Finding soy free Asian food is tough when you’re looking for allergy free or autoimmune protocol/paleo food. With a few tweaks, I was able to create a soy free traditional Thai Basil Beef without sacrificing flavor.
Whenever I ask my husband what he wants for dinner, he graciously says ‘whatever you can eat.’ Between the food allergies I’ve developed and the autoimmune protocol diet, not even he can keep track of the foods I can no longer eat. However, this week he told me he wanted Thai Basil Beef. What, now? I’ve never heard of such a dish. Apparently, it’s a traditional Thai dish. I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this recipe. It sounded delicious but loaded with soy. I reworked the recipe and according to my husband, tastes like the real thing. The one thing that he commented was missing was the heat that you usually find in Thai food. If you can handle nightshades, you can top this Thai Basil Beef recipe with sriracha and make it as spicy as you desire. If you can handle ground pepper, you can also add more pepper to give it some heat.
I’m so excited to have a stir-fry recipe ready for weeknight meals. This Thai Basil Beef is so delicious that I don’t feel like it’s missing anything. I’m super excited to make this dish again. I’m still full from dinner and I’m sitting here thinking about if my husband will let me make this again tomorrow. It was that good.
Since this is a Thai recipe, Thai basil is usually used. However, I had a hard time finding Thai basil. I even went to an Asian supermarket and couldn’t find it! I used Sweet Basil as a substitute but I encourage you to seek out Thai Basil and give it a try. It’s a little spicy compared to the sweet version but delicious.
Basil Beef
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon Marsala Wine or whiskey
- 1 tablespoon Fish Sauce
- 2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil divided
- 2 pounds Flank or Skirt Steak sliced thinly against the grain
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Ground Pepper
- 10 Garlic cloves chopped
- 1 small Onion thinly sliced
- 2 cups Sweet Basil leaves packed (Thai Basil works as a substitute)
Instructions
- Combine the wine and fish sauce in a small bowl and then set aside.
- Pour the olive oil, salt and pepper over the flank steak and then toss.
- Heat your wok over high heat.
- Sear the beef until just browned, remove from the wok, and set aside.
- Add the garlic and onion and stir-fry for a few minutes until slightly softened.
- Toss the beef back in, along with the fish sauce mixture.
- Stir-fry for another few seconds, and then fold in the Thai basil until it’s just wilted.
- Season to taste with additional salt and pepper.
- Serve with jasmine rice, and garnish with cilantro.
This is another delicious variation of an Asian/Thai recipe