As the infamous 90′s alt metal band Staind sings, it’s been a while. Life’s been busy and this teaching until 8 pm thing does not mesh well with my desire to make dinner for 3 hours any given night. Therefor, this recipe was born (it helps if you have a man or lady friend around to help you prep this) but it was basically done in about 30 minutes. Using a bottle of teriyaki sauce would cut down the time as well but nothing can replace the homemade taste for which I think it is worth the extra 5 minutes. The veggies I used were literally whatever I had in my fridge on that given night so excuse my measurements, e.g. “one and a half red bell peppers.” The boyfriend and I both agreed this was one of the tastiest dishes we’ve ever made and so if anything, I’m writing this down so in 6 months I don’t go, “How did we make that again?”
Ingredients
Whatever veggies you have in the fridge - enough to fill a huge wok. Chop into bite sized pieces, maybe mincing the onions and leaving the snap peas whole. Veggies we used - 1 ½ red bell peppers, 4 zucchini, a bag of snap peas (approx 2 cups), 1 ½ red onion, 6 medium carrots.
Block of tofu, fried in peanut oil (this optional - shrimp would have been better in my opinion)
2 Tbsp minced garlic (my new love is the kind that’s minced in the jar. It would take me far too long to mince 2 heaping Tbsp of garlic)
Peanut oil (or whatever oil you have)
Spices: ancho chile powder, cayenne, garlic, ginger powder (fresh minced would be better), salt, pepper (all these to taste)
Cooked rice (do this while the veggies are frying)
Teriyaki Sauce
Combine ¼ cup soy sauce, ¼-½ cup water, 2 Tbsp peanut butter, few dashes ginger powder, garlic powder, 2 Tbsp honey, 1 Tbsp rice vinegar
What To Do
Heat peanut oil over medium high heat in a wok or large fry pan. Add the chopped veggies and leave to cook for approx 20 minutes or until soft, stirring every few minutes (you may have to divide into two pans since there are a lot of veggies). During this cooking time, add the spices to the veggies. You can also saute the tofu while this is happening.
When the veggies are soft and right before you want to take them off, add the garlic and let it cook for about a minute or two. Leave the wok on medium heat as you add the sauce a little bit at a time until your desired sauciness. Serve over rice!
Some additional add-ons that would probably be good but haven’t been taste-tested are water chestnuts (found in cans in the Asian aisle), mushrooms, fresh grated ginger.
Dude this shiz was the bomb.com.