Asian Style Beef Macaroni

Published: December 14, 2012Updated: April 2, 2019Author: Caroline Phelps
Recipe
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A kid friendly elbow macaroni with an Asian flair! Add sriracha sauce for some heat!

Beef macaroni with soy
Kid friendly and easy! Macaroni and ground beef in a soy ginger sauce.

Asian Style Beef Macaroni

Remember back in college when you were learning to cook and used soy sauce as a flavor enhancer for just about anything? When dishes piled up in the sink until a hard crust built up against them, the waiting game to see who could no longer stand looking at tomato sauce stained pots, hoping you wouldn’t be stuck cleaning up the mess?
My specialty was spaghetti with ground beef and soy sauce; I used to eat it at least once a week to get my fill of msg. I thought I’d discovered, created a very special recipe (adding soy sauce to pasta? I’m so brilliant!) until other college alumni told me ‘Asian style spaghetti’ was part of their college diet too. It makes sense when you think about it; ground beef, pasta and soy sauce are all cheap ingredients to buy, and everyone knows how broke students can be.
onions, celery and ginger, garlic
Quick diced celery with onions, garlic and fresh ginger.

It’s been a few years (plus many more moons.. And a few more years) since I’ve graduated from college, but I still make it from time to time (hey, it still tastes great!) Enter the new beef macaroni with soy and ginger era: The difference is I’ve added extra ingredients to make it healthier and not so one note (ginger and garlic are always good together!) I’ve also stopped rinsing my pasta and use macaroni instead of spaghetti as it’s easier to eat, and nicely absorbs the flavors. This is one good dish everyone will love from kids to picky eaters.

macaroni noodles
Cooked and drained elbow macaroni.
ground beef cooking with vegetable in a pan.
Sautee all ingredients to make the sauce and flavoring, then add it to the pasta and stir well. Dinner’s ready!
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Asian Style Beef Macaroni

chinese style macaroni and beef dinner
Print Recipe

A kid friendly elbow macaroni with an Asian flair! Add sriracha sauce for some heat!

  • Author: Caroline Phelps
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 17 minutes
  • Total Time: 27 minutes
  • Yield: 4 1x
  • Category: Noodles
  • Method: Stove top
  • Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 pound elbow macaroni
  • 1 pound lean ground beef
  • 1 large onion (finely chopped)
  • 1 thumb size ginger (peeled and finely chopped)
  • 2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
  • 3 stalks celery (finely chopped)
  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 5 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon sriracha sauce (or more if you prefer spicy)
  • 1 tablespoon sake (optional)
  • handful flat leaf parsley (chopped)

Instructions

  1. Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Cook the macaroni for 6-7 minutes (al dente). Drain but DO NOT rinse.
  2. Elbow macaroni
  3. In a large pan over high heat, add olive oil, garlic, ginger, celery and onions, and cook for 5 minutes, until veggies are soft.
  4. Add ground beef, break the meat apart and cook for about 5 minutes, until meat has cooked through.
  5. Use the same pot you cooked your pasta in (this saves dishes!), add butter and turn the heat on low. Add macaroni and pour the ground beef mixture over. Mix well and add soy sauce, sri racha, sake and parsley. Mix well until macaroni is well coated and serve.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size:
  • Calories: 687
  • Sugar: 1.2 g
  • Sodium: 1305.2 mg
  • Fat: 17.5 g
  • Saturated Fat: 6.5 g
  • Carbohydrates: 88.5 g
  • Fiber: 5.5 g
  • Protein: 41.8 g
  • Cholesterol: 83.1 mg

Keywords: recipe, pasta, beef, kid friendly, main

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Soy Sauce
Yamasa

Soy Sauce

I prefer using Japanese soy sauce in my cooking to other types because it’s milder and has a flavor that easily pairs well with any dish. Kikkoman is the most well known soy sauce but I prefer using Yamasa for its slightly less salty taste. Plus, it’s the brand that my mother has been using for years - and I trust her palate almost more than my own!
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Caroline Caron Phelps
Meet The Author

Caroline Phelps

Caroline Caron-Phelps is a Japanese/French Canadian recipe creator, food blogger, and photographer. She showcases delicious, authentic Asian recipes, especially Japanese, vegan, and vegetarian, with beautiful photography, easy-to-follow instructions, videos, and practical recipe variations. Caroline has been featured on Bon Appetit, Shape Magazine, Self, Today Show, and more.

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