Have you ever stir fried with cucumber before? It’s not that strange of an idea in my house! This beef cucumber stir fry is one of the ways I cook it – marinated tender sliced beef stir fried with crunchy cucumber and minced garlic. This makes a tasty meal for any day of the week!

Marinating the beef

First step is slicing the beef and then marinating it. I actually purchase pre-sliced beef to save time, if there is an Asian supermarket or grocery store near you, you can find these in the hot pot section.

The marinade is pretty simple but it helps add some flavor to it and also tenderizes it. The marinade consists of soy sauce, cornstarch, and rice cooking wine. If you don’t have rice cooking wine, you an also use vinegar.

The cornstarch is used for its velveting effect. This is commonly used in Asian cooking as it crates a thin coating of the beef (or whatever meat you are marinating) and this helps prevent it from drying out during stir fries.

Cutting the cucumber

Cut the cucumber in chunks. If they are on the larger size, you can cut them vertically first (length wise) and then cut them in to 1/2 to 1 inch width. Or you can do this very cool cutting style called ‘roll cutting’.

Roll cutting aka oblique cutting is a technique where you can cut long veggies like zucchini, carrots, Chinese eggplants, in a way that will expose the most amount of surface are – this makes it cook faster and absorbent of sauces/spices.

Salt the cucumbers

The other optional thing to do is to salt the cucumbers. This helps improve texture as the salt draws out excess moisture from the cucumber so it is more ‘crisp’ and less ‘soft’ after you stir fry. However, it is an extra step that is not required so if you want to skip it you can.

If you want to salt it here is how:

In a large bowl, mix cucumbers with about 1/2 tsp of salt, and rub on cucumbers to spread evenly. Allow it to sit for about 15-30 minutes. Then rinse the cucumbers and pat cucumbers dry with a paper towel.

BTW if you love cucumbers make sure to check out my tasty Chinese Cucumber Salad recipe!!

How to make Beef Cucumber Stir Fry

First gather your ingredients:

• Beef Marinade:
  • 1/2 lb beef, sliced thinly
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp michiu / rice cooking wine
  • 1 tsp cornstarch
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 cucumber, cut in to chunks
• 3 cloves of garlic, roughly minced
• Salt to taste

In a bowl, mix beef, and cornstarch, soy sauce, rice cooking wine together. Allow it to marinade for at least 30 minutes, up to overnight in the refrigerator.

In a wok or cooking pan, add minced garlic and allow it to cook for about a minute. Then add beef and stir fry until mostly browned. Remove from heat and set aside.

Add a little oil to pan if pan dry, then add cucumbers to pan and stir fry everything for about 1-2 mins, it should turn in to a vibrant green.

Add beef back in to pan and stir fry to mix well. Allow to cook while stirring until beef is cooked to desired tenderness.

Remove from heat and serve!

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