There’s no need to turn this into an exact science! Just start by cooking aromatics to form the flavour base then add vegetables that take the longest to cook first, and delicate things like leafy greens towards the end.
Here’s a rough guide:
- Aromatics in first- onion, leeks, garlic, ginger, chilli
- Firm vegetables in second – like carrot, capsicum/bell peppers, stems of Asian Greens (Buk Choy in this recipe), zucchini / courgettes, eggplant, asparagus, canned baby corn, green beans, okra.
- Quicker cooking vegetables added next- snow peas, kale, cabbage.
- Delicate vegetables in last – toss until just wilted. Leaves of Asian Greens, spinach, bean sprouts, green onions, fresh herbs.
Pre cooked vegetables – broccoli, cauliflower and broccolini should be pre-cooked prior to using in a stir fry as they take too long to cook from raw in a stir fry (unless chopped small). And though I rarely use them in stir fries, I also pre cook things like pumpkin, potato, squash, and other root vegetables.
A big skillet of vegetables never looked so tasty!!
Also – the stir fry sauce. I like making plenty of it so it can soak through the rice or noodles, or whatever you serve it over. It’s also particularly good at disguising cauliflower rice – for those of you *trying* to cut down on carbs. 😇
What to serve with Stir Fried Vegetables
This can be served as:
- a main dish with rice or noodles (try cauliflower rice for a low carb option); or
- a vegetable side dish.
Though this stir fry has Chinese origins, don’t restrict yourself to serving this alongside just Chinese dishes. You’ll see similar version of this sauce used all across Asia. So serve it as a vegetable side the next time you make any Asian dishes – such as Vietnamese, Thai or Japanese! Here are a few suggestions (just a few….😂):
