Beef Stroganoff
A great stroganoff recipe with beef that is easier to make than most people realise. Beef strips covered in creamy sauce make this recipe an instant hit.
Looking for something else? Our meaty homemade Italian meatballs are a hit, or these sweet Canadian pancakes fills the hungry people.
Packed with protein and full of flavor, my easy beef stroganoff recipe is the perfect winter hunger-buster for the whole family! Will you portion stroganoff onto individual plates in the kitchen? Or serve the casserole dish on the dining room table and allow your friends and family to help themselves? Either way, I’m sure you’ll get requests for a second helping!
As you know, I always like to give you some suggestions about how you can customise my recipes so that they become truly your own. Beef stroganoff is no different! Check out the ‘options’ heading (below) for some ideas about personalising this hearty meal. Alternatives like reducing calorific impact and sneaking in a few extra vegetables are easy to achieve.
Be sure to also try my delicious air fryer lamb chops my kids love them!
Alternatively, leave the recipe exactly as it is because I’ve been making it exactly as described below for years. And – for your peace of mind – we’ve mastered it repeatedly in our Recipe Library test kitchen.
Beef Stroganoff
Equipment
- Oven
- Skillet/ frypan
- Meat tenderizer/ meat mallet
Ingredients
- 2 pounds beef steak (metric: 1 kg)
- 1 pound mushrooms (sliced) (metric: 500g)
- 2 cups sour cream (metric: 500 ml)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 large onion (finely diced)
- 2 cloves garlic (crushed)
- salt and pepper (to taste)
- sprig parsley (to garnish – optional)
Instructions
- Use your meat tenderizer to pound the beef until it is tender and thin.
- Slice beef into thin 1 inch (2cm) length strips.
- In a skillet over medium flame, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil (approximately 2 minutes).
- When the olive oil is very hot (but not smoking), add the beef strips for searing. That is, cook them VERY quickly (eg, 30 seconds) on one side, then turn them to sear the other side.
- Remove beef from skillet and sit aside to rest for a few minutes. The beef is not yet cooked, but the flavor has been sealed in.
- Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and heat.
- Add onions (and any vegetables from the 'options' section below, if using).
- Stir and cook for 3 minutes.
- Add mushrooms and garlic.
- Continue to stir for a further 2 minutes. (You may need to add extra oil since mushrooms tend to soak it up.)
- Add tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, seared beef strips, salt and pepper and stir well.
- Pour into a casserole dish and cover with foil.
- Bake in oven at 360 degrees Fahrenheit (metric: 180 degrees Celsius) for 30 minutes.
- Remove beef stroganoff from the oven and take off the aluminium foil
- Stir in the sour cream.
- Serve over rice, pasta, or mashed potatoes.
- Garnish with a sprig of parsley.
Notes
Nutrition
Looking for some suggestions about how to reduce the calorific impact of this delicious beef stroganoff recipe? Look no further…!
Options
Stroganoff is scrumptious, but if you’re trying to reduce your calorie count, traditional beef stroganoff can be troublesome. However, I’ve got some suggestions for lowering the calories, and increasing the nutritional value.
- Substitute Greek yoghurt for sour cream. Greek yoghurt is flavorsome and provides all the creaminess that the beef stroganoff recipe calls for. However, yoghurt only delivers one-third of the calories of sour cream – wow!
- Reduce the quantity of beef strips and replace with extra mushrooms.
- Consider adding strips of bell peppers (capsicum), zucchini (courgette) slices, and/ or diced eggplant (aubergine) to the skillet while you’re cooking the onions.
- Alternatively, steam any vegetables you’re using – rather than frying them in olive oil.
- Serve over cauliflower mash or cauliflower rice instead of pasta, rice, or mashed potato.
Additional Suggestions
It can be really tempting to use cheaper cuts of meat in beef stroganoff. Maybe we think the end result is like a casserole, so we can get away with it? But the truth is, casseroles are cooked slowly over a long period of time, which tenderizes the meat. However, stroganoff beef is cooked very quickly, so there isn’t time for the meat to tenderize. Which is why we really have to use good cuts of meat right from the start. (It can be difficult to slice great cuts of meat into strips when we really want to barbecue it!) But I promise you that the end result will be worth it. Nobody wants tough, chewy beef to ruin a tasty, creamy stroganoff sauce.
Cutting beef thinly enough for this recipe can be challenging. If you have time, after pounding the beef, put it flat in the freezer for an hour or so. When you remove it, it will be much easier to slice thinly. However, ensure that it returns to room temperature before you sear it.
You’ve probably noticed that I often suggest serving meaty mains with a side salad. Reducing the amount of red meat we eat is optimal – for our health and for the environment. A small side salad of lettuce, tomato, carrot and cucumber adds some much needed crunch and loads of nutrients!
Until next time!
Love & saucy stroganoff, Bx
Thanks for your suggestion to use good quality steak. I’ve made stroganoff many times but always found it to be a bit chewy and tough and couldn’t ever understand why. Your explanation makes so much sense! And made all the difference. Recipe worked well and I really appreciate the tip.
You’re very welcome! 🙂