Jade left the school in Massachusetts wanting to get into the Zen of meditation, green tea, vegetarianism and Buddha (Buddhism).
The food in the school cantine must have been shocking. Well whatever. I cook vegetables anyway and we don’t all have to be vegetarian 🙂
A vegetable stir fry is an excellent way of emptying the refrigerator of an overabundance of very expensive organic vegetables, bought joylessly in a Wegmans and Callicoon, NY farmers market spending frenzy.
Naturally, I thought of adding chicken broth to the sauce for the vegetables but that might have retarded Jade’s growth towards nirvana or something. I did add black sesame seeds for protein.
Jade, I think unfairly, accused her father of unnecessary, loud chicken crunching and juice dribbling, in order to sway her from the path of righteousness. I wonder how long she will last 😀
Vegetarian Stir Fry
4 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp chili garlic sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp honey
1 tbsp sherry
2 tbsp peanut oil
1/4 large onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, slivered
1/2 inch fresh ginger, thinly sliced
2 each, red, yellow and orange, mini bell peppers, sliced
6 mini white turnips, halved and sliced
3 baby bok choy, stems separated from leaves (stems sliced, leaves torn into pieces)
1 summer squash, halved and sliced
Black sesame seeds
Stir the soy sauce, hoisin sauce, garlic sauce, vinegar, honey and sherry together in a small bowl. Set aside.
Heat the oil in a wok and add the onion, garlic, ginger and peppers. Stir fry until the onion is just wilted. Add the turnips and bok choy stems, then continue to stir fry until the turnips are crisp tender. Add the summer squash and stir fry for about 2-3 minutes. Stir in the bok choy leaves.
Pour in the sauce mixture, then stir until the bok choy leaves are just wilted. To serve, sprinkle with black sesame seeds.
It sounds like Jade won’t be vegetarian for long, though my step daughter, who used to love liver, became a vegan! Currently she’s in Mongolia, where it may be hard to maintain a strict vegan diet …
It’s incredible that she could have given up liver! Good luck to her in Mongolia. We sampled Mongolian cuisine in Beijing one year. Tea with yak milk. Unforgettable…
Ha ha – perhaps there should have been more liver! I was looking at a list of Mongolian food and noticed that they cook in a single pan and the vegetables are done with the meat. I was quite intrigued by their fermented horse milk 🙂
Single pan cooking is great but the bizarre animal milk is not for me!
I’d have to try that 😉
Kids!!!! The girls all seem to have a “go” at vegetarianism at some point, don’t they? I find that nuts are a good protein substitute! Add them to everything! LOL
She’s still eating eggs and fish, so no big protein worries.
I loved reading the post… I guess we have all been through some food convictions/restrictions at one point or another. By the way your expensive organic veggies look great, Jade must have been a happy girl 😉
Thank you reg. Not as happy as she would have been if she had the chicken 😀
Gorgeous veggies but I may have joined in with th chicken crunching!
Thank you Chica. She’ll get over it 😉
GORGEOUS colors!
Thank you Serena.
I love a vegetable stir fry. Wonder how long she’ll last with going without meat. Could be a phase or be like my sister and be a life long vegetarian.
Of course it’s her decision but I think it might be a passing fancy.
Ugh. My teen girl isn’t forgoing meat but anything that is remotely interesting…pastry, cream, butter…dessert, and TREAT of any kind. She has suddenly developed an affinity towards quinoa. It’s not bad, we could all eat more healthily.
Maybe she’s dieting. I’m not dessert as they say in France, so wouldn’t really notice if she wasn’t eating any treats but I notice the meat 🙂
Love the stir fry! Looks delish and fresh!
http://www.khoasinclair.co
Thank you Khoa.
Love this post! I was vegetarian for an afternoon once, my mother pulled out some wild boar salami from where we used to spend the summer months in Italy and I was off the vegetable wagon immediately. Hopefully Jade enjoys the same short-lived vegetarianism, lovingly reared meat is just too good to pass up. In the meantime you get more, yippee!
That’s what I told her. More for us 🙂 She seems to have frequent stomach aches. Probably just hungry.
It looks delicious!
Merci Mathieu.