Stir-Fry: Your 15-minute Meal Solution
Want to make something quick, easy, and healthy? Yes that’s right, make a stir-fry!
A stir-fry is the perfect solution when you just have bits and pieces of veggies, left-over chicken, or maybe no protein at all but there’s a can of beans in the pantry… Maybe you have left-over rice or some noodles – any kind will do. Stir-fry is also a fantastic way to get a large load of vegetables into your diet – and we all sure need to eat more of those!
The ingredient possibilities are endless, and there’s much more you can have at hand for making a large variety of stir-fry depending on what you feel like having, or the type of protein you wish to make. For example, pineapple chunks and a honey drizzle go very well with shrimp, sweet & sour Thai sauce for chicken, Hoisin sauce for beef, and you can sprinkle in some leftover cashews, frozen peas, lemon or lime rind/juice for acidity, and so on.
The goal is to empower you to throw anything you have left-over in the fridge into a deliciously colourful and flavourful pan, and not worry about having a whole pantry with pre-made/store-bought sauces – you don’t need them and many are high in sugar, salt, and preservatives.
Plus, to make a stir-fry delicious you really don’t need a recipe as long as you know how to make the basic sauce:
Basic Stir-Fry Sauce
1-2 Tablespoons of nonGMO Tamari soya sauce
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
pepper to taste (or hot sauce, if you’re feeling it!)
a sprinkle or two of salt to taste (if you haven’t added it to your veggies while cooking)
couple of squeezes of lime juice
We find the use of cornstarch unnecessary, as the noodles or rice will do a fine job absorbing the flavours on their own – however, if you prefer a thicker sauce you may use it.
Once you have mastered the basic stir-fry sauce, you can begin to add more specialty ingredients to experiment with flavours: Mushroom soya sauce (delicious but harder to find), honey, brown sugar, chili peppers, wine or sherry, rice vinegar, pineapple juice, peanut butter.
There are some key ingredients you need in order to pull-off the most perfect and delicious stir-fry in just a few minutes. Next time you’re out shopping, be sure to stock up on these must-have’s to add to your kitchen repertoire:
Must try Stir Fry Ideas:
Chickpeas/Pintos/Lentils – In this recipe we combined mushrooms, zucchini and chickpeas. Simply rinse your canned legume of choice before stir frying with veggies.
Grain-free/Paleo – If you prefer to cut back on grains and starches, use thinly-sliced zucchini as your ‘noodles’. Plus you only need 4-5 shrimp per person, making it economical.
Stir-Fry Rice – The key to making a real good fried rice is to use left-over rice, never fresh. Cool it in the refrigerator overnight, separate using fingers, then fry first in a bit of oil before adding sauce, vegetables or proteins. Delicious for breakfast too, with some scrambled egg added!
MAKE IT NON-GMO!
Soybean, also called soya bean, is the number one genetically modified (GMO) crop in the world. Most GMOs have been engineered to withstand the direct application of toxic herbicides, which conventional soya beans are highly sprayed with.
The World Health Organization (WHO) determined in 2015 that the herbicide glyphosate (they key ingredient in Roundup® garden spray) is “probably carcinogenic to humans.” GMO crops are also responsible for the emergence of “superweeds” and “superbugs,” which can only be killed with ever more toxic poisons and antibiotics.
Several studies indicate that GMO soya can cause chronic inflammation, interfere with hormone production, mineral deficiencies, block protein digestion, and may be a carcinogen due to its elevated concentration of formaldehyde due to spraying.
Although Canada does not yet lawfully require any GMO labeling, the “Non-GMO Project” logo is one which consumers can trust when looking for products that have been verified to not contain any GMO ingredients. www.nongmoproject.org
#healthyeating #healthyrecipes #easycooking #paleo #nongmo #glutenfree