Is Pepper Lunch Healthy?(A Low Calorie Pepper Lunch Recipe)

If you've been to a food court in Asia or are lucky enough to be living near one of their rare location in the states, this dish should evoke memories of delicious sizzling beef mixed with an egg - a perfect protein packed treat! Personally, I grew up near one location and may or may not have snuck out of class to go grab a bite of this. Pepper lunch is definitely delicious, but is pepper lunch healthy?

Pepper lunch can be a very high calorie dish that is not ideal for weight loss given it's high fat and carb content -- an average serving of pepper lunch can contain up to 720 calories, with 84 grams of carbs, 26 grams of fat, and 36 grams of protein. However, you can still enjoy this dish and modify it to be lower in calories by portioning high calorie ingredients mindfully.

🍎 Calories and Nutrition – Is Pepper Lunch Healthy?

To understand the calorie and nutrition content of pepper lunch, it’s useful to look at the core ingredients that make up pepper lunch. Pepper lunch is made of four main components: the beef slices, the sauce, the base, and the toppings.

• Beef: The star of any pepper lunch recipe are the delicious beef slices that sizzle on the plate as they cook. While beef is very delicious, it is relatively more calorie dense compared to lean proteins such as chicken, so it is extra important to portion control when eating it if your goal is to lose weight. A 4 ounce serving of beef has 217 calories, 21 grams of which are from protein and 15 grams from fat. The plus side is that beef packs much more protein dense compared to most lean meats.
• Sauce: Pepper lunch is usually served with 2 different sauces -- the Karakuchi sauce (Garlic Soy) and Amakuchi sauce (Honey Soy). The Amakuchi sauce consists of honey, soy sauce, and oyster sauce while the Karakuchi sauce includes garlic, soy sauce, black pepper, and cornstarch. As you can see, both sauces are relatively low calorie except for the honey and the cornstarch. So when making the sauces, it's best to portion these ingredients mindfully or omit them.
• Base: The recipe is often served with a carb base of either rice or noodles. While carbs are a necessary part of any diet, it's important to portion them mindfully as carbs can easily add up calorie-wise, hindering progress towards your fitness goals. I personally like opting for brown rice or Udon noodles. Ramen is also a popular choice, but given the higher calorie content of ramen (most dried ramen packets are deep fried in oil, adding a lot of additional calories), this would be a less than ideal choice for weight loss purposes.
• Toppings: Corn, egg, curry powder, and scallions are examples of toppings that often come with pepper lunch. The egg adds a great protein boost and the corn adds a pleasing crunchy texture, but can add up in calories if not portioned correctly.

Looking at each component, it’s easy to see that pepper lunch can easily be made to be a high calorie and high fat dish if the ingredients are not portioned correctly, making it less than ideal for dieting purposes. However, it’s not hard to make it low calorie and macro conscious — this recipe will show you some tweaks that will make pepper lunch easy to fit into your everyday diet.

🍏 How to Make It Healthy – The Fitsian Method

To keep calories low, I do the following:

• Used half a pack of udon at 150 calories
• Used about 3 oz of sliced sirloin beef at about 200 calories -- lower fat content compared to rib eye.
• Only used ¼ cup of corn (45 calories).
• Used ¼ tablespoon of butter
• Made a hybrid, lower calorie version of the two original Pepper Lunch sauce -- Karakuchi (Garlic Soy) and Amakuchi (Honey Soy) sauce using only garlic, soy sauce, oyster sauce, and pepper. While the Garlic Soy sauce is healthy, omitting the cornstarch makes the sauce more liquid-like than desired so adding the oyster sauce helps with this.

For a detailed breakdown of each ingredients, their portioning, and how they make up the nutrition profile of this low calorie pepper lunch recipe, you may refer to the table below:

💭 FAQs

What if I don't have or don't want to use Udon noodles?

You can substitute with egg noodles, ramen noodles, or even rice.

How or where do I get sliced beef?

Most asian grocery stores should sell sliced beef. If you don't live in proximity to one, you can follow this guide from Just One Cookbook to slice the beef yourself.

Which curry powder should I use?

I used S&B Curry powder. You can easily find it in your local Asian grocery store or on Amazon.

What if I don't have a hot plate?

I don't either! I just cooked it in a cast iron on the stove until the beef was at my desired done-ness.

If you liked this recipe, check out the following:

• Vietnamese beef carpaccio (Bo Tai Chanh) recipe
• Low Calorie Beef Sukiyaki
• Healthy Philz Mint Mojito -- For another copycat recipe on a popular iced coffee drink, made healthy
• Healthy Udon Recipes for more low calorie and protein packed udon recipes
• 30 Healthy Japanese Recipes for more low calorie and high protein Japanese recipe ideas
• Cheating Cheat Meals recipe collection for more recipes that take traditionally indulgent meals and turn them healthy

This recipe was inspired by Pepper Lunch USA. Thanks for making your delicious sizzling plates!

📋 Ingredient Notes

Garlic Soy Sauce

• 1 clove Garlic
• 1 tablespoon Soy Sauce
• 2 teaspoon Oyster sauce
• Sprinkle of pepper

Beef & Udon

• 3 oz Beef Sirloin Slices (Or any sliced beef)
• ½ Udon noodles pack
• 1 clove Garlic
• ¼ Onion
• ¼ tablespoon Butter
• ¼ cup Corn
• 1 Egg
• Pepper
• 1 teaspoon Curry powder (Optional)
• Scallions (For garnish)
• Bonito flakes (Option: For garnish)

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🔪 Step by Step Instructions

1. Start by cooking Udon noodles and corn separately and set aside.
2. Mince garlic, and in a small saucepan, mix together the sauce ingredients. Turn the heat up to medium or high until the sauce begins to boil, then turn the heat down to low until it is at a soft simmer. Let simmer for a few minutes, then turn off heat.
3. Spray a cast iron bowl or pan with cooking spray, then sauté minced garlic and onion until soft.
4. Next, add in the cooked udon noodles, add the corn on top, and add the small quarter tablespoon of butter on top. Also add the curry powder if you choose to do so.
5. Arrange the raw beef pieces around the noodles, and crack in the egg. Remove and pour the sauce and pepper on the beef and let the residual heat from the cast iron cook the meat. This is the way Pepper Lunch traditionally serves the dish, but you can also opt to finish cooking the meat on the stove if desired.
6. Top with scallions and bonito flakes and indulge in your delicious meal!

🍳 Recipe