Monday 17 March 2014

Veggie Stirfry With a Garlic/Orange Sauce and Cashews

I love stir fries! It is an easy way to throw together a quick and nutritious dinner.  A dinner that is packed with flavour and kid friendly too - perfect fare for my current food journey AND on track to help me achieve my goal to serve plant based meals 75% of the time!  The wonderful sauce that comes with this stir fry makes brown rice tasty to even a 14 year olds palate looking for that refined white rice.

Like most stir fries, this recipe is an easy way to get your feet wet with plant based meals for a number of reasons.  First, it is easy, quick and uncomplicated to prepare.  Second, the meal is so pretty and colourful, it allows even the meat-a-tarian in you life to marvel at the beauty of the plate you put before him/her.  Thirdly, the brown rice and the cashews help to make the veggies more filling and satisfying.

  • 2 red bell peppers, organic please, chopped into bite size pieces
  • 1/2 head of broccoli, cut into smallish florets, and the stalks julienned and cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 8 oz. package of white button or cremini mushrooms, diced (to hide them from the mushroom hating 14 year old), but you can cut them any way you like!
  • 2 stalks of celery, organic please, sliced
  • 2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced on the diagonal
  • 1 to 2 tbsp. canola or olive oil
  • 1 cup to 1 1/4 cups of water
  • 1 cup roasted cashews, unsalted

Sauce

  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2-3 tsp of grated ginger, grated
  • 2 tbsp. cornstarch or arrowroot
  • 1/2 cup orange juice
  • 2 tbsp. Tamari or soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup ketchup
  • a few grinds of fresh cracked pepper

In a mason jar, combine all of the sauce ingredients.  Put the lid on and shake to combine.  Set aside.

Prepare the veggies and organize into piles on a cutting board.
Heat a wok, large Dutch oven pot or large pot over medium high heat.  Add 1 tbsp. of the oil. 
Add the mushrooms, celery and carrots.  Stir for a few minutes until the mushrooms have cooked down slightly and have started to brown.  If the pan is dry, add the second tablespoon of oil.
Add the julienned broccoli stalks and continue stirring and cooking for 2 more minutes. 
Add the broccoli florets and red peppers, stir fry for 2 more minutes, mixing thoroughly. 
Add about 1/4 cup of water and cover pot.  Steam veggies for 2 minutes, until broccoli and red peppers are tender crisp (a Canadian Living Test Kitchen method).

Stir in the prepared sauce and stir constantly.  Thin the sauce with the water, about 1/2 cup stirring constantly.  When the sauce comes to a boil, add more water a 1/4 cup at a time until the sauce is thinned to your liking and clings to the veggies.  Add the cashews and stir to mix thoroughly.

Serve over prepared brown rice.



A lovey tasty dinner for sure.  The nice thing about stir fries too, is you can make the sauce and cut the veggies ahead of time.  When you come home from a busy day of work, all you need to do is cook the rice and the stir fry.  When you can prepare much of your dinner ahead of time, it truly is a time saver!  Yep, MUCH faster than takeout and way better than Hamburger Helper (no matter how many veggies you throw into that crap!)

We even had a little left over so I put them in my favourite eco-friendly storage container.  Perhaps a lunch for my husband this week!  A 500 ml mason jar for the rice and 750 ml mason jar for the stir fry.  I love these things for all kinds of storage - for dry goods, for the fridge and the freezer.  The only thing you need to remember though is make sure you leave a good amount of space at the top when freezing sauces and liquids as these EXPAND and will break the glass if there is not adequate "head space".




1 comment:

  1. That stir fry certainly is beeyooteefull! Get in mah belly.

    ReplyDelete

Please leave me a comment. I would love to hear what you have to say!