Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Gather your raw vegetables from the refrigerator or garden. These can be staples like carrots, celery, summer squash, broccoli, tomatoes--whatever is needing to be used. You'll need about 8 cups for 4 servings. You want to have generous portions with this dish. 8 cups is about as much as my wok can hold, so if you have a larger group you can plan on doing batches. Or get two woks going!
- Wash and then cut off any parts that you won't use, like carrot tops, celery ends, stem ends, etc. You can do some advance work if you prep these vegetables but don't chop. You can keep them in a bowl or zip lock bag in the refrigerator. You could chop them in advance but you want to keep them separate because they cook differently, so my preference is to keep them pretty much whole and chop them individually right before throwing them in the wok.
- Choose your protein, if desired. For this example, we grilled pork chops and chopped the cooked meat to add to the stir-fry. I generally find using cooked meat is easier than dealing with raw meat in a stir fry. I just throw it in and warm it up at the very end.
- About 30 minutes before you want to eat, get your prepped veggies and cut them in to bite sized chunks. If you have a Wok, you'll be starting with the longer cooking vegetables first.
- Put the olive or avocado oil in the wok and heat until hot and sizzling.
- Add the longer cooking vegetables (carrots, onions, broccoli) and stir with the large spoon, tossing them so they are cooked on all sides. When they are still crunchy but somewhat cooked, push them up the sides of the wok where they will stay warm and continue to cook slowly. The bottom of the wok should now be bare or mostly bare. You can add a bit more oil as needed.
- While cooking any of the vegetables, watch and be sure they aren't burning. Along with a bit more oil, you can add a little splash of water, soy sauce and/or coconut aminos and keep stirring. You can also add some Chinese 5 spice at this time, and continue throughout the process to taste. The water and soy sauce will make them cook faster and impart flavor. Continue this process throughout the stir frying. Don't overdo the water. You want crunchy, not soggy vegetables.
- Keep pushing the stir fried vegetables up the side of the wok to join the others. Then add the faster cooking vegetables where the others were, in the bottom of the wok. These would be vegetables like celery, squash, mushrooms. Don'f forget to keep those little splashes of soy sauce and coconut aminos for flavor. This is a good time to add the garlic and ginger. Stir and toss, as before.Push the vegetables up the sides of the wok when they still look fresh, but somewhat cooked.
- Add vegetables like fresh tomatoes, already roasted peppers, fresh herbs. Add a splash more oil and/or seasonings if necessary.
- When all the veggies are stir fried but the cabbage, add cooked meat on the top and then layer the cabbage on the top of that. Splash in a little water and soy sauce, cover the wok, and steam the cabbage for a few minutes. Be careful not to overcook. Can't say it enough--you want the veggies to be crunchy.
- After the cabbage is just wilted, take the cover off and toss all together. Finish with sesame oil to taste, and serve over cooked rice.
Notes
The total cook time includes cooking the rice in a rice cooker. Time will vary depending upon the type of rice and how you cook it. You can also sub noodles or even polenta for the starch. Just the stir-fry will take 20 minutes, tops. The prep is largely ongoing, as you are chopping and stir frying alternately. If you do all the chopping in advance, you can add 10-15 minutes to the total time.
If you are using a frying pan, it should be very large. If you don't have a big one, you can halve this recipe or do in batches. The cooking technique will be the same--high heat, stir-toss and fry. You can start with your longer cooking veggies and add the faster cooking ones as you go, seasoning in the same way as described in the instructions.