Trader Joe’s Mildly Sweet & Spicy Beef & Broccoli Review

Trader Joe's Mildly Sweet & Spicy Beef & Broccoli

We’ve been curious about the Trader Joe’s Mildly Sweet & Spicy Beef & Broccoli for a while now, but for some reason, we keep passing it over for other frozen foods. But that ends today, as we’re finally checking out this beef dish.

This must be cooked on a stovetop, and the process isn’t exactly straightforward. It’s a multi-phase process that makes use of several separate components, and it’s probably best left to the package to explain how all of it works. You can scroll to the bottom of this article to read the full cooking instructions, but just know it’s not as straightforward as just plopping ths into a skillet and letting it heat up. It’s not difficult or anything; it just requires us to pay a bit more attention than usual. But we can handle that!

Now, we did struggle a little bit with the broccoli, which took a lot longer to heat than the package claimed it would. We spent extra time trying to get them to thaw all the way through, as they were solid and icy when we started. We also think we overcooked the beef a little bit. Despite these challenges, it’s hard to deny that this is a tasty batch of food.

Trader Joe's Mildly Sweet & Spicy Beef & Broccoli

This whole dish lives and dies by its sauce, and the sauce is absolutely fantastic. It’s a lot sweeter than we were expecting, considering the term “Mildly Sweet” is in the title, but that’s not a bad thing at all. We really enjoy the overpowering sweetness here. It’s also just a little bit spicy, but that’s a lot milder than the sweetness — this is definitely a sweet sauce first, with just a little bit of heat as a bonus.

The beef is just a little on the tough side, which we think is probably a result of us overcooking it rather than a flaw with the meal itself. Aside from the toughness, it’s a really great beef portion, with a lovely texture and a nice flavor. It really soaks up the sauce, which complements the overall flavor quite well. We did find one piece that was overly gristly, but that’s the only actual flaw we noticed (well, the only flaw that wasn’t caused by our overcooking), and it only affected a single piece of beef in this entire batch.

The broccoli, despite the troubles we had with getting it to de-ice, is high in quality. Even after being frozen and reheated, it maintains a good amount of crunch and flavor. And while a sweeter sauce might not be the exact right topper for this broccoli, the flavor combination still works.

According to the package, 1/6 of its contents are a serving. If you eat just that amount, you’re downing 230 calories and 410 mg of sodium. We really think you’ll be eating more than that, though, if you plan on making a meal out of this. If you serve this on its own, you could easily eat half a bag in a sitting. If you serve it over a rice, you could probably take that down to a third of the bag. If you do end up eating that much, you’ll be loading up with calories and sodium, so be careful.

The Trader Joe’s Mildly Sweet & Spicy Beef & Broccoli is excellent. We hope that you don’t have the troubles we did when we cooked this, but even if you do, what’s here is so good that we’re sure you’ll still enjoy it.

To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this Trader Joe’s beef stir fry mix, check out our package scans below.

Trader Joe's Mildly Sweet & Spicy Beef & Broccoli
Trader Joe's Mildly Sweet & Spicy Beef & Broccoli
Trader Joe's Mildly Sweet & Spicy Beef & Broccoli
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Sarah
Sarah
2 years ago

Where’s the beef? It’s all breading. Too sweet for me and not enuf meat!

Frank
Frank
6 months ago
Reply to  Sarah

Not enuf schooling?

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