Peanut Veggie Stir-Fry

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Stir-fries always come in handy for weeknight dinners. Besides their speed, they are great for vegetarians and vegans since they have a ton of vegetables and eat like a filling and wholesome meal. They also make tasty leftovers.

If want recipes that are perfect for meal prep, stir-fries tick all the boxes. When I sit down to think about lunches and dinners for the week ahead, I like to pencil in at least one stir-fry. That’s because I can get more than one meal out of them, and the leftovers taste just as good as when you first cooked the dish.

This easy vegetable stir-fry recipe will satisfy your craving for take-out, but in a more nutritious way. The sauce is a lighter version than what you would find at a restaurant. I make it with low-sodium soy sauce and it’s sweetened with a little maple syrup and hoisin instead of lots of sugar.

The Ingredients

This is what you need:

The stir fry sauce is blend of ingredients that I like to keep in my pantry and fridge just so I am prepared for stir-fry or fried-rice. I intentionally skip cornstarch to thicken it because I want it to turn out as if the veggies are lighted dressed in the sauce and not completely coated.

• Soy sauce is the base. Always use low-sodium soy sauce because it is less salty, and you don’t want it to overpower everything else.
• Peanut butter: I like natural because it tends to be more runny than conventional peanut butter. Also, I prefer natural peanut butter where the only ingredients are peanuts and salt, and it doesn’t contain palm oil.
• Hoison is a sweet and tangy sauce made from fermented soybean paste, chilies, garlic, vinegar, oil and sugar.
• Rice vinegar has a pleasant acidity. It’s made from fermented rice.
• Sesame oil gives the sauce additional nuttiness.
• Maple syrup adds a touch of sweetness and not too much like brown sugar can sometimes do. You can substitute with honey, if you don’t need the recipe to be vegan. 
• Salt and pepper: With all these bold ingredients, I use a small amount of salt and pepper for seasoning.

I always love a nutty stir-fry. For this one you get that with the peanut butter in the sauce and the actual peanuts with the vegetables.

• Peanuts: I recommend using roasted peanuts. You still do toast them in the skillet in the first step of the recipe. It is up to you whether they are unsalted or lightly salted peanuts.
• Broccoli should have tight clusters. Avoid any with yellow flowers. I like buying broccoli crowns and cutting them into florets myself, but you can find bags of them precut.
• Peppers: Yellow, orange and red bell peppers are crisp and sweet. I like them better than green peppers, which are more bitter. 
• Snow peas or sugar snap peas are both fantastic for stir fries because they have a crisp bite. You can use either one.
• Red cabbage: It’s easiest to buy shredded cabbage, but you can cut it yourself. Assuming you will have more than you need, use the extra in a cabbage salad.
• Scallions add a mild green onion flavor. I sauté the white parts with the ginger and garlic. Then I sprinkle the final dish with the sliced greens, so they are almost like fresh herbs.
• Garlic is one of the aromatic ingredients in the stir-fry.
• Ginger: Minced fresh ginger adds its special taste, which is so good with this combination of toasted peanuts, veggies and the rest of the ingredients.
• Oil: For stir-fries, I use a non-GMO vegetable oil (not olive oil) because of its neutral flavor and high smoke point. 

How To Make This Peanut Veggie Stir-Fry

1. Make the sauce. Whisk together the soy sauce, peanut butter, hoison sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, maple syrup, salt and pepper in a small bowl.

2. Toast the peanuts in a skillet or wok on the stove over low to medium heat. In 2-3 minutes, they will turn golden brown. After that, remove them from the skillet and set them aside.

3. Sauté the white parts of the scallions with the minced garlic and ginger until fragrant in oil warmed over high heat.

4. Add the broccoli, peppers, snap peas and cabbage. Keep sautéing them and moving them around the pan for 3-4 minutes. They should be cooked and warmed through but still crisp-tender. You want all that good texture and bite.

5. Pour the sauce into the veggies. Let the mixture bubble for a few minutes, stirring them together.

6. Fold in the toasted peanuts and sliced green scallions. Serve with brown rice.

Serving

This is a fast recipe, so I like to make the rice the night before and just warm it in the microwave. That’s because rice takes more time to cook, and it shouldn’t be the reason why you have to wait for dinner.

For a side dish, try this cucumber carrot salad or an Asian cabbage salad with almond ginger vinaigrette.

Leftovers & Storage

As mentioned, stir-fries are some of the best leftovers. Store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 4 days. Then reheat them in the microwave or eat them cold right from the fridge. Don’t freeze leftovers.

Recipe Tips

Have all your ingredients prepped and ready before you start cooking. This is a good rule anytime you make stir-fries. They cook so quickly that you won’t have time to sneak in cutting or chopping.

For the natural peanut butter in the sauce, it needs to be on the more liquidy side. We all know that natural nut butters closer to the bottom of the jar can be dry. They will be tough to whisk into the soy sauce.

This recipe turns out best with fresh and not frozen vegetables. If you only have frozen veggies, then make this frozen vegetable stir-fry instead.