Cascading Kitchen Notes
We cooked this for dinner recently but had no noodles or greens on hand so we substituted carrots, green pepper and cauliflower and added them to the onion/garlic mixture. We doubled the sauce (because it's so good) and added it to the mixture just prior to adding approx 4 Cups of cooked, cooled rice. A bit like fried rice. It turned out fantastic. The trick with high heat cooking of vegetables is to slice them thin enough so they can cook through in a couple of minutes. Additionally, add the more durable vegetables (like carrots) first and make sure they're almost to your liking before adding the more delicate vegetables. Otherwise the delicate vegetables will be mush before the durable veggies are cooked.
Asian noodle stir-fry
with tons of veggies
Don't let the title or the ingredient list limit the possibilities with this recipe template. This is a prime example of cooking with "bits and pieces" so assess what you have at hand and make it your own.
Get Ready:
- 1/2 lb. buckwheat noodles or whole-wheat spaghetti pasta, cooked al dente (Overcooking makes them gooey. Asian grocery stores have the best selection of buckwheat noodles)
- Prepare the Asian green mix or any other green you have available, cut in a small chiffonade. You can even chiffonade lettuce to add to the greens. You can use up to a gallon of cut greens. They'll disappear in this recipe.
1) Saute in 4 Tb of peanut oil:
- 2 onions in slivers or 6-7 green onions sliced longitudinally
add the cabbage and let it sweat
- 4-6 cloves of garlic--minced I like to put the garlic in after the carrots to avoid burning the garlic in case the oil is a touch hot.
- 1-2 C of carrots, julienned
Things to add now if you have them…
Add them one at a time and let some of the water cook off. This is not a true stir fry so don’t worry about the length of cooking as long as you cook the most durable veggies first, adding the leafy delicate greens last.
- Up to 8 cups of thinly sliced cabbage
- 1 head of broccoli or cauliflower or whatever amount you have…cut into 1-2 inch flowerets. Peel and dice the stem. It’s the best part.
add the broccoli but dont overcook it
- Celtuce-peeled and julienned
- Peppers-green or red sliced into strips ¼ wide (this is for the late summer season since we live in the PNW)
2) Mix Together in a separate bowl:
- 4Tb fish sauce
- 4 Tb oyster sauce (also a nice condiment to have on hand when your gravy needs a bit of punching up)
- 2 Tb sugar
- 2 tsp soy sauce or tamari
- 2 Tb Asian red chili sauce (consider only 1 Tb for young palates)
3) Stir into the cooked onion/veggie mixture and cook for about a minute.
4) Add cooked noodles and Asian greens of any combination to the above mixture.
5) Cook 3-4 minutes and serve.
Top with toasted nuts or toasted sesame seeds.