Thinly sliced meat (beef and pork) is essential for authentic Japanese dishes. I don’t know what’s the reason Japanese started to use sliced meat instead of large chunks of meat for cooking. The quality of meat is very important in Japanese cooking and perhaps a thinly sliced meat allows the eater to savor the meat’s flavor and texture more than a thick piece. We have many creative dishes using thinly sliced beef/pork. On this website I have introduced some pork rolls recipes in the past (Mashed Potato Teriyaki Pork Rolls and Ginger Pork Rolls with Eggplant). Housewives in Japan are very creative to find what ingredients they can roll with sliced meat. Today I will share a very common vegetable beef roll recipe.
Ingredients:
- ½ carrot, peeled and cut into 2 inch thin sticks
- 5-6 green beans, rinsed and cut in half
- 1 pkg thinly sliced beef for “Shabu Shabu” (10 slices)
- Sea salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 Tbsp. oil
- 2 Tbsp. sake
- 3 Tbsp. soy sauce
- 2 Tbsp. sugar
- 2 Tbsp. sake
- 1 Tbsp. mirin
Instructions:
- Place carrots and green beans in microwave-safe containers. Add water to cover the veggies and microwave for 2 minutes. Cooking time may vary depending on the amount of veggies and your microwave.
- Place a slice of meat on the cutting board, and sprinkle salt and pepper. Then put green beans and carrots on one side of the meat and start rolling them up.
- In non-stick frying pan, heat oil on high. When it’s hot, place the beef rolls gently with the seam line facing down. Brown the side with the seam line then subsquently rotate the beef rolls so all sides become nicely browned.
- When the meat is nicely browned, reduce the heat to medium. Add sake and cook covered till liquid is almost gone.
- Add Seasonings.
- Rotate the beef rolls so they are well coated with the sauce. Take out the beef rolls and cut in half. Serve the rolls on a plate and pour the sauce on top.
Hi, I'm Nami. Thanks for stopping by Just One Cookbook. You can read little bit more about me 
{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
Too damn hungry! Why I watch these kind of thing after a loooong day?!
Haha thanks Giulietta! I guess it’s evening in Italy?
I love this! It looks so perfect and I love your step by step pictures
YUMMY! Now all I need is to find that thin beef 
and I’m all set!
Hi Suzana! Thinly sliced beef can be really tricky to find. When I used to live far away from Japanese stores and I just couldn’t get thinly sliced meat in American stores. I asked the butcher to cut “super” thin, but it was always like 1/8 inch thickness… and I needed thin-paper-like meat. I guess the meat has to be half frozen to be able to cut that thin. Hope you can find it!
Nami you are so amazing. I can’t keep up with you! I’m still on the Agedashi Tofu you posted several days ago.
How do you cook, take amazing photos, and find time to post about it with 2 little ones running about? Like I said, you’re amazing! Keep up the good work.
Hi Jamie! Well, I got so busy after I started to blog… I didn’t expect to be this busy. I used to watch TV at night, but now not anymore. No time at all. As soon as my kids go to bed at 8, I’m writing posts, editing pictures, fixing websites… so much to do! Now I’m asking my husband to help me some stuff on behind the scene. But I get to enjoy reading comments like yours. It is a nice break and encouragement. Thank you for writing.
yummy, I like these, so easy to make
Hi Kat! Yeah it’s easy and mom’s duty to feed the kids veggies is included in main dish. I love it.
Let’s see what you are cooking! Going to visit you now.
Amazing! I love this type of meat and veggie dish which is great for the kid and also shorten cooking time on preparing extra dishes
Hi Ellena! Yes, exactly!!! Now I’m on my way to your delicious food!
Nami this sounds and looks amazingly delicious! I can see myself making this dish one of these days for lunch or dinner! I like your photos too!!! Fantastic, I love this post!
Thank you Sandra! What did you cook tonight?
Your pasta with meatballs recipe looks so good!
Sweet Mother of Pearl!!! These look amazing.
Thanks Sandra!
Nami, these look delicious! I’m still on my first morning coffee and I already want lunch!
Definately, want to try these though, I think it would be quite difficult to find beef sliced this finly, unless it would be carpaccio, but then probably a different cut would be needed…
Hi Gourmantine! I’m glad your email subscription is working now.
Somehow your blog slipped off from my Link but now back in it (prob two names were similar so I might deleted accidentally?). Yeah it might be hard. I wonder how Japanese people would live without thinly sliced meat? Buy a chunk and shave the meat on their own??? Really curious…
Everything you make looks soooo good! Now I want to go out this week to buy meat to make this!
Hope you will like it Beth!
This is one of our favorites. I make this for hubby’s and biys bentos.
Hi Biren! Haha, me too! My mom packed these in obento too. Japanese schools don’t warm up lunch for us (my son’s preschool in the US does), but cold ones still tasted as good as warm ones!
I love this post. I instantly saved it, it’s a perfect thing for me.
Thank you for your visit Carolyn!
These look great! It’s a whole meal all in one roll
Yep! Thanks Dee!
What a great recipe! Your beef rolls look and sound delicious!
Thanks Kara!
Why have I never tried this before? I knew about beef rolls but for some reason I thought that they were very difficult to make. They don’t look difficult at all. I will try this tomorrow. Great site, Nami!
Hi Deeja! Thanks for visiting and I’m glad you realized it’s easy to make! I use microwave to cook veggies (instead of boiling water and then boil veggies), so this dish can be made pretty fast! I hope you will like it!
I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this website! When I was in college I studied abroad in Kyoto for a month in the summer and stayed with a wonderful host family. My host mother would cook the most delicious food everyday and I remember trying to write down everything she cooked and how to make it, but I didn’t do a very good job. I remember she made this exact dish and so many others that you’ve posted on this site and I really thank you for making it possible for me to recreate these dishes so I can taste my Japanese host mother’s cooking again.
I’ve also seen some recipes I remember eating for kyuushoku when I taught English at an elementary school in Japan for a year. Again, I can’t thank you enough. ちょ懐かしいですよ！このサイトを作ってくれてありがとうございます！
Thanks for such a nice blog! How can I find cooking sake (in japanese may be) in supermarket since I have been living in Japan.
Hi Yesim! I updated my recipe as this is one of old one that I haven’t edited, but now I use everything sake (酒) instead of cooking sake (料理酒). If you are in Japan you can find a small bottle of sake too. Kiyosake (清酒) is good for cooking.
{ 1 trackback }