Hello and welcome to Freshly Served, the healthy
vegan cooking show.
I’m Heather and tonight we’re gonna do
a peanut stir fry.
Very exciting!
I’ve got my wok all ready to go but before
we start stir frying we’re gonna do a couple
of things first.
One is cook the rice if your serving this
with rice so I’ve got my rice going in the
back there and we’re gonna make a sauce.
And I’m gonna do a peanut sauce because
it’s so delicious and it’s basically the
same peanut sauce that I use for different
purposes so if you watch my Thai fresh rolls
video I used the same peanut sauce.
I’m just gonna make it a little bit more
liquid since its going on to the stir fry.
Now stir fry in general is a very healthy
way to cook vegetables because it uses very
little oil, very little water, it cooks them
very quickly so they’re not exposed to heat
for very long but it softens them up a little
bit so they’re easily to digest and the
cooking quickly with high heat, with little
oil, little water means they’ll retain a
lot of their nutrients.
So we got started with the sauce.
So our sauce start with a good spoonful of
peanut butter and I actually like to use a
fork to mix this up because I find it gets
through the peanut butter easier.
We’re gonna soften it up with a bit of sesame
oil, the untoasted kind.
The toasted kind is a very distinct flavor
so if you use too much it can be a little
bit overpowering so I just put in a little
bit of that.
Oops!
I wasn’t watching and that was probably
a little bit too much but what are you gonna
do?
I’m also going to put some tamari in here.
Good amount of that, that’s where the salt
is coming through, it’s gonna combine this
sauce together in terms of flavor so I’m
not adding any salt.
I’m just adding tamari.
Lots of people when they’re making a sauce
will put tamari and miso together but because
they’re both made from fermented soy beans
putting them together confuses their flavor
so I use one or the other and this one I like
to use tamari.
You want to stir this until it comes together
into a smooth sauce.
So if you see the texture there, all of those
components of the sauce have come together
because of the salt in the tamari.
And I’m gonna add some vinegar and I use
apple cider vinegar.
Brown rice vinegar fine as well, has more
of an Asian flavor but apple cider vinegar
is better on the digestive system.
The vinegar is gonna cause things to separate
again so you gotta make sure you stir it out
nice and then just go to whatever texture
you want for this.
Like I said I like this one a little bit more
liquid than I would a peanut dipping sauce
so I’ve got quite a bit of vinegar there.
I wouldn’t add too much vinegar, if you
need to thin it out add some water, the vinegar
is pretty powerful.
Once your sauce is together, let that to let
the flavors combine.
I’m going to use a little bit of dried seaweed
in this one.
Seaweeds have an incredible amount of nutrients
in them including iodine.
It is one of the richest sources of iodine
which is crucial to your thyroid function
which controls metabolism so among other reasons
to eat them, there’s one, excellent source
of minerals.
So what I do with the dry is I put them in
a little bit of water and then let them soak
and they’re gonna expand quite large from
where they start.
I’m using a wakame seaweed and this is where
it starts dried and you can see they’re
just starting to open here, they’ll be much
bigger than this by the time they’re done.
Normally when I’m cooking vegetables I cut
them as I go to make sure they maintain their
freshness but with stir fry you need to cut
all of your vegetables up front because things
are gonna happen really quickly and you need
to be constantly stirring hence the name stir
fry so you don’t have time while things
are cooking to chop stuff up.
So what I’m doing is I’m cutting up my
carrots, my broccoli and my red pepper gonna
get them all set and I’m gonna put a little
bit of green onion in this as well so I’m
gonna cut those up nicely as well.
To cut a broccoli flora so that you get nice
pieces here, cut from this part of the stem
down as suppose to the other way and that
way they’ll stay together in nice chunks.
I also cut up the broccoli stem, if you just
take off the outside of the skin its nice
and soft in here, cooks up really nicely.
Before you start stir frying make sure that
our rice is getting close to done or it’s
already done.
It will stay hot but the stir fry you need
to serve fresh so I’m gonna turn this on.
I’m going to six and a half which is out
of nine so I call that medium high.
Wait till this is really nice and hot.
We’re gonna get some sesame oil, not the
toasted kind.
And you may notice that I kept the vegetables
separated on my cutting board because I’m
still gonna still add them one at a time like
I would if I was cooking them slower and I’m
gonna start with the carrots, then the broccoli,
then the peppers and then the green onion
right at the very end.
Alright!
The wok is ready, add the tiniest bit of oil
and start with the carrots and this is gonna
be a really hot pan so be careful and stir.
Keep them moving around the pan.
They only need a couple of minutes then we’re
going to the broccoli and stir.
Your just looking for the very slightness
start 
of the cooking process.
So the color of the broccoli is starting to
deepen right now just very slightly if you
can see that so we’re ready for the pepper.
And last but not least, the green onion.
Sometimes things will fly out of the pot,
they try to escape, if I’m with you, apprehend
them and get them back in the pot.
Ok!
The last step is the fun part.
You take the slightest bit of oil, pour it
on the side here, keep stirring and that’s
where the vegetables finish cooking is with
the light steam.
Turn the heat off and get those off of the
element.
Now I’m adding this seaweed here so I’m
just gonna squeeze the excess water out of
there.
If there are any big chunks you can chop them
up and make sure that they don’t stick together
in a clump becaause a big clump of seaweed
in your mouth is probably isn’t what you’re
looking for.
Ok!
Stir those guys around, I’ve got a bowl
with some rice in there, put these vegetables
on top and top with my peanut sauce.
There’s your healthy vegan peanut stir fry.
I’m Heather, this is Freshly Served.
You can find the recipe for this and other
delicious vegan meals at www.HealthyVeganRecipes.net.
