Thursday, January 26, 2012

Sesame Cashew Vegetable Stir-Fry

When we were first married, I made stir-fry with rice A LOT - like every other meal, probably. First of all because it was cheap. Second, because I knew how to make it. And third because it was quick and easy and we didn't have a lot of time. 

It got to where we became sick and tired of it and my husband, especially, (as un-picky as he is) could barely even touch it anymore. It was a long time after I realized that before I tried making it again. When I did, I spent many months searching and trying recipe after recipe, and even several store-bought sauces to find a sauce that we liked. Finally last year, I went over to my sister's house to help her make some freezer meals for when she had her baby and this was the sauce that we made for sesame chicken. She let me try a bite and I knew I had found what we were looking for!

Our family LOVES this recipe and since we're talking about sprouts this week, let me just mention that it would be a GREAT one to put bean sprouts in.


As I mentioned, the original recipe is actually a sesame chicken recipe, but since we try to have 3 or 4 meatless meals per week, I've modified it to be meatless. Feel free to add egg & flour battered chicken back in, if you like! It's really yummy that way too!

Sesame Cashew Vegetable Stir-Fry

*Note: This recipe is very versatile. You can use as many or few vegetables as you would like. If you want to add chicken and stir fry that too, that would be yummy. You can also add other vegetables; some good choices would be asparagus, cauliflower, or celery.

INGREDIENTS:
1-2 Tbsp oil
1 Cup Broccoli spears
1 Cup Carrots, chopped
1 Cup Zucchini or yellow squash, cut into ½ inch pieces
1/2 Cup Onions, diced
A handful of Bean Sprouts
½ Cup raw cashews, roasted - Here are the instructions for roasting
1 recipe Sesame Sauce (see below)
3 Cups long grain brown rice

DIRECTIONS:
Heat oil in large skillet on medium-high heat. Add vegetables (except bean sprouts and cashews) and stir fry until tender. Meanwhile make the sesame sauce recipe and cook the brown rice (*see Note below). When vegetables are tender, add the roasted cashews and bean sprouts. Then add sesame sauce and serve over cooked brown rice. Or sometimes we leave the sauce and vegetable separate so the kids can decide if they want the sauce or not on their rice.

*Note: Combine 3 cups long grain brown rice with 5 cups water in electric pressure cooker and cook on high for 21 minutes - it comes out perfect every time! If you don’t have a pressure cooker, cook the brown rice over the stove using these instructions.

Sesame Sauce 

INGREDIENTS:
2 C. water
½ C. brown sugar
½ c. white sugar  (or instead of the brown & white sugar try 1/2 Cup Xagave or honey)
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
3 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp. sesame seeds  

DIRECTIONS:
Combine sauce ingredients in medium saucepan, cook over medium heat, stirring until thick.

Recipe Source: healthyfamilycookin.blogspot.com with sauce recipe adapted from a recipe given to me by my sister Bonnie

Linked to It's a Keeper Thursday, What's cooking Thursday, Cooking Thursday, Full Plate Thursday

1 comment:

Miz Helen said...

Your Sesame Cashew Vegetable Stir Fry looks so delicious, it is a great recipe.Your photo presentation is lovely. Hope you are having a great week end and thank you so much for sharing with Full Plate Thursday.
Come Back Soon!
Miz Helen

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