Vegetable Noodle Stir-fry - a healthy meal for before or after the indulgence

Younger daughter and I spent some time making up our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day menus.  Needless to say, there are lots of high calorie items on the list.  Woo hoo! And since Thursday’s dinner included a rich cheese fondue and chocolate cake for elder daughter’s birthday, a vegetable stir-fry with ramen noodles seemed just the ticket for last night.

Ingredients

Ramen noodles – 2 packets – to serve three to four for people with lots of vegetables

Lots of vegetables of your choice

Tonight we had:

1 carrot

About 200g or 7 oz of snow peas or mange-tous

250g or 9 oz of mixed mushrooms or your favorite

200g or 7 oz of firm salted tofu

300g or 10.5 oz broccoli

300g or 10.5 oz cauliflower

2 large red chilies

3 cloves of garlic

1 knob of fresh ginger

Sea salt

Olive oil

Cayenne pepper
Soy sauce

Method

Start heating your large non-stick pan.  Cut your firm soy into cubes.

Drizzle olive oil into the pan and tip in the soy cubes.

Pan fry until the soy is browned on all side and sprinkle with a little sea salt.  When the soy is nicely caramelized, sprinkle it with cayenne (red) pepper.

 With the pan still hot, but turned off, add a goodly drizzle off soy sauce and stir like crazy.  It should bubble up immediately in the heat and coat the soy curd, adding a layer of salt and flavor.  When the pan is dry, remove the soy to a side plate.   This is a vegetarian dish so the browned soy and, soon, the mushrooms will add a satisfying “meaty” flavor to the vegetables.

Chop your vegetables into pieces, starting with the mushrooms.  Heat your pan very hot and tip in just the mushrooms.  Sprinkle with salt and allow the mushrooms to brown.  

Meanwhile, add boiling water to the dried noodles.  After about 7-10 minutes, drain the pasta and rinse with cold water.

Once the mushrooms are browned, add them to the soy plate.

Mince the ginger and the garlic.  Chop the red chilies into small pieces.  If you don’t like spicy food, take the seeds out of the chilies before chopping.

Heat your pan once more and add a generous helping of olive oil.  Tip in the garlic, ginger and red chilies.

Sauté the seasonings for about 7-10 minutes, or until the peppers look soft.  Do not let the garlic burn.  Drizzle in some more olive oil.  Add in the other vegetables and stir-fry until they are al dente.

Add in the rinsed noodles, then the mushrooms and soy cubes.  Drizzle with soy sauce to taste.  Toss and warm through.  Enjoy! 

Each person can drizzle on a little more soy sauce if desired. 

Enjoy!