Paleo Beef Stroganoff made dairy-free, quickly, and easily. A delicious staple to add to your weeknight meal plan!
Have you ever basked in the glory of beef stroganoff?
If you’ve never tried it, just picture tender beef stewed in a tangy creamy sauce served on top of delicious buttery carbs. Sound appealing? Just you wait…
What is Beef Stroganoff?:
Beef Stroganoff (or beef Stroganov) is a classic Russian meal of pan-sautéed beef in a mustard-broth-cream sauce. Traditionally, the recipe is made without onions or mushrooms, but the dish has taken on many variations to include tomato paste, onions, mushrooms, sugar, sour cream, and/or a combination thereof. Beef stroganoff is typically served with wide egg noodles or rice.
How to Make Beef Stroganoff Dairy-Free:
For those of you who are sensitive to dairy, lactose intolerant, or simply try to limit your dairy intake, you can still enjoy marvelous beef stroganoff without the dairy!
The combination of coconut cream (the thick portion that solidifies at the top of a can of coconut milk) and lemon juice has the same consistency and nearly the same flavor of sour cream or buttermilk.
You can source coconut cream in a couple of ways. First, you can buy a can of coconut cream from the store or online, as there are many brands who sell it.
As an alternative, you can buy 1 can of regular full-fat coconut milk and refrigerate it overnight (this is if you keep your house warm and your coconut milk is typically assimilated when you open it.
After refrigerating the coconut milk, simply open it and scoop out the thick coconut cream. You can use the water at the bottom for smoothies or other recipes.
My house stays cool and I live in a cool climate, so my coconut milk is often already separated into cream and water when I open it).
If you don’t like the taste of coconut milk, or if you’re worried the replacement will make the meal taste inauthentic, don’t fret! It is truly indistinguishable once all of the flavors come together in the dish.
Let’s talk preparation! While there are several steps to preparing this recipe, the process itself is simple and goes very quickly!
How to Make Beef Stroganoff:
Slice meat thinly and sprinkle with sea salt and paprika.
Heat the avocado oil over medium heat in a cast iron or stainless steel skillet. Add the onion and sauté, stirring occasionally, until onion is translucent and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes.
Transfer the onion to a bowl and set aside. Place the skillet back on the burner.
Place the slices of beef on the hot skillet in a single layer and sear until golden-brown, about 1 to 2 minutes. Use tongs to flip the slices and sear another 30 seconds.
Transfer seared meat to a bowl and set aside (note: You’ll likely need to sear the meat in two batches, depending on the size of your skillet).
Wipe out skillet with a paper towel, add another 1 to 2 tablespoons of avocado oil, and place back on the burner. Add the sliced mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden-brown, about 3 to 5 minutes.
Add the beef broth to deglaze the skillet and bring to a full boil. Cook 2 to 3 minutes, until liquid has reduced slightly.
Stir in the remaining ingredients to the skillet – onion, beef, coconut cream, lemon juice, and mustard. Stir well to combine and bring to a full but gentle boil.
Cook until sauce has thickened to desired texture, about 1 minute. Taste the stroganoff for flavor and add sea salt and/or more mustard or lemon juice to taste.
Serve beef stroganoff with steamed white rice, gluten-free pasta, zucchini noodles, or side dish of choice with chopped parsley.
Recipe Adaptations:
- Add ¼ cup dry white wine.
- If you do dairy, add 2 tablespoons of ghee or grass-fed butter to the recipe.
- Make recipe low-FODMAP by omitting the onion.
- If you tolerate garlic, add a clove or five.
Paleo beef stroganoff is a great meal to add to your repertoire! Try it out and let me know how you like it!
If you do gluten-free noodles, try my Gluten-Free Dairy-Free Ground Beef Stroganoff!
My cookbook, Paleo Power Bowls, is now available! CLICK HERE to check it out. Thank you for your support!
If you make this recipe, please feel free to share a photo and tag @The.Roasted.Root on Instagram!
More Healthy Beef Recipes:
- Pressure Cooker Korean Beef Bulgogi
- Instant Pot Mexican Shredded Beef
- Slow Cooker Ropa Vieja (Cuban Shredded Beef)
- Instant Pot Beef Stew
Paleo Beef Stroganoff
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp avocado oil
- 1/2 yellow onion sliced
- 3/4 to 1 lb beef sirloin steak thinly sliced
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp paprika
- 8 ounces baby bella mushrooms sliced
- 1/3 cup beef broth
- 1 15-ounce can coconut milk, cream only
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 2 Tbsp whole grain mustard
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley
Instructions
- Slice the steak thinly and sprinkle with sea salt and paprika.
- Heat the avocado oil over medium heat in a cast iron or stainless steel skillet. Add the onion and saute, stirring occasionally, until onion is translucent and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Transfer the onion to a bowl and set aside. Place the skillet back on the burner.
- Place the slices of beef on the hot skillet in a single layer and sear until golden-brown, about 1 to 2 minutes. Use tongs to flip the slices and sear another 30 seconds. Transfer seared meat to a bowl and set aside (note: You’ll likely need to sear the meat in two batches, depending on the size of your skillet).
- Wipe out skillet with a paper towel, add another 1 to 2 tablespoons of avocado oil, and place back on the burner. Add the sliced mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until golden-brown, about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Add the beef broth to de-glaze the skillet and bring to a full boil. Cook 2 to 3 minutes, until liquid has reduced slightly.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the skillet - onion, beef, coconut cream, lemon juice, and mustard. Stir well to combine and bring to a full but gentle boil. Cook until sauce has thickened to desired texture, about 1 minute. Taste the stroganoff for flavor and add sea salt and/or more mustard or lemon juice to taste.
- Serve beef stroganoff with steamed white rice, gluten-free pasta, zucchini noodles, or side dish of choice with chopped parsley.
Nutrition
Husband and kids liked it after I tamed down the mustard flavor with more lemon juice and added some cornstarch to thicken the sauce a bit. I still didn’t like it very much. Sauce just had a strange flavor for my taste. BUT I would still cook it again since everyone else thought it was great:)
@Susan, SAME! The flavor profile with the mustard and lemon was a no-go, and it was very thin. We are GF/DF, so I used arrowroot to thicken the sauce. I also added concentrated beef bone broth, salt, garlic powder and some random stuff from in the fridge to do something with the flavor. My bf said it would be a good flavor profile (lemon/mustard) for chicken, and that he’d be disappointed if he ordered it at a restaurant, but it was starting to grow on him by the end of supper. I’ll make it again, minus the mustard/lemon and see how I can edit the sauce to be a better fit for us. It’s a decent jumping off point though.
I would like to do this in an instant pot using beef stew meat. After I saute the onions, mushrooms, and brown the beef, can I add the coconut cream, lemon juice, and mustard to the instant pot before closing the lid and pressure cooking. Or is it a bad idea to pressure cook the coconut cream and lemon juice?
Hi Kelsey!
What you described should work. I’ve never pressure cooked coconut cream and lemon juice together, but I assume it would be okay, unless there’s something funky about it I’m unaware of 🙂 Let me know how it turns out!
Hi @Kelsey, I just tried it in the instant pot and it didn’t curdle!
I sautéed and browned everything in the IP as listed in the directions above then cooked on high pressure for 20 mins followed by a quick release at the end. I may cook it longer and/or natural release next time, but tonight we were running behind for dinner so we did it quick.
I used a whole 13oz can of crema de coco and added a bit more beef broth than just the 1/3c because I wanted it to be slightly submerged for the pressuring (and I like a lot of broth/gravy lol). I thickened the gravy with 2tb rice flour at the end and simmered in the IP for 5 mins.
It turned out nicely and we all enjoyed it (including my 3yo who said “mmmmmm this is so delicious!” haha).
Thanks for the recipe @Julia!
Thanks so much for following up with all of these details!! Much appreciated! 😀 xoxoxo
This stroganoff is better then any I have ever made before. It turned out perfect!
I’m so happy you like it!! Thank you for the sweet note! xoxo
Made this last night, will post photo on IG today. I did it with turkey meatballs I made (gf) and served over zoodles. It was amazing!!! Thank you so much’
I’m so thrilled to hear it, Jalene! Thank you for sharing! xo
I’d love to try this with beef shin but I think shin has to be slow cooked. Would this be okay to lift and shift the recipe but make in the slow cooker?