Monday’s Red, White and Greens Stir Fry: Super Simple, Very Versatile

Serves 4

Quick stir-frying plus red peppers and water chestnuts give a pleasant crunch to Asian greens, not to mention some nice color. Locavores will want to use red peppers frozen from last autumn’s harvest and raw white scallion bottoms for the water chestnuts. If you can believe it, I ate this for breakfast because I feel better eating lighter food like this first thing (plus, it gets more vegetables into the day.) But of course it’s good any time of day. See the note at the end about adding some protein for a one dish meal.

• ½ to 1 lb. Asian greens (e.g., bok choy, mizuna, tatsoi)
• 1 can sliced water chestnuts, sliced roughly into matchsticks
• 1 red pepper, diced to ½”

Prepare veggies and set aside in separate bowls. If using bok choy, mizuna or another long-stemmed Asian green, first slice stems on the diagonal, about ½” thick and place in a bowl. Chop remaining greens roughly into 1” strips and place in another bowl.

• 2 tsp. safflower oil

In a wok or very large sauté pan, heat oil over medium high heat until hot but not smoking. Add stems of greens, turn heat to high and stir fry about 2 minutes. Then add each of the greens, water chestnuts and peppers, one at a time, stir frying about about 2 minutes after each addition. As soon as vegetables are crisp tender, remove pan from heat and push vegetables to sides of pan. In center of pan, combine:

• 1 tsp. toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp. bottled or fresh minced garlic

Cook 2-3 minutes from the pan’s residual heat. Stir everything to combine. Sprinkle with

• Soy sauce, to taste
• 1-2 tsp. additional toasted sesame oil, to taste

Serve immediately

Options: Add substance and make it a meal with tofu or cooked, shredded chicken. If using tofu, crumble 1 pkg. firm or extra hard and drain of water. Before cooking vegetables, brown crumbled tofu in about 1 Tbsp. oil over high heat. Remove to a bowl and reserve. Just before vegetables are done, stir in tofu or chicken.

Read on for Tuesday‘s Wilted Spinach with Radish Dressing: Simple but Good Enough for Company