Sauté vegetables with lemongrass and ginger
A light-flavored and fresh-tasting recipe, whose ingredients are sauté in a wok, and finish cooking in another.
Serves: 3
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 20 minutes
This recipe brings several different vegetables together, for your delight. It binds them delicately with the flavor of lemongrass, and gives them a specific touch with the first cooking in the wok. Yes, ingredients are cooked twice: sauté in a hot wok, then quietly cooked on medium heat in another wok. The recipe is light in flavors, as it skips on strong ones like garlic, or chili pepper — you can add them afterward if you like. The celery is the second key to this recipe, as it definitely adds to the “fresh” flavor of the dish.
This is the kind of “end of cycle” recipe I cook when I’m finishing vegetables I’ve used during the week. The mung bean sprouts, for example, were reaching the limit of being safely eaten; they required to be cooked for longer and on stronger heat than I would have done for a recipe of stir-fried noodle. I also weighted the pros and the cons of adding cubes of firm tofu, and finally decided not to. Don’t abide to my recipe if you feel like adding tofu, vegan substitute for chicken, mushrooms, or even extra vegetables. Please make it your own. I’d still recommend to stick to using lemongrass. I like lemongrass, and the ginger comes to support it in this recipe, without taking over.
Celery and the negative-calorie food controversy
Celery is a vegetable which you can use the branch, and leaves — both having distinct uses and flavors. It’s common in soups, and is popular from time to time in “detox” drinks. 100 g of celery provides 16 kcal, which has brought it to the list of vegetables and fruits which supposedly provide less energy than is required to chew and digest — hence the notion of “negative-calorie” food. I read about this fact once, and the idea of celery being such a great vegetable stuck to me (despite the sources for the information falling into the category “trust me bro”). I verified this fact while writing this recipe, and discovered there were no such evidences of actually negative-calorie food. Too bad. So, if you’re not allergic to celery (which I realized some of you might be after writing this recipe), enjoy it without further thoughts. Even if it’s not a negative-calorie food, it’s still contain only few calories, and is also cheap to buy — at least here, in Western Europe.
Ingredients
100 g of lemongrass, minced or purée (it has a softer taste than fresh one; feel free to use finely chopped fresh lemongrass roots if you prefer)
300 g of cabbage (here I use what is called kabestu / キャベツ in Japanese, which is perfect to stir-fried cooking; any leafy cabbage will work)
1 red bell pepper ~ 200 g
200 g mung bean sprouts
1 (very) big carrot ~ 220 g
2 celery branches ~ 200 g1
200 g of pre-cooked diced sweet potatoes
A piece of ginger root ~ 20 g
2 big yellow onions ~ 360 g
4 or more soup spoons of groudnut oil2
4 soup spoons of soy sauce3
Preparation
The ingredient list contains a trick: it calls for pre-cooked diced sweet potatoes. It comes from that I had already prepared (a lot of) sweet potatoes, and had frozen several portions. To prepare them from raw sweet potatoes, proceed as following:
Peel the sweet potatoes
Dice them into cubes of 2-3 cm
Boil enough water to cover all cubes you want to cook
Put the sweet potato dice into the boiling water
Lower heat so the water is gently bubbling
Cook for 10 minutes
Verify the dice are cooked with a knife; you shall easily insert it into the dice
Drain cooking water, and reserve the sweet potato dice for later; you can freeze them once they’re cold
Now, let’s continue with the preparation of the rest of the ingredients. This recipe will require you act quickly, so you’ll have very little time in-between adding two sets of ingredients. I recommend you complete all the preparation steps before even heating your two woks (or your wok and your deep-sided pan like in my case).
Peel the carrot, cut it into thin 4-5 cm long matchsticks
Peel the ginger root, cut it into thin 2-3 cm long matchsticks
Peel the onion, cut them in half, slice each half, then cut them again into two
Wash the cabbage, cut into small 2-3 cm pieces
Wash the celery branches, cut them into matchsticks similar to what you did with the carrot; if they features leaves, save them for later (they give a great presentation bonus!)
Wash the mung bean sprouts
Open the red bell pepper, deseed it, remove white parts, wash it, then cut it into matchsticks similar to what you did with the carrot and the celery
You should end up with ingredients prepared like these:
Cooking
The cooking part requires you use two woks, or a wok and a deep pan. All ingredients but onions will be sauté on high heat in the first wok, then added to the second one on medium heat. You’ll cook successive groups of ingredients, for different durations, then mix them into what will be the final dish.
To avoid confusion when reading the below instructions, I’m referring to the wok and the deep pan, respectively as the first wok and the second wok.
Heat the deep pan to medium flame/power, then add 4 soup spoons of oil
Add the chopped onions, 2 table spoons of lemongrass, and 1 soup spoon of soy sauce
Cover, leave for 5 minutes
Meanwhile, heat the wok to high flame/power, then add oil from the edge, making a circle; doing so, the oil will cover all the surface of the wok
Throw the carrot and the ginger in the wok, with half a table spoon of lemongrass; cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently
Remove the lid from the deep pan
Transfer the carrot and the ginger into the deep pan, and mix with onions; try to leave as much oil as possible in the wok (read my tip at the bottom of the article)
Throw the red bell pepper and sweet potato dice in the wok, with half a table spoon of lemongrass, 1 soup spoon of soy sauce; cook for 1 to 2 minutes, until the red bell pepper starts to soften, stirring frequently
Transfer the red bell pepper and sweet potato dice into the deep pan, and mix gently with other ingredients; try to leave as much oil and sauce as possible in the wok
Throw the celery and the cabbage into the wok, with a table spoon of lemongrass; cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently
If the cabbage hasn’t reduced in volume, cook for longer, and consider increasing the heat of the wok
Transfer the celery, the cabbage, and all the liquid from the wok into the deep pan, and mix gently with other ingredients
Increase the heat of the wok to the maximum flame/power, then add again a bit of oil
Throw the mung bean sprouts into the wok; cook for 2 minutes, stirring with energy
Transfer the mung bean sprouts into the deep pan, and mix gently with other ingredients
Mix into the deep pan the remaining lemongrass and 3 soup spoons of soy sauce; lower the heat to low flame/power, and cover for 5 minutes
You can serve right away, with a Thai white, brown, red, or even purple rice (yes, they all exist, red rice is kao gorng in Thai). If you choose white, jamin-flavored rice, you can mix it into the dish — both herbal/floral tastes will blend nicely. If you opt for a brown, red, or purple rice, I recommend to serve it separately. I usually refrigerate two portions for later, and re-heat in the micro-wave oven. You can use the celery leaves as topping, or use fresh coriander if you have.
Enjoy!
If you’ve tried the recipe, and would like to comment (whether you loved it, or hated it) please do so. I’m welcoming ideas, even if these are non-vegan recipes I’ll have the challenge to “veganize”.
Here’s a tip before you go
When I need to retrieve ingredients from the wok, and leave as much liquid (oil, sauce, …) in it, I prefer to use a skimmer rather than a spatula. It will retain less liquid, and will still allow to stir the content of both woks.
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Be cautious: celery is a known allergen
Be cautious: groudnut oil is made from groundnut, which is a known allergen
Be cautious: soy sauce is made of soy and wheat, which are known allergens