Meatless Monday: Classic Stir Fry with Green Tea Rice

Sometimes it can be tough to get a wide variety of veggies in your day.

A great way to get a whole bunch in one sitting is to make a classic stir fry and the icing on the cake is this dish is full of calcium. Yes. Calcium!

Both the bok choy and sesame seeds are full of bone strengthening, easily absorbed calcium.

Stir fry is the perfect meal to make when you have left over veggies in the fridge. The recipe below has a great variety of vegetables but you can always substitute with what you have on hand.

Its also a good dish to make extra of so you can use it to fill a whole what or gluten free wrap for lunch the next day.

This recipe uses coconut oil to cook the veggies and green tea to cook the rice. Using coconut oil to stir fry the veggies is a great choice - it is perfect for high heat cooking and is full of heart healthy fats. It also gives the veg a crisp, sweet taste. Cooking the rice with green tea instead of water gives the rice a subtle nice flavour along with lots of antioxidants.

Classic Stir Fry with Green Tea Rice
serves 4

Ingredients
4 pieces of bok choy, chopped in large pieces
1/2 large crown of broccoli, cut in 1" trees
1/2 red pepper, cut in ribbons
1/2 yellow pepper, cut in ribbons
4 carrots, cut in ribbons
5 crimini mushrooms, sliced
1/2 white onion
1 tbsp organic coconut oil
2 cups brown or wild rice
2 organic green tea bag (or 2 tsp loose leaf)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 Tbsb tamari or soy sauce
1/4 cup brown rice vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 Tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp grated or ground ginger (optional)

Instructions
To make the rice, boil 3.5 cups of water in a kettle. Pour it in a glass or ceramic bowl with the two green tea bags or loose leaf tea and let steep for 5 minutes. Once steeped, remove the tea bags or leaves and put the tea water in a pot with a tight fitting lid and add the 2 cups of rice and 1/2 tsp of garlic. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer and cook for about 35-40 minutes or until all the water is dissolved. Let the rice rest off the heat for an additional 10 minutes.

While the rice is cooking make a sauce by combining the tamari (or soy sauce), rice vinegar, olive oil, garlic clove, sesame seeds and ginger in a mixing bowl and mix well with a whisk. Set aside.

In a large sauté pan cook the onion in the coconut oil on medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add the carrots and cook for another 5-10 minutes, add the peppers and broccoli and cook for another 5 minutes, finally add the mushrooms and bok choy and cook for an additional 5 minutes until the veggies are cooked but still crisp. Add the sauce you made in the previous step and stir it gently in with the vegetables and cook for another 2 minutes.

Serve the vegetable on top of rice and garnish with additional sesame seeds if you like.

Enjoy!

Sending you sunshine, happiness and stir fry love,
Kim

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