This is one of those meals, I swear, that's ready in about five minutes. There is no excuse for heating anything up in the microwave or toaster oven when you can make this. Trust me, trust you, you can make this.
I used to think that my stir-fries needed to contain a colorful array of vegetables, but not so anymore. I love every green vegetable and love to make all green stir-fries, pizzas, frittatas...you get the idea. And green veggies are usually what I have on hand. Plus, they are usually the cheapest.
I started the prep for this at lunch time. Since I was already tied up in the kitchen making lunches, I took and extra 5 minutes to cut up the veggies for our dinner. They sat on a bowl in the counter all afternoon mainly because I forgot to stick them back in the fridge. They were fine, and in hindsight, probably helped the stir-fry to cook faster since they were at room temperature.
I make a very simple sauce for my stir-fries because I prefer to let the flavor of the vegetables shine through.
Here's the recipe:
VERY GREEN VEGGIE STIR-FRY WITH SOBA
The vegetables:
- 1 bunch of green onions (yes, the whole bunch) cut into 1.5-2 inch pieces
- 2 stalks of celery sliced on the bias
- 1 small head of savoy cabbage cored and cut into 6-8 large wedges and leaves kinda separated
- 2 baby bok choys cored and cut into 2 inch pieces
- 2 large King oyster mushrooms, cut into thin slices
- a couple quarter (coin)-sized slices of fresh ginger, smashed
- 1 clove of garlic, smashed
Also good in this: broccoli, snap or snow peas, asparagus
The sauce:
- 4 tbsps oyster-flavored sauce
- 2 tbsps Chinese rice wine, mirin, or dry sherry
- 1 tbsps light soy sauce
- 2 tbsps sesame oil
The noodles:
- Hakubuku Organic Soba (a 9.5 oz) package.
Mix together and set aside. It won't look like enough sauce for the dish, but it is.
How to do it:
Put water on to boil for the soba. Once it comes to boil it cooks in 4 minutes (do not over cook). Then you drain it and dump it immediately into the veggies.
In the mean time, heat your wok to med-high. Drizzle in some sesame oil (yes, you can fry with this, just ask the Koreans) and add the garlic and ginger and mushrooms. Toss for about 30 seconds and then dump the rest of the veggies in tossing constantly.
When noodles are just about done, dump the sauce into the veggies, and toss. Drain and add cooked noodles to the veggies, toss well to combine. Serve at once. The whole thing should come together in about 5 minutes. The veggies should be crisp-tender. Serves four.
I use an All-Clad wok and flat-edged wooden spatulas from the Korean market.
