Let's Stir (Fry) Something Up

I have a simple stir fry sauce that can be used with any kind of vegetables you have lying around.   If you add in a starch, such as brown rice or noodles, it makes an easy, really tasty meal. 

I wanted to use up most of the vegetables in my fridge, so I chopped up carrots, cabbage, zucchini, onions, red pepper, mushrooms, and broccoli.



I have a really large cast iron skillet which is my
favorite pan to use for stir fries.  If I am stir frying just a few servings, I simply add the vegetables which take the longest to cook first, then add in the rest of the vegetables according to the time each of them take to cook.  If you have never stir fried vegetables before, it will take a little experience for you to figure this out, but it is really not difficult.

This time I was cooking such a huge batch, that I just cooked one or two vegetables at a time, then transferred them to a bowl, then continued cooking the rest of the vegetables the same way.  Then I added them all back into the skillet and added the stir fry sauce.

I always have to remind myself that there will be "carry over" cooking on the vegetables.  That means the vegetables need to be removed from the pan or turn off the heat while the vegetables are still a bit undercooked.  They will finish cooking on their own with the retained heat.

 I doubled this recipe for stir fry sauce since I had cooked such a huge amount of vegetables.  After  the sauce had thickened and I had turned off the heat, I added 4 Tbsp. lime juice and 1/4 cup of cilantro.  I also cooked some Japanese wheat noodles, and these were stirred into the dish at the very end. 

 I baked some tofu to place on top of each serving, and I will provide that recipe in the next blog. 

BASIC STIR FRY SAUCE

1/4 cup soy sauce or tamari
1 ¼ cups vegetable broth
1 Tbsp. grated ginger
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. toasted sesame oil
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
3 Tbsp. cornstarch

Combine all ingredients except cornstarch in a small bowl.  After ingredients are combined, add the cornstarch and whisk them together. 

To use the sauce, when vegetables are about two minutes from being done, add this sauce.  Stir until thickened, which will happen very quickly. 

Husband's note:  To save money, my wife will often double or triple a recipe and put many meals in the freezer for later.   On this one, she made about 11 meals.  Here are some of the containers she filled an put into the freezer.