I love the flavours of South East and East Asia and this quick, tasty dish come together beautifully avoiding food waste at the same time. Last week I told you about my everything omelet, this week it is time for another fridge cleaner with my everything stir fry.

This week I had not used all vegetables for a new dish I was trying out, so I decided to make an everything stir fry for lunch. Using vegetables that are about to go off, in this quick dish will give them a second life. Apart from a few ingredients to make the sauce, this recipe can contain whatever is left in your fridge.

Everything stir fry ingredients laid out on two beige cloths. Cooked rice in a bowl, stir fry sauce mixed in a bowl, a blue plate with an egg, two slices of tofu and some green beans, a stalk of green onion. — Everything stir fry ingredients laid out

This versatile dish will brighten up any lunch date or easy dinner. You can use whichever vegetables you have in the fridge, just add them to the wok or frying pan in size order. Larger, bulkier vegetable first, leafy, thin vegetables last. If you have some green onions, add them last, cutting them with a scissor as you plate your food.

Making the sauce

What ties one of these ‘everything’ recipes together is the sauce or spices you add to your dish. Then it does not matter what the base is, the secret is in the sauce.

The stir fry sauce does not need to be the same as my recipe. If you don’t have all the ingredients for the sauce, you can easily omit or substitute them for others. Taste your way to a sauce that tastes good. This is why you want to mix your sauce in a bowl before you add it to the stir fry.

Everything stir fry sauce ingredients laid out: two small chilies one green and one red, a bowl of white wine vinegar, a clove of garlic, a thumb size piece of ginger a bowl of soy sauce and a bowl of sesame oil. All on a background of two beige cloths. — Everything stir fry sauce ingredients.

Dinner time

There are lots of different ways you can make this dish, only your imagination can stop your fun at dinner time. Why not involve the whole family and they can make their own stir fry bowls. Start with adding rice to your dinner bowls. Then cut all the vegetables and put them in separate bowls. Everyone in your family can add the vegetables they prefer and take it to the stove to fry individually. If you have more than one frying pan, this will go relatively quickly and as you have the same sauce, you don’t have to clean the pans in between each use. This is of course if you don’t have any allergies in the family. Top the stir fry bowls with a handful of peanuts, if desired.

Freezable

Rice freezes really well and for the stir fry, you do not even need to defrost the rice before you start cooking. Simply dump the frozen rice into a hot wok, or large frying pan on high heat and the rice will defrost in no time, before you adding the vegetables.

Once the dish is cooked and stirred together, you can till freeze the stir fry. Put it in an air tight container and stick it in the freezer for no more than three months. When reheating your stir fry, add a bit more of the soya sauce mixture to revive the flavours.

Cooked stir fry in a bowl, next to a ceramic spoon laying on top of a green table cloth

Print Recipe

Everything stir fry

A quick and easy way to save some tired looking vegetables from your fridge

Prep Time20

Cook Time15

Total Time35

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Chinese

Keyword: eggs, rice, vegetables

Servings: 1 portion

Ingredients

100 g tofu
200 g green beans
1 green onion
150 gram cooked rice
1 egg
Sesame oil to fry in

Sauce:

2 tbsp soy sauce
1 ½ tbsp sesame oil
½ tbsp vinegear
1 garlic minced
2 centimeter ginger minced
1 red chili

Instructions

Start by pressing tofu between two paper towels.
While it’s pressing, cut the green beans and slice the spring onion.
Prepare the stir fry sauce.
Mince garlic and ginger.
Half and divine chili and cut into smaller pieces.
Whisk all ingredients together.
Heat up a frying pan, or wok if you have it and add in sesame oil.
Slice the tofu in thin slices and add to your pan with the green beans. Let fry together for about five minutes to let the tofu get some colour.
Add your cooked rice and mix well.
Push your vegetables and rice to the side, crack the egg into the pan and quickly stir to make scrambled egg.
Once the egg has hardened, mix it with the rice and vegtables.
Add the sauce and let cook until stir fry is ‘dry’.
Cut the green onion and add it to your pan before plating,
Serve right away piping hot.

Notes

Use which ever vegetables you have in your fridge that needs to be saved. Cooking time will depend on size and texture. Larger vegetables first, smaller towards the end.

Variations

Don’t have any rice? It works just as well with ramen noodles of all kinds. Add the noodles last though. Let the vegetables cook together first, while you are cooking the noodles in boiling water and add them just before you add the soya sauce mixture.
Do you have leftover rice, but not enough vegetables to justify a stir fry? Try this no waste creamy tuna bake instead.