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Mushroom Stir-Fry Recipe

Filed under Low Carb, Main Course, Vegetable, Vegetarian, Wheat-free

Mushroom Stir-Fry

When my father announced he was interested in trying out a stir-fry recipe, I was skeptical. I've been avoiding my mother's stir-fry my entire adult life (twenty years of experiments with water chestnuts, bok choy and soy sauce and still no improvement). But when dad gets an idea to do something, it's best not to get in his way. And when a confirmed meat-atarian desires to make a plateful of veggies, that's a good thing, isn't it? Dad adapted this recipe from a recent issue of Cook's Illustrated, the main difference being that the Cook's Illustrated version calls for Portobello mushrooms and we used regular cremini and button mushrooms. Different vegetables cook at different rates and in different ways. So the trick to this stir-fry is to cook most of the veggies separately, bringing them together at the end with the sauce. The result? The sauce is superb and the veggies perfectly cooked, not too mushy, not too hard. The sauce with honey, chili, soy sauce, and ginger is at once hot, sweet, salty and tangy.

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Mushroom Stir-Fry Recipe

Ingredients

Glaze
2 Tbsp soy sauce (use wheat-free soy sauce if you are avoiding gluten)
2 Tbsp honey
1/4 cup of chicken or vegetable broth

Sauce
3 Tbsp soy sauce (use wheat-free soy sauce if you are avoiding gluten)
3/4 cup chicken or vegetable broth
2 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 teaspoon Asian chili sauce
1 Tbsp corn starch

Vegetables
4 teaspoons minced garlic
4 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
4 Tbsp vegetable oil, preferably a high smoke-point oil such as grapeseed oil, peanut oil, or canola oil
About 2 lbs of cremini or button mushrooms, quartered
2 cups of a long-cooking veggie such as sliced carrots. Other long-cooking vegetables that can be used are broccoli florets, cauliflower florets, asparagus (diagonally cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces), or green beans (trimmed, diagonally cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces)
1/2 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup of a more quickly cooking vegetable such as red bell pepper (stems, seeds removed, cut into 1/2-inch dice) or snow peas (strings and ends removed)
1 1b leafy greens - bok choy or napa cabbage (separate the stems of the bok choy and the tougher core of the napa cabbage from the greens)
1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Method

1 Whisk the glaze ingredients together in a bowl and the sauce ingredients together in a different bowl. In a third bowl, mix the garlic, ginger and 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil.

2 Heat 3 Tbsp of vegetable oil in a large, stick-free skillet on medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and cook, without stirring, until browned on one side, about 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and use tongs to turn the mushrooms to brown the other side. When mushrooms are browned and tender, about 5 minutes, increase the heat to medium-high and add the glaze. Cook, stirring to coat the mushrooms, 1 to 2 minutes more. Transfer mushrooms to a large bowl. Wipe out skillet with a paper towel.

3 Heat a teaspoon of vegetable oil in the skillet on medium-high heat until the pan begins to smoke. Add carrots (or other longer cooking veggie) and cook, stirring occasionally, until they begin to brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Add 1/2 cup broth and cover skillet. Cook until carrots are tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Uncover and cook until liquid evaporates. Transfer carrots to bowl with mushrooms. Wipe skillet clean with paper towel.

4 Heat a teaspoon of vegetable oil in the skillet on medium high heat until it begins to smoke. Add the bell pepper and bok choy stems or napa cabbage cores and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables begin to brown and soften, about 1 to 2 minutes. Add leafy greens and cook for a minute further. Push the veggies to the side of the pan and add the garlic-ginger mixture in the clearing. Cook 15 seconds, until fragrant, and then mix in with the other vegetables.

5 Add all the vegetables back into the pan (mushrooms, carrots, etc.). Add the sauce to the pan. Mix well and cook, stirring, until the sauce has thickened and all the vegetables are coated with the sauce, about 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a serving platter. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds if desired. Serve immediately. Recommended with rice.

Serves 3 to 4.

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Posted by Elise on Apr 9, 2006 and indexed Chinese Food, Stir-fry

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Comments

How would you consider tofu holding up in this?

Posted by: Jeff on April 10, 2006 8:42 AM

Hi Jeff,
If I were to include tofu, I would use the extra firm type, cut it into 1/2-inch cubes, and prepare it in the same manner as the mushrooms.

Posted by: Elise [TypeKey Profile Page] on April 10, 2006 10:29 AM

Yumm!! That sounds delicious.
Big fan of mushrooms and that sounds wonderful.

Posted by: Gordon on April 10, 2006 1:18 PM

Excellent recipe! I didn't have any fresh ginger so I used some ground ginger, and it worked just fine. Also, make sure you use a paper towel to wipe down the pan in between cooking the different veggies or you'll be wearing grease on your shirt!

Posted by: Benjamin Tran on April 13, 2006 7:58 AM

I love Portobello mushrooms, and if I were to make it as the original recipe should be carefull of anything or just substitute it and follow the direction.

Posted by: Mayank on April 13, 2006 6:06 PM

I tried this out last night. It was really good. Broke the Chinese-always-turns-out-bad jinx at home. Just personally would like it a bit spicer though...honey sweetens it quite a bit. thanks!

Posted by: Anamika on December 4, 2006 6:27 PM

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