I love a Thai stir fry. All that lemongrass, ginger and garlic is wonderful. Saying that though, whenever I eat out at a Thai restaurant, I end up ordering a pad Thai but, today for lunch, I made myself a vegan Thai stir fry with rice. The reason I made Thai stir fried vegetables for lunch which involved actual cooking instead of my usual soup which involves something more along the lines of chucking some veg and stock in a pan then blending it, is because HelloFresh asked me to recreate one of their recipes. I didn’t exactly stick to their recipe for the Thai Veggie Rice Bowl because a) HelloFresh don’t show the exact quantities or measurements on their website so I had to guess; and b) I didn’t like some of their ingredients (coriander, bleurgh) so I left them out. Below, though, I’ll go through step-by-step how I made my version of their recipe which makes a really quick and easy tasty lunch or light dinner.
Thai Stir Fry (serves 2)
Get your ingredients together
Get your ingredients together (quantities will be in the recipe card below). I forgot to buy a fresh lime, but luckily I had a bottle of lime juice in the fridge. HelloFresh’s recipe also called for fresh lemongrass but I had the paste in the fridge so I used that and, anyway, HelloFresh put their lemongrass in with the rice and it looked complicated so I used the paste in the dressing. The original recipe asked for peanuts but I used organic cashew nuts because I had cashews in and not peanuts. I also used agave nectar instead of honey because honey’s not vegan and I only cook vegan food indoors. I also left out cherry tomatoes because I’m not keen on cooked tomatoes but after making the Thai stir fry, I decided cherry tomatoes would have been a good thing as a) they would have added a welcome pop of colour and; b) they only would have been warmed through if I’d added them right at the end. Still, unless I die while I type this, I can always make it again and add cherry tomatoes.
Cook the Basmati rice
Boil a pan of water and add 120g of Basmati rice. Cook for about 11 minutes or until it’s how you like it. Meanwhile…
Make the dressing
In a small bowl (if you’re anything like me, you’ll have approximately twenty-six Gu pudding bowls in your drawer or cupboard, and they are really handy for things like this), mix up 0.5 tbsp fresh ginger, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil, 1 tsp lemongrass and 0.5 tbsp agave nectar. Then…
Stir fry the vegetables
Heat half a tablespoon of toasted sesame oil in a large frying pan. Stir fry the courgette for about four or five minutes until soft. Add the sugar snap peas and stir fry for another three minutes. Add a crushed clove of garlic and the rest of the ginger (0.5 tbsp) and cook for another minute. Stir in half the dressing.
Your rice should be ready by now so take it off the heat, stir through the carrot and the Thai stir fried vegetables. Pour over more of the dressing to your taste then top with the cashews.
That’s it – a really quick and easy, not to mention healthy, lunch or dinner.
Thai Stir Fry
Ingredients
- 120 g Basmati rice
- 2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger grated
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp lemongrass paste
- 1 tbsp agave nectar
- half courgette cut in half lengthways, then sliced into batons
- 100 g sugar snap peas
- 1 clove garlic crushed
- half carrot grated
- 1 handful cashews
Instructions
- Boil a pan of water and cook the rice for 11 minutes or however long it says on the packet (or however long you like it cooked for).
- Meanwhile, put half the ginger, soy sauce, 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil, lime juice, lemongrass paste, agave nectar in a small bowl and mix together.
- Heat 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil in a large frying pan and stir fry the courgette for 4-5 minutes until soft.
- Add the sugar snap peas and stir fry for another 3 minutes.
- Add the garlic and the other half of the ginger and cook for another minute.
- Pour in half the dressing.
- Stir the carrot through the rice, add the stir-fried vegetables, pour on the rest of the dressing (or as little or as much as you like), then sprinkle the cashews on top.
HelloFresh Discount Code – Get £10 off your first box
HelloFresh are offering Planet Veggie readers £10 off their first box. Just use this link.
