Cashew Veg Stir Fry
October 6th, 2011
Cashew Vegetable Stir Fry
Vegetable stir frys are a beautiful thing. I love the green of the string beans, scallions and broccoli, the red of the pepper and the orange of carrots (not pictured). I like to keep my veggies crisp when cooking them so I don’t cook them for a very long time. Something about the crunch makes me a happy girl. My absolute favorite part of the stir fry are the cashews. I love em’. All time favorite nut. I add them to everything I possibly can. They are added towards the end of the cooking process. I’d say when there is about 5 minutes of cooking time left is a good time to add them. It warms them up and toast’s them a bit.
For years I would just splash some tamari or shoyu into the pan at the end and call it a day. Then I got to wondering how chinese restaurants alway’s have a thickened sauce on their veggie dishes and thought to one day add some arrowroot powder (you can also use cornstarch). I pour whatever soy type of sauce i’m using into a measuring cup, i’d say about 1/3-1/2 a cup depending on the amount of veggies I’m using and then stir in about 2 heaping teaspoons of arrowroot (or cornstarch). I raise the heat of the pan to High and then pour in it and stir the hell out of the veggies and cashews. If the pan is hot enough the sauce will thicken almost immediately. I stir until everything is coated and then serve immediately over jasmine rice with some scallions sprinkled on top.
This was a big deal dinner for us the other night. You might be thinking what’s the big deal about a stir fry but when you are us and you ate this 2-3 times a week for years, then had kids and stopped eating it because they won’t eat it and you refuse to cook separate meals for them all the time……it’s just a big deal. I don’t like making Reno a separate meal from us. I want her to eat what we eat but every once in awhile I just want to eat what I want to eat so the night we ate this she had a PB&J and I took a few pieces of broccoli out before adding the shoyu/tamari sauce to the pan. Interestingly enough she ate all the broccoli before eating the sandwich. Perhaps one day I’ll get her to eat this stir fry.
8 Comments Add your own
1. Jes | October 6th, 2011 at 4:49 pm
If I were Reno, I’d mow down on a whole bowl of the stir-fry! Cashews & broccoli were two of my favorite things growing up and they still are. And without stir-frys I’d have almost never eaten back in college. Mmm, yours looks delish!
2. Erin | October 7th, 2011 at 12:51 pm
The thickened sauce is a stir fry essential! Sounds delicious.
3. erin | October 7th, 2011 at 3:56 pm
I can’t stop looking at this stir fry. Just gorgeous.
4. corrie | October 8th, 2011 at 12:02 pm
i’ve never thought to thicken my stir-fry sauce!
5. allularpunk | October 8th, 2011 at 1:04 pm
cashews are my favorite nut as well! and really, there’s nothing like a good veggie stir fry. yum.
6. jessy | October 8th, 2011 at 8:49 pm
we used to just toss in some tamari at the end of the stir-fry and call it a day, too - and like you, we found out about arrowroot & cornstarch and life was awesome. these days we make a tamari-rice vinegar-agave-sriracha sauce and it’s crazy delicious. hooooray for rock’n stir-frys and i’m glad you all ate what you wanted to and that Reno was happy with broccoli (i think it’s her intro into loving stir-fry!) ‘n a PB&J. sometimes you’ve just gotta eat what you’ve been craving, fo ’sho!
7. lazysmurf | October 10th, 2011 at 10:23 am
My vegetable stir frys never turn out so beautiful! I don’t ever add cashews either, unless I am following a recipe and I should cause they are lovely. I think the kind of soy sauce you use makes a big difference too. And fresh Herbs at the end.
8. Rachel | December 30th, 2011 at 1:02 pm
I am eating this as I type! So easy! So good! So warm and satisfying! I had leftover rice to use up and the tail end of some cashews and some broccoli and this was the perfect thing for lunch. MMMMMMM!
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