Noodles with Spicy Ground Beef & Green Beans
Soy sauce and half a chili pepper do most of the work here. The ground beef stir-fries with the chopped chili in olive oil until cooked through, the whole wheat noodles join the skillet, and the soy sauce pulls everything together at the end. The green beans cook separately and land on the plate al dente.
Thirty-four grams of protein and twelve grams of fiber from a plate you can build in fifteen minutes with six ingredients.
Soy sauce and half a chili pepper do most of the work here. The ground beef stir-fries with the chopped chili in olive oil until cooked through, the whole wheat noodles join the skillet, and the soy sauce pulls everything together at the end. The green beans cook separately and land on the plate al dente.
Thirty-four grams of protein and twelve grams of fiber from a plate you can build in fifteen minutes with six ingredients.
Ingredients
- noodles, whole wheat 3 ounces
- green beans (frozen) 2 cups
- chili pepper 0.5
- olive oil 1 tablespoon
- 96% lean ground beef 3 ounces
- soy sauce 0.5 tablespoon
Method
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Prepare the noodles according to the instructions on the package.
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Cook the green beans until al dente, following the instructions.
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Remove the seeds from the chili pepper and finely chop it.
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Heat the oil in a skillet and stir-fry the ground beef with the chili pepper until cooked through. Mix in the noodles and season with soy sauce and, if desired, salt and pepper.
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Serve the noodles with the green beans.
Add the soy sauce after the noodles are already in the skillet and the heat is lowered. Soy sauce poured into a screaming-hot empty pan caramelizes too fast and turns bitter. Mixed into the noodles off high heat, it coats everything evenly without burning.
Behind this recipe
Is 34 grams of protein enough from one meal?
More than enough for a single sitting. A systematic review pooled data from dozens of studies and found no upper ceiling on how much protein the body can use per meal for muscle protein synthesis. The old claim that anything beyond thirty grams per sitting goes to waste has no support in the pooled evidence. This plate's thirty-four grams from a mix of beef, whole wheat noodles, and green beans falls well within what the research found the body handles. One note: most of those studies tested younger, trained adults in controlled settings.
Read the full evidence reviewCan I use regular pasta instead of whole wheat noodles?
Yes, the recipe works with any noodle type. Whole wheat noodles contribute more fiber, which is part of why this plate hits twelve grams. Regular pasta drops that number by a few grams but does not change the cooking method or the overall macro balance dramatically.
Are frozen green beans as nutritious as fresh?
Frozen green beans are blanched and flash-frozen within hours of harvest, which locks in most of their nutrients. Lutein, the main carotenoid in green beans, holds up well through cooking, including boiling. Vitamin C takes a bigger hit from both the blanching and the boiling, but the overall nutritional profile stays close to fresh, especially at this volume (251 grams).
