaw mix. Or really, it's however much of the beef/veggie mixture you want. Half a cup does pretty well though.

If you're using sour cream and cheese like I did, you might want to do it a little differently. I spread the sour cream all over the tortilla in a thin layer, sprinkled with cheese, and then added the beef/veggie mix.

So this only took me about 35-40 minutes from start to finish. So it's a relatively quick dish to make. I'm a little slow sometimes in the kitchen as I've stated before, I just like to take my time and preferably not destroy my food and kitchen in the process.

Well I hope you enjoy these as much as I did! The flavors in these fajitas are quite delicious. The taste of the wasabi with the soy sauce, garlic and ginger is fantastic! It's a simple, straight-forward recipe that I'm sure will be a hit!

'Til Next Time!!