Vietnamese-Style Caramel Beef Bowl
Ground beef caramelized in soy and sugar with ginger and garlic, over rice with lime.
Ingredients
- 400 g Ground beef
- 300 g Rice
- 4 cloves Garlic
- 1 tbsp Ginger
- 3 tbsp Soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Sugar
- ½ Onion
- 1 tbsp Neutral oil
- 1 Lime
- ½ tsp Black pepper
- 1 tbsp Fish sauce (optional)
- 2 tbsp Cilantro (optional)
- 2 Scallions (optional)
Method
- Rinse the rice and cook it in twice its volume of water, covered, until tender and the water is absorbed, about 15 minutes.
- While the rice cooks, finely dice the onion, mince the garlic, grate the ginger.
- Heat the oil in a wide pan over medium-high. Sweat the onion for 3 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger; stir for 30 seconds.
- Add the beef and brown hard, breaking it up, 5 minutes.
- Sprinkle over the sugar and let it caramelize at the edges, 1 minute. Pour in the soy and fish sauce; bubble until the beef is glazed dark and sticky, 3 minutes.
- Spoon over the rice. Squeeze lime over, crack pepper, scatter cilantro and scallions.
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About Vietnamese-Style Caramel Beef Bowl
This Vietnamese-style caramel beef bowl takes its cue from thit kho, the Vietnamese tradition of cooking meat in caramelized sugar until it turns dark, sticky, and savory-sweet. Ground beef stands in for the usual cubed pork to make it a fast weeknight bowl, browned hard and then glazed in sugar cooked to the edge of caramel with soy and fish sauce. Ginger and garlic bloom underneath, and the fish sauce brings the salty, funky depth that separates this from a generic sweet stir-fry.
The flavor lands right at the intersection of sweet, salty, and savory, with the beef glazed dark and clinging to the rice beneath it. A squeeze of lime at the end cuts the richness and brightens the whole bowl, while cilantro and scallions add fresh, sharp top notes. Built over rice and finished with black pepper, it's a complete meal in about twenty minutes, most of that hands-off while the rice cooks. Serve it with the lime wedges on the side so everyone can adjust the balance to their own taste.
Vietnamese-Style Caramel Beef Bowl: frequently asked questions
How many calories are in Vietnamese-Style Caramel Beef Bowl?
A serving has about 576 calories — 26.3g protein, 72.5g carbs, 19.1g fat, 2.2g fiber. Figures are estimated from the ingredient amounts and will shift with your portions and brands.
Is it high in protein?
Each serving has about 26.3g of protein, roughly 18% of its calories.
Is Vietnamese-Style Caramel Beef Bowl gluten-free?
As written, no — it contains Soy sauce. You'd need a certified gluten-free swap for that ingredient to make it gluten-free.
Do I need every ingredient to make Vietnamese-Style Caramel Beef Bowl?
The core ingredients are essential, but you can leave out fish sauce, cilantro, scallions — they're optional and mainly there for extra flavor or finish.
How many servings does Vietnamese-Style Caramel Beef Bowl make?
This recipe makes 4 servings. In the app you can scale it up or down and the ingredient amounts adjust automatically.