Green pepper and sprout stir fry

This week and February are both drawing to a close and I must say that I'm pleased about my weekend without plans. Well, there are plans to take it easy and cook nice food, but that's about it. What have you planned for the weekend?

So, now to today's recipe. I added some lentil and radish sprouts to today's stir fry, and they make a very tasty and nutritious addition. I have been sprouting a lot lately again. I normally have phases when I eat more sprouts and then forget all about them for a couple of months.

Ingredients

100 g buckwheat noodles

200 g smoked tofu

2 tbsp groundnut oil

2 green bell pepper

1 chilli

1 shallot

2 garlic cloves

1 cm ginger (similar amount to garlic)

200 g mange tout peas

1 cup lentil sprouts + radish sprouts

2 tbsp sesame oil

3 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine

Method

Chop the tofu into small cubes and fry them until firm in the groundnut oil.

Cook the noodles and set to side. They don't need to be fully soft, as they will cook a little in the stir fry later.

Chop the bell pepper into this strips and the chilli, shallot, ginger and garlic finely. The mange tout peas can also be cut into halves.

Fry the pepper strips in a hot pan with a little oil and set to side. I like to leave them with a bit of crunch.

Cook the chilli, shallot, ginger and garlic also in a little groundnut oil until soft and then add the tofu, peppers and mange tout peas followed by the noodles.

Pour the sesame oil, soy sauce and Shaoxing rice wine into the pan and cook for a few minutes. Don't take my ingredient amounts for these liquids too seriously, just keep splashing and tasting while you stir.

Stir the sprouts in just before serving and serve instantly.

I'm also sharing this recipe with February's edition of the Eat Your Greens challenge by Shaheen from A2K - A Seasonal Veg Table. 

Your VegHog

Chinese style vegetable stir fry

Finally I have time to post a recipe again! I do apologise for the blog being a bit quieter now, as I haven't had so much time for cooking and writing. Thank goodness the weekend is soon here and I'm able to cook more, maybe even bake! I'm really looking forward to that, a really quiet weekend at home.

So, now over to the actual recipe. I hope you like today's dish, which is just a Chinese style stir fry with various vegetables and tofu – one of my favourite dishes at the moment. With a little bit of spicing and fresh produce, it's very easy to make such a dish. It's light, yet filling and full of flavour. Have a look below, how I made this. You can also get creative and variate the vegetables at will.

Ingredients

300 g tofu

Groundnut oil for frying

3 bell peppers

150 g shiitake mushrooms

1 onion

3 garlic cloves

3 cm fresh ginger (about the same amount as the garlic when chopped)

1 small red chilli

2 spring onions

100 g baby pak choi

85 ml soy sauce

85 ml Shaoxing rice wine

3 tbsp sesame oil

2 tbsp maple syrup

200 g wholewheat noodles

Method

Press the excess liquid off the tofu and cut it into cubes. Start frying the cubes in hot groundnut oil and in the meanwhile prepare the vegetables. The tofu cubes need to be firm and bouncy, at least that's the way I like it. And they can be set to side once you're happy with the texture.

Make the sauce by mixing the soy sauce, Shaoxing rice wine, sesame oil and maple syrup together. This will be added to the stir fry towards the end.

Chop the onion, ginger, chilli and garlic finely. Cut the bell peppers, shiitake mushrooms, spring onions and pak choi into suitable sized slices.

Quickly fry the pepper slices in the hot pan and set to side. Repeat the same for the shiitake mushrooms.

Start also cooking the noodles.

Heat a little groundnut oil in a pan and cook the onion, garlic, ginger and chilli until soft.

Add the spring onions, tofu, pre-fried peppers and mushrooms to the pan.

Pour the sauce on the vegetables and add the pak choi just before serving. I added my pak choi a bit too early, that's why the greenery looks like it has disappeared.

You can then either mix the noodles to the vegetables or serve them on the side.

Enjoy!

Your VegHog