Three Easy Stir Fry Vegetable Recipes

Hi everyone, welcome to souped up recipes. Today we're making Chinese stir-fry vegetables. Vegetable side dish is something that will be on our dinner table almost every day. And I'm surprised that I didn't even share any this style of recipes in the past. So today I'm going to show you three examples. They're easy to make, very delicious and vegan friendly. So let's get started. The first recipe is suan rong you cai. Suan rong means garlic. You cai looks like this. It's kind of like bok choy but it's bigger and the stems tend to be skinnier. This is one of favorite greens for this garlic style stir-fry vegetables. When I say garlic style which means you can switch this you cai with like broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, bok choy. What you choose usually depends on the season. What you need to do is wash the you cai completely, take a knife, cut open the stem like that. If it's a big thick stem, I cut it again. If it's a small thin stem, I just cut it in half. That way it cooks more even. Next we're going to blanch the you cai. In a pot of boiling water, add in one teaspoon of salt and two teaspoons of vegetable oil. Salt and oil can keep the vegetables stay green and shiny. Let the stem touch the water first, wait for about 15 seconds, then drop the rest down and let it blanch for another 10 seconds. Sometimes the vegetables are pretty big and you might need to stir it a little bit so everything is soaked in the hot water. Take it out. I like to put it in some ice water to stop the cooking process. Well, my camera died and didn't film that part so just imagine. In the meanwhile, you can make a quick sauce. Three quarter teaspoon of salt, half teaspoon of sugar, half teaspoon of cornstarch, three tablespoon of water. Mix it up and you can heat up your wok. Put your hands above the bottom and if you can feel the heat coming up, add some oil. About one tablespoon. Give it a toss to cool the bottom. Add some roughly minced garlic. I used a quarter cup. Add some ginger, just about one and a half teaspoon. Stir them for about 10 seconds. Take the youchui out of the ice bath and shake the excess water. Add it to the wok. Stir it for 10 seconds. We already cooked the youchui. This is just to mix it with the garlic so it smells good. Pour in the sauce. There is starch in the sauce so be sure to stir before adding it to the wok. Quickly toss everything for another 10 seconds. The sauce should be thickened and coated youchui properly. You can take it out and serve. This is the most basic Cantonese garlic stir-fry vegetable recipe. Almost any family or restaurant has this dish. Quick and easy. You want to start making Chinese food and eat healthy? This is the one that you should try first. There you have it. Garlic stir-fry youchui. It's pretty big. It's not gonna be elegant to eat but that's okay. It's my culture. So garlicky and very fresh. The quality of the greens really decides if this dish is good or bad because sometimes a fresh green vegetable itself just tastes so good. The second recipe is haoyou chaozacai. Haoyou means oyster sauce. Chaozacai means stir-fry mixed veggies. The name is pretty straightforward, right? I know you're probably thinking isn't this video vegan friendly? Don't worry. I got you. Let's get started by making the sauce. Referred to the name, this dish can't be complete without oyster sauce. I am actually using my homemade vegan oyster sauce. Very easy to make and good for any recipe that asks for oyster sauce. I will put the recipe link in the description so you can check it out. And for those who are not vegan, you can just use regular oyster sauce. Okay, let's get back to cooking. 2 tbsp of vegan or regular oyster sauce. To that, I am adding 2 tsp of soy sauce, a little touch of black pepper, 3 tbsp of water. Mix them together and set the sauce aside. Let's prepare the veggies. Some black fungus. I use this dry form. A little bit goes a long way because they expand a lot inside after we dehydrate it. Soak them for 4 hours until they are much bigger and softer. Then you just rip it into bite size. If you don't have black fungus, you can use same amount of kelp. They have similar texture and color. You just do the same thing with mushrooms. I would love to use fresh mushrooms for this recipe but I went to the supermarket today and all the mushrooms looked kind of spoiled, not fresh at all. So I decided to use these dry ones. Slice them and set it aside. This is sweet broccoli. In China, we will use Chinese broccoli, also called gailan which I couldn't find in Florida. So I am just going to use this. You can also use regular broccoli too. Take a scissor and cut off the top flowering part. You will have some big stems left. Don't waste that. Just cut it into smaller size. Set that aside as well. I also like to put cabbage in my stir fries. Not a whole cabbage. I only use a small amount of this. I just want to show you a method that I like to do. Cut the stem off and rip the cabbage into bite size instead of cutting it. This is an effective way to make sure your cabbage will carry more flavors when stir frying. Set that aside and we will work on the long beans. Remove the end and cut it into three inches long. Some carrot, which I use the rope cutting technique and cut it into these bite size. By the way, for this recipe, you can use any vegetables you like. What matters is the order that you throw the vegetables into your wok because they need different amount of time to cook and you want everything come out perfectly done. Therefore, I am putting the broccoli stem with the carrot because they take longer to cook. Okay, let's get our wok heat up. Add some oil, about one and a half tablespoon. Toss it around and add in the carrot, broccoli stem, and the long beans. Stir them on medium heat. You can cover the lid which allows them to cook faster and more even. I like to cook them about 60% done while the long beans just about to become pliable because I like my vegetables crunchy. If you want it softer, you can cook it longer. Whenever you think it is ready, add in the rest of the broccoli and the cabbage. Stir them for another 3 minutes. Black fungus, going. And the mushroom, my favorite. Give them a rough mix then add in the garlic and ginger the last so you don't burn them. I prefer more garlic though but I used most of the garlic on the first recipe so this dish gets so little but that's okay. This has more varieties of vegetables. Keep stirring them until you can smell the aromatics coming up. Pour the sauce. Mix them well so the sauce coats everything. You do want to do a final taste to make sure the flavor is good. Mine does need a little more salt. Now we are ready to serve. This recipe is awesome especially when you need to clean out the fridge. You just put all the vegetables together and you have a healthy stir fry salad. Let's try it. So good. It actually has a lot of flavors and different textures in it. Very garlicky and umami. Tastes so much better than just steamed vegetables. I like to eat it as much as meat. That is how good it is. Maybe I think this recipe can change your attitude about veggies. Trust me. Give it a try and you can start eating healthy. Last recipe is spicy stir fry shredded lotus root. It's like my family's recipe. I don't know if there is anyone else cook lotus root this way but it's so delicious. You will need a lotus root about 8 ounces. When you buy it make sure you check both sides of the edge. You want to get a clean one. Sometimes the mud will get stuck in these holes by accident and it's so painful to clean that. The skin is a bit tougher to eat so peel it. Then slice it with the direction how the lotus hole grows about three to four millimeter thick. Cut it into thin shreds. You will need a pretty good knife to get it beautifully done. Put it into cold water for two purposes. It can prevent the lotus root from changing color. Also you can wash off the excess starch. You will also need some fresh green peppers. I couldn't find Chinese style peppers today so I use these Cuban peppers. I remove the seeds and cut it into thin shreds as well. I think this Cuban pepper is not spicy at all so I add some of these dried chilies. I am just cutting it into shreds as well. In this way the seeds can come out. They look small but extremely hot. A little bit goes a long way. If you don't eat spicy food you don't need to add this. Heat up your wok and add some oil. Toss it around so the oil coats the bottom. Throw in the shredded pepper along with some aromatics, shredded ginger, white part of spring onion and some garlic. Oh don't forget the dry hot chilies. Stir them on medium high heat for one minute. You might want to open all the windows and turn on the fan in advance. It is going to be spicy. I like to add some salt and sugar at this point so the seasoning has enough time to balance out the spiciness. Keep stirring it until the pepper are about to turn soft. Then add in the lotus root which I drained out all the water already. Stir everything together. The lotus root would take about three to four minutes to cook. Just be patient. Wait for it to become pliable. Oh if you need to sneeze turn your face away from the wok. It is very smoky and hot. Add two and a half teaspoon of soy sauce just for some distinctive taste. Mix it up until the color is evenly changed and you are ready to serve. This is my favorite way to cook lotus root. Oh my god. So good. You saw me make this recipe. It's so simple. Just a few different seasonings. It just came out so delicious. The lotus root itself tastes very crunchy, delicious and has a little spicy kick. You wouldn't believe me how tasty this is unless you really give it a try. So that is all I have today. Three different types of method and sauce. I hope this video encourages you to make more vegetables and start eating healthy. As always you can check the description for the ingredient amount. If you like my show click my channel name and find out how to cook your favorite Chinese food. New videos coming out every Wednesday and I'll see you next time. Bye!