Japanese-Style Stir Fry

Packed full of sweet and salty flavours, this finely balanced East Asian-inspired dish is as quick to prepare as it is delicious.

• Serves: 5
• Time to Make: approx. 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 500g diced chicken breast, or 600g frozen quorn pieces
• 250g white rice, uncooked weight
• a large red capsicum
• 60g fresh spinach leaves
• 3–4 spring onions
• 250mL reduced-salt chicken stock (can sub with veg stock)
• 50mL soy sauce
• 50mL mirin
• 15g sugar
• 15g cornstarch
• 10mL sesame oil
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 tbsp minced ginger
• pinch of pepper
• cooking oil spray

Method

1. Start cooking rice absorption-method, and leave it to the side as you prepare the stir-fry.
2. Chop the spring onions, and dice the red capsicum finely.
3. Put a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Once hot, spray it with cooking oil, and add the spring onions with tablespoons of minced garlic and ginger. Stir regularly, and allow to cook for 3–4 minutes.
4. If making this dish with chicken, add the chicken at this point and continue to cook until the chicken is mostly cooked on the outside.
5. Add the chopped red capsicum and cook for a further 2 minutes.
6. Add the chicken stock, soy sauce, mirin, sugar and pepper and mix well.
7. If making this dish with quorn, add the frozen pieces at this point and mix well, so it is coated with the sauce.
8. Add the spinach to the pan. Make sure to keep stirring frequently so that the heat is distributed as evenly as possible throughout the pan, and cook for another 12 minutes (you can get away with less if you’ve used chicken instead of quorn).
9. Make a well in the middle of the pan, and add the cornstarch. Mix it through all the liquid in the middle of the well, and then break the well to mix everything in the pan thoroughly together. Keep mixing for a further 2–3 minutes, so that the cornstarch is evenly distributed and the sauce has thickened over the heat. Then drizzle over the sesame oil and stir that through well.
10. Remove from heat, and break it into portions, serving over rice.

Nutrition Info

Notes

• Based on this recipe from Skinnytaste , but I’ve made some adjustments especially to the vegetables.
• I’ve made this both with chicken and with the meat alternative quorn multiple times, and enjoyed it very much both ways. You might want to add a larger quantity of stock if using quorn, to help it cook more easily.