These soy scallion noodles with ground beef are one of my favorite easy weeknight dinner meals – it’s balanced with protein, veggies, and noodles, and made with just 8 ingredients! These will be your new favorite pantry staple meal you’ll have in your back pocket for any busy night.


If you’re still eating instant ramen packs straight out of the box, you need to see how you uplevel it and make it a whole meal.
This noodle bowl with ground beef and veg is a simplified, but delicious, version of noodles I love to make when I don’t feel like making dinner. The sauce is made from minced / ground beef, which I usually always have in the freezer, and cabbage and celery – two vegetables that will last weeks in your fridge before going bad.
Adding just a couple extra ingredients, like the minced beef, scallions, celery, and cabbage turns these instant noodles from a lazy meal, into a balanced dinner that hits all the spots.
To make these noodles extra saucy and delicious, I use half a cup of noodle water, and half a cup of chicken broth. The starch will help emulsify the beef fat and the liquid to get that perfect, saucy, shimmery glaze.
Serve with some extra sliced chicken or eggs if you want more protein, and enjoy!
Table of Contents
- Chef Tips
- Ingredients
- Prep
- Cooking
- Storage and Reheating
- Video Tutorial
- Looking for more similar recipes?
- The Recipe
Chef Tips:
For Ingredients:
- What Noodles to use:
- I used the asha brand dried chinese wheat noodles that come with the momofuku “instant noodle” packs. These noodles are air dried, never fried, and quite versatile. I’ve also seen similar style noodles at Trader Joe’s called Squiggles.


- You could also use 6 ounces of any other chinese wheat noodle or ramen noodle. I love to use the fresh / refrigerated thick cut Chinese wheat noodles for this recipe. This was a popular snack item on our Jackie’s Supper Club meal delivery menu, and the Chinese wheat noodles are what we used.


- Type of Ground Beef to use:
- I use ground beef for this noodle dish because I like that the texture works really well to get the beef flavor in every bite.
- 80 / 20 – I find this cut of beef most accessible to find, but 90/10 or 95/5 would also work. You can remove some of fat after mincing the beef if you see more than a tablespoon of oil in the pan. This is helpful to prevent the overall dish from feeling too oily.
- That being said, you do still want some oil / fat in the pot so your sauce will be balanced, shimmery, and not too liquidy. Fat is the key ingredient to creating the perfect sauce, in addition to the noodle water, as the starch helps emulsify both the fat and the liquid.
- For vegetables, I use savoy cabbage and celery. The cabbage melts into the sauce, and the celery adds a nice crunch to the dish. I have also made this with red cabbage and as much as it works, the color gets a bit odd and turns the dish a slightly pink hue. If you can’t find savoy cabbage, I’d recommend either napa cabbage, or green cabbage (green cabbage doesn’t melt as finely into the sauce)
- Don’t skip the chicken broth (or veg broth!). It adds depth of flavor to the sauce and contributes to the deliciousness of the noodles!
On prep:
- Thinly slice the cabbage, and go as thin as you can. This helps melt the cabbage into the sauce, and add to the flavor of the dish rather than it being an ingredient you chew alongside the noodles and ground beef.
- Slice the celery into 1/4″ thick pieces – this size will allow for it to still remain crunchy, and not feel too big with each bite.


On Cooking
- Rinse the noodles in cold water. Yes, we are adding starching noodle water to the sauce, but when cooking chinese wheat noodles, I always like to rinse my noodles to prevent the noodles from getting too sticky.
- When you add the pasta water and chicken broth to the pan, it may seem liquidy. Some of the liquid will absorb into the noodles as it simmers, and some of the liquid will evaporate away. There should still be some sauce remaining after simmering for a couple minutes.


Storage and Reheating
Storage: Store the bowl in an airtight container for up to 4 days in the fridge. You can keep all the ingredients in the same tupperware.
Reheating: Reheat in a pan on medium high heat until warm. Add a couple tablespoons of water to help this steam and cook more evenly.
Other great minced / ground beef recipes:
- Minced Beef and Bokchoy Stir Fry
- Smashed Tacos with Easy Guacamole
- Sweet Potato and Ground Beef Taco Salad
Video Tutorial
Recipe

Soy Scallion Noodles with ground beef and veg
Equipment
- 1 3 qt pot
- 1 knife
Ingredients
- ½ head savoy cabbage or green cabbage
- 3 stalks celery sliced into ¼” pieces
- 2 stalks scallions
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- ½ lb Ground beef
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 6 ounces noodles or 2 instant noodle packs
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce or 2 sauce packets
- ½ cup water starchy water from boiling the noodles in
- ½ cup chicken broth
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- 1 tbsp Chili oil optional
Instructions
- Bring a pot of water up to a boil.
- Prep the vegetables and aromatics – thinly slice the celery into ¼” thick pieces, thinly slice the cabbage and scallions, and mince the garlic.½ head savoy cabbage, 3 stalks celery, 2 stalks scallions, 2 cloves garlic
- Once the water is boiling, cook the noodles according to package instructions, usually about 3 minutes. Reserve ½ cup of the noodle water, then drain and rinse the noodles in cold water. Rinse the noodles until they are cool, about 1 minute.6 ounces noodles
- Heat the same pot you cooked the noodles on medium high heat. Brown the ground beef with a pinch of salt and black pepper. Mince up the ground beef with a wooden spoon until cooked through, about 2-3 minutes.½ lb Ground beef
- Remove some of the beef fat if you’re using a fatty cut and see an excessive amount of fat in the pan (more than a tablespoon). Add a tablespoon of butter and the sliced scallions and minced garlic.1 tablespoon butter
- After one minute, add the cabbage, celery, pinch of salt, and black pepper. Give everything a mix, then add the pasta water and chicken broth. Cook for 5 minutes on medium high heat.½ head savoy cabbage, 3 stalks celery, ½ cup water, Kosher salt, Black pepper, ½ cup chicken broth
- Add the cooked noodles and noodle sauce packets (or soy sauce) to the pot. Give everything a mix and thoroughly mix everything together. Taste, adjust seasoning as desired, and serve. Top with chili oil if you like, and enjoy.1 tbsp Chili oil, 2 tablespoons soy sauce
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