I often get asked: Do you have a good traditional recipe for a veggie stir fry?
As a first generation Chinese-Australian, stir fries were and still are a staple in my immediate family. Growing up, stir fries were 95% of all of our dinners. I remember my mum would spend hours in the kitchen making up to 3 stir fries for dinner. If there was only 1 large stir fry to share for dinner, she’d call it her ‘catch-all lazy’ stir fry… well not exactly with those words, but something like it but with a Chinese pun.
Even though I was mentally fried with stir fries, I did learn one thing:
There is no SINGLE recipe for stir fries. However, I did learn some tricks on the way… to make my veggies taste like I was eating in a home in Hong Kong rather than just a bunch of burnt vegetables.
There are three simple steps:
1. Add garlic, ginger and onion to a fry pan.
2. Add all of the veggies.
3. Add soy sauce or other seasonings.
THAT IS ALL.
I wanted to make a stir fry but something that was Summery. I also felt like pineapple. And pretty rice. But not too much rice. I didn’t want to fall asleep from feeling carbed up. I wanted to enjoy the Summer!
So I came up with a compromise between pineapple fried rice and a stir fry… pineapple and black rice stir fry!
It was loaded with veggies, had a bit of carbs to sustain me to my next meal/snack and had a wonderful sweet tang.
Pineapple black rice stirfry
Ingredients
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- ¼ onion, sliced
- 2 cm knob of ginger, grated or finely chopped
- Dash of any vegetable oil, such as extra virgin olive, as desired
- ¾ cup zucchini (about 1 zucchini), sliced
- ¾ cup capsicum (about 1 capsicum), sliced
- ½ cup mushrooms (about 3 mushrooms), sliced
- ¼ cup fresh or canned pineapple, chopped
- ¼ cup edamame beans
- 1 boy choy
- 50 g firm tofu, cubed
- ½-1 cup cooked black rice
- soy sauce, tamari or coconut aminos, to taste
Instructions
- Prepare all ingredients.
- Heat a saucepan over high heat and add garlic, onion, ginger and oil (as desired). Saute until ingredients become fragrant.
- Add all vegetables, tofu, pineapple and black rice to saucepan. Saute until all ingredients are cooked through. Add some water to the saucepan or turn down the heat of the stove if your ingredients are cooking very quickly on their outside but are not cooked to your preferences.
- Add soy sauce or other seasonings to taste.
I love stir-fries! Having an Italian American mother, we didn’t eat them a lot growing up, but whenever we would order takeout it would be a real treat! And I love the summery spin you’ve put on this! 😀
Haha, you know what?! I’d say the same about Italian food! I got so sick of stir fries growing up that my brothers and I would beg to get takeaway, often pizza or pasta, or we’d make it at home! It would be amazing if we could’ve just swapped lives for one day as kids!