Somehow I think I’ve avoided making this particular Isa Does It recipe – even though it has a bunch of things I really like. Perhaps it was the lack of hoisin sauce of mirin in my pantry? I ended up subbing sherry for the mirin and mixing up a peanut butter-based substitute for the hoisin. The broccoli is crisp, the peanuts are salty and crunchy, and the basil adds a nice freshness.
Usually I like to eat out on Friday nights – it’s always been a long week, I’m always tired, I always get home later than usual. But, well – I’ve been home all day, and I have an excess of tasty vegetables. Why not save money and the frustration of deciding where to go and just cook?
It started with my standard last-minute recipe search technique: I had some beautiful fresh shiitake mushrooms and I was in the mood for tempeh, so I searched* for “shiitake tempeh stir fry.” Among the first results was this perfectly acceptable suggestion: http://www.onegreenplanet.org/vegan-recipe/shiitake-tempeh-and-kale-stir-fry/
Made a few modifications to account for the fresh mushrooms instead of her dried, partially because I hate dried shiitakes but mostly because, hello, beautiful:
But that was minor – subbed vegetable broth for the mushroom liquid in the tempeh marinade, and fresh for dry mushrooms in the stir fry itself. Easy.
After making the marinade and adding the tempeh, I threw a mix of sprouted red rice and plain long grain brown rice in the clay pot while everything else prepped. (This rice combination turned out especially good. I need to find more sprouted red rice.)
I didn’t think this was quite enough of a meal, so I decided to add a simple salad (just mixed baby lettuce) and carrot ginger dressing from the Isa classic Appetite for Reduction. I don’t know how I’d avoided making that recipe before–it is very tasty. I may have used more ginger than it called for, and I have no regrets.
* So until quite recently, I worked on Yahoo’s Search property. Since getting laid off, I decided to switch to another search engine, but feeling contrarian, I opted to set it to DuckDuckGo instead of Google. I know most people won’t care, but good lord, we could have a very long and likely boring conversation about search results.