Vegetable Stir Fry with Cashews

I love the colours in stir fry dishes.  This is one recipe where the vegetables are the stars of the plate.  Crisp, vibrant colours of red, green, orange, yellow; they are a feast for our eyes and taste amazing! They are incredibly versatile and easy to change up based on what is in season, on sale or what ever strikes you to add.  There are never any left overs and everyone has a satisfying meal made up of more than half a plate of vegetables and protein rich cashews, completed with rice, barley, noodles, or alternative.

There is a knack to making stir fries and it is all in the prep. Wash and chop all the ingredients and have everything ready right beside your wok.  Have your sauce mixture ready to go in and start heating up the pan.  Once the cooking begins, dinner will be on the table in less than 10 minutes.

I love my heavy stainless steel wok.  It heats so well and so evenly.  I recommend stainless steel or cast iron pans.  It was an investment many years ago and was money well spent.  Many woks are not suitable for high heat cooking and are coated with a non stick coating which can have health risks. For more information on non stick cookware see the guidelines from Cancer.ca

Vegetable Stir Fry with Cashews (Serves 4)

4 cups broccoli florets

4 carrots chopped

1 red pepper chopped (or mix of colours to make approx 1 pepper)

10 mushrooms

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1 tablespoon grated ginger

3 cloves garlic

1/2 cup vegetable stock

2 tsp corn starch

3 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce

1 tsp rice vinegar

2 pinches red pepper flakes

1/2 cup roasted cashews

Rice, barley, quinoa or noodles of choice

Directions:  In a small bowl stir together vegetable stock, corn starch, soy sauce, rice vinegar, and red pepper flakes.  Set aside while you wash and chop all the vegetables.  Heat coconut oil in wok over medium high heat and add garlic and ginger.  Cook until fragrant.  In order add carrots, mushrooms, broccoli, peppers and cook, stirring the vegetables gently so that they cook quickly, remaining firm and with bright colours.  Add stock mixture which will thicken, glaze and coat the vegetables. Top with cashews.  Serve with rice, barley, quinoa or noodles of choice.

This recipe is adapted from Whole Foods Recipes.