Black bean stir fry with cashews

I am a part-time vegetarian and occasional vegan. No real moral or ethical cause except for wanting to reduce the amount of meat I consume. But when you speak to die hard vegetarian/vegans they will be effusive about the latest dish they have created – tasty, filling, cheap etc… but quite often the meals are none of these things. Pre-prepared veggie meals from supermarkets have ingredients from all over the world (food miles anyone?) and all the meals are massively processed – and we are all being told to cut down on processed food.

Now, I’m not dissing the vegetarians or vegans, but we all have to be honest, the veggie meals often aren’t great.

So I have been on a quest to find meals that would satisfy even the most virulent carnivore in terms of taste. The following is possibly vegan (I use shop-bought Black Bean in chilli oil that doesn’t say it’s vegan, so I can’t claim that the whole meal is vegan). This recipe has almost too much flavour and is super quick to prepare.

Black bean stir fry with cashews (contains nuts – obviously) serves 2

Ingredients:

1 Leek white part, halved and chopped into 5mm bits.
1 Red pepper, chopped into bite size pieces.
1 Pac Choi white and green parts chopped however you want.
1 Clove of Garlic, crushed.
1 Thumb size piece of ginger, grated.
300 ml of vegetable stock (I use the gel type as they seem to have less salt and quite a lot of flavour.
1 Tbsp salted black beans – available from Chinese supermarket/online (rinse excess salt off before use).
1Tbsp Black beans in Chilli oil – available from Chinese supermarket/online
1Tbsp toasted Sesame oil.
50g roasted cashew nuts.
1 Tsp Cornflour to thicken.

Optional: a handful of beans sprouts, or some sliced water chestnuts, or both.

Method:

Fry the ginger and garlic in the chilli oil for a bit, being careful not to burn anything. Then add the leeks and cook for a couple of minutes, adding a splash of water to help it along, or better still a splash of Chinese rice wine – if you can’t get this then dry sherry will do.

Add all the other ingredients except for the Sesame oil and cornflour. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for five minutes. Mix the cornflour with a bit of water and add. You might need to add more cornflour to get it to the consistency you want, but once thickened, add the sesame oil, stir and serve with noodles or rice. Garnish with Sliced spring onions if you want.

Roasting cashews.

If you buy pre-roasted cashews, wash off any salt before using them. Better still roast them yourself.

I do this in a microwave – watch them carefully as they burn really quickly: Empty the content of the packet onto a plate. Cook for about a minute, then take out and check. Move them around, picking out any that are starting to get too dark. Put back in the microwave and cook for 30 seconds at a time until they’re the colour that you want, checking that they are not burning – you’ll smell it when they do.

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