Vegetable Stir Fry with Snow peas and Boc Choy Recipe

The morning started with a simple email. It’s one I try to send my wife at least once a week, and goes something like this:

Me: …blah blah blah… Would you like anything in particular for lunch?

Mrs. CbsoP: … Yadda, Yadda, Yadda… Yes, I would absolutely love to have a little stir fry over white rice.

Me: I think I can handle that request. Any particular kind of stir fry come to mind?

Mrs Cbsop: Stir fry: how about something with snow peas no sesame oil, but definitely soy.

Snow peas, eh? No problem! … except that I didn’t have any. A quick run to the store would fix that since we’re on base now, that’s a 5 minute trip, including getting Mr. Seat of his Diaper ready to go.

No sesame oil?!? O.K. I’ll admit that I’ve been on a sesame oil kick. You may remember that the last time I made snow peas I used sesame oil as well. I suppose too much of a good thing is just too much, so we’ll skip it this time. A quick check of the freezer to see what veggies are hanging out and…

Yuck. Some frozen medleys, great for a side dish, but lacking at the flavor and perkiness required for a stir fry. It looked like I’d have to handle everything on one store run. The only problem with that was I had no idea what I’d be using, other than snow peas.

Luckily the produce department was there to help me out. We were lucky enough to have fresh snow peas on the shelf, so I figured I’d turn to the other bins in the area for inspiration. The boc choy looked good, so a small head of that went in the cart. Bean sprouts, fresh from California. Couldn’t pass that up. (It’s a joke between my wife and I. She though all Californians lived on bean sprouts, and was a little amazed to find that I didn’t.) some carrots and scallions to round out the day, and we’re all good to go. Less than 20 minutes later I was on my way back to our little kitchen, having spent a total of $6.50. Not too bad.

Stir Fry is less about measurements than about combinations, so the amounts given below may be either a) a guestimate, or b) just a vague idea, but that’s the joy of the thing, you don’t have to be precise and you can use whatever you can find, as long as it plays well with the other ingredients.

Yield: 4 servings

Vegetable Stir Fry with Snow peas and Boc Choy Recipe

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

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Ingredients

• Approx 10 oz. snow peas, rinsed and de-stemmed where necessary. (I grabbed 2 tong-fulls)
• 1 small head boc choy, rinsed well and chopped into bite sized pieces.
• 5 scallions, chopped in 1/2 inch pieces.
• Approximately 2 carrots, cut in 2 inch pieces then julienned on a mandoline or sliced into matchsticks with a very sharp knife.
• 2 good handfuls bean sprouts, whatever variety you like.
• 2 tbsp peanut or canola oil
• 2-5 tbsp. Stir Fry Sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Instructions

1. Have everything chopped and ready! There is no time for anything other than cooking once the veggies hit the pan.
2. Heat a wok or large heavy bottomed skillet over high heat until very hot. Add oil, swirl once. it should just shimmer and begin to smoke. (This is a good thing)
3. Toss in snow peas, boc choi and a pinch of salt. Stir constantly until boc choy stems begin to turn translucent.
4. Add carrots, scallions and bean sprouts. Stir frequently and rapidly, ensuring that all vegetables are heated well. Continue until carrots are just tender.
5. Add sprouts, toss entire mixture well. Add stir fry sauce, stirring rapidly to just coat vegetables. They should be moist, not wet. add more if necessary.
6. Salt and pepper to taste.
7. Remove from heat and serve immediately.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

4

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 141Total Fat: 6gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 1mgSodium: 531mgCarbohydrates: 16gFiber: 4gSugar: 9gProtein: 6g

One of the joys of stir fry is that it will always be different depending on what is fresh in the market at the time. Stir fry is not a dish well suited to frozen vegetables,with the exception of broccoli, which looses some of it’s stringiness when frozen. (For green peas in a stir fry, you may add frozen peas when adding the sauce at the end. Don’t worry, they’ll be cooked through before you get them off the stove.)

Always try to find the freshest ingredients. Stir fry can be made with nearly any vegetable or protein, including zucchini and yellow squash, if you get the cooking time right. The other big topper is it’s a simple, quick healthy dish that can feed 4 or 40 equally as well.