Sweet and Spicy Lemongrass Stir Fry
Written by Rachel, Posted in Dinner, Herbs, Lunch, Main Dishes, Pasta, Quick and Easy, Vegetables, Vegetarian
We ate this for lunch today. Husband is home sick, so he’s been laying around while I work. Today’s work included making a stir fry so I could take pictures of it. After a few bites he exclaimed, “THIS IS LITERALLY PERFECT”. I had to agree.
I’m not sure what I like the most about this stir fry. I don’t know if it’s the hint of spicy that’s behind the sweet gingery sauce. It could be the tender-crisp veggies that are so hot but still bright green. Or maybe it’s the time it takes to prepare this dish from start to finish.
Or… it might be the excitement about finally finding a way to use lemongrass. Even after all these years of getting a weekly box from Abundant Harvest Organics, there are still vegetables that I don’t know what to do with. I was going to make a stir fry anyways, and when I opened the box and saw those lemony sticks sitting in there, it just made sense.
So, I did a little research and figured out how to use it. There are some parts that you don’t want to eat, those could be saved for soups or a creative cocktail. Personally, I think I could just keep a split stalk around me all the time so I could smell it whenever I wanted to. Wow. With all the synthetic fragrances out there, I’m not sure that there’s anything that I’d rather smell than things like lemongrass, basil, or garlic. I’ll take those over an eau de something fake any day. Smell your food, friends. It’s too good to just eat… I think I will use the top portion for soup (which might be what we’re having for dinner – sickness just seems to need soup). I think it would be lovely in a vegetable broth with some zucchini, peas, carrots, ginger, and noodles. I also have plans to make up some sort of cocktail with it. There will be ginger involved. Ginger and lemongrass seem to be good friends. Or maybe I’ll just keep making this stir fry over and over and over again.
I hope you make this stir fry. We really enjoyed it. And however you use the rest of the stalk of lemongrass, remember to smell it first. For real.
Happy Eating!
Ingredients
- Soba noodles
- 1 T coconut oil
- 1 head broccoli, cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 medium summer squash, julienned
- 1 serrano pepper, seeds and ribs removed, minced
- 1-2 T prepared lemongrass
- 2 lg cloves garlic, sliced
- Sauce: 1 T cornstarch
- 1/2 C cold water
- 1/2 T red wine vinegar
- 2 T white vinegar
- 1 T honey
- 1/2 t ginger, dried
- to taste, salt
Instructions
- Boil salted water.
- Whisk together sauce ingredients. Set aside.
- Add pasta to boiling water. When cooked (takes about 4 minutes), drain, toss with a bit of coconut oil, and keep warm.
- Prepare lemongrass: Chop off top and bottom of stalk (use only bottom 3-4 inches of stalk). Peel and discard tough outer layers. Mince tender inner layers.
- Heat skillet and add oil. When hot add broccoli, squash, chili pepper, and lemongrass. Cook over medium to high heat, using tongs to turn veggies often. After 3 min add garlic and cook 1 min more (or until veggies are tender crisp).
- Pour sauce into skillet. Toss with veggies and let it thicken, about 1 minute.
- Serve veggies over pasta.
