Eggplant & Basil Stir Fry
"One of my favorite concoctions--I often throw this together to use up eggplant and basil when my garden (aka my farmer's market basket) overflows! This takes literally 15 minutes to throw together...cook the stir fry while your water comes to a boil & your noodles cook, then mix it all together and enjoy!"
- Ready In:
- 15mins
- Ingredients:
- 10
- Serves:
-
6
ingredients
- 2 tablespoons peanut oil
- 1⁄2 cup thinly sliced hot pepper (use sweet peppers if you prefer)
- 6 garlic cloves
- 1 lb purple eggplant
- 1 cup basil leaves (1 good-sized bunch, either Thai basil or sweet will work)
- 2 cups bean sprouts, rinsed
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce (use low sodium if desired)
- 1 tablespoon mirin
- 2 tablespoons peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
- 8 ounces dried rice vermicelli
directions
- Bring a pot of salted water to boil. Cook rice noodles 2-4 minutes (or as directed on the package), till tender. Drain, reserving 1/4 Celsius cooking water.
- Slice eggplant in half lengthwise, then quarter each piece lengthwise again. Slice horizontally into 1/2" planks (they'll be roughly 1/2" by 1" pieces). You may peel the eggplant first if you don't like the skin.
- Remove stems and roughly chop basil leaves (so they're bite size--if they are all small, no need to chop).
- In a large wok, heat oil til it smokes. Toss in garlic and peppers and stir fry till fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add eggplant, basil, & bean sprouts and stir fry till tender, about 3 minutes.
- While eggplant cooks, whisk soy sauce, mirin, peanut butter, and reserved pasta water together into a thin sauce.
- Once eggplant is tender, remove wok from flame, toss in noodles and sauce and stir briefly to coat. Serve.
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
velorutionista
minneapolis, 63
<p><img src=http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b399/susied214/permanent%20collection/adoptedspring08.jpg border=0 alt=Photobucket /> <br /> <br />Hubby and I are currently living in St. Paul, MN in a great little neighborhood with tons of independent businesses. We have restaurants, natural foods coops (yes, plural!!), libraries, neighborhood movie theaters, everything is easy walking or biking distance--we love it! We enjoy biking a lot, too, and the Twin Cities have a fantastic network of bike trails, tons of things to do and see?we?ve found the perfect location! We currently live in an apartment, so our gardening attempts are limited to 3 large pots of herbs (one is all basil, the others are a mix of rosemary, tarragon, thai basil, mint, curry plant, sage, thyme, and oregano). We're saving for a house, so eventually we'll have a yard to plant more veggies in, but for now the herb pots do pretty well! <br /> <br />I enjoy cooking in my spare time (well, and my not-so-spare time, too...my hubby, who also loves to cook, accuses me of planning way-too-elaborate weeknight meals, but he never complains once he starts eating...no matter how late it is!) We are pretty adamant about eating healthy and sustainable foods. I try to make a point to source the majority of my ingredients as locally as possible, and I'm very lucky to have the wonderful St. Paul farmer's market available year round (though in the winter my choices are limited to fresh eggs, organic/free-range meat of all sorts, cheese, honey, baked goods...limited, right?...poor me!...in the summer the market is bursting with all that plus all manner of vegetables, and I've never met a vegetable there I didn't like). I also eat a good deal of wild game meat (elk, deer, antelope) because my family (who still live in MT) ship a box of hunting season bounty to us every winter. What doesn't come from the farmers market or the wild game express comes from my local natural foods co-op (St. Paul's Mississippi Market), which has a plethora of local products to choose from as well! <br /> <br />I try to eat as healthfully as possible, so if I make your recipe, I may alter it to fit my preferred diet (i.e. I'll cut down on fat, add veggies, change cuts of meat, cut down on cheese and certain condiments like mayo, etc.). I will still rate the recipe unless I pretty much don't follow it at all, in which case I'll just leave a comment with what I did--I always like to see what others have done with recipes, but I don't think it's fair to grade the recipe if I didn't actually follow it! I won?t generally make a recipe if it calls for ingredients I don?t like (and can?t sub out for something I do like), so most of my ratings are pretty high for that reason. I?ve never really understood people who try a recipe and then give it a very low rating only because they don?t like the ingredients called for. Anyhow. <br /> <br />My rating system for recipes is pretty simple. I won?t give a star rating to a recipe if I don?t follow it fairly closely. If I do give your recipe a star rating, this is what it means: <br />5 stars = fantastic flavor or unique (and tasty) & the recipe worked as written?would definitely make it again <br />4 stars = good flavor &/or the recipe needed only some minor changes to work?would likely make again <br />3 stars = the recipe needed a fair bit of alteration to be edible?might try it again, but would make some major changes <br />2 stars = good idea in theory, bad recipe in practice?would only try it again (with massive changes) if I?m feeling ambitious/creative <br />1 star = inedible?would not be trying it again</p>
