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Hunan-style Orange "Beef" and Asparagus Stir-fry

A stir-fry of soy steak strips, asparagus, and orange zest in a sweet soy sauce.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and asparagus share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 40 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: wheat, soy, sesame (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat.

  2. Cook noodles until tender, about 8 minutes.

  3. Drain, rinse, and drain again. Set aside.

  4. Toss soy steak strips with 3 tablespoons cornstarch. Set aside.

  5. Meanwhile, mix together soy sauce, minced garlic, sugar, vegetable stock, sesame oil, remaining cornstarch, and minced ginger. Set aside.

Stir-fry

  1. Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat.

  2. When hot, stir-fry soy steak strips for about 2 minutes.

  3. Add and stir-fry asparagus and dried red chiles, if using, for 30 seconds.

  4. Add soy sauce mixture all at once.

  5. Continue cooking until sauce thickens and asparagus turns shiny and tender.

  6. Return soy steak strips to the pan. Add orange zest.

  7. Stir-fry 2 to 3 minutes more. Remove from heat.

Serve

  1. Arrange cooked noodles in a serving bowl or on a platter.

  2. Top with the stir-fry.

  3. Garnish with sliced scallions. Serve.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Wheat + asparagustop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together40 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Ginger + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,833 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Sesame + gingertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,531 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Sesame + asparagustop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together73 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  5. Garlic + gingertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together6,402 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Cornstarch
Coats the beef and thickens the sauce so it clings to the strips and vegetables.
Soy sauce
Adds salty savory flavor that seasons the sauce and the beef.
Vegetable stock
Provides the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as it heats.
Orange zest
Adds bright citrus aroma and flavor that balances the savory sauce.
Asparagus
Provides tender-crisp texture and fresh green flavor to the stir-fry.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the salty soy sauce and the citrus.

The step that matters

Add the soy sauce mixture all at once and keep cooking until it thickens. Cornstarch needs to reach a simmer in the hot pan to swell and thicken the sauce. Adding the liquid all at once lets it heat evenly, and stirring as it cooks prevents lumps and scorching.

Flavor stand-ins for the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, sauce, sugar, sesame, ginger, asparagus, orange):

  1. Cinnamonbetter flavor fit
  2. Cardamombetter flavor fit
  3. Corianderbetter flavor fit
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, sauce, sugar, sesame, ginger, asparagus, orange. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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