Summer is here and the garden is starting to produce veggies. Sometimes it is hard to figure out what to do with them.

A favorite simple solution is stir fry.  Stir fry uses most available vegetables. In fact I use almost anything except tomatoes and beets in it. Just add protein with tofu or nuts and to punch up the flavor use very simple ginger sauce.

The sauce goes like this:

• Combine in a jar or bowl with a tight fitting lid
  • 2 Tbsp minced garlic
  • 2 Tbsp minced onions
  • 1 Tbsp minced ginger
  • 1 Tbsp minced fresh basil
  • 1 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 2 Tbsp soy sauce
  • a pinch of salt
  • 1/2 cup water or stock
• Mix well by shaking

Genene’s Stir Fry “Formula”

Tasty stir fry depends on the combination and size of your vegetables. I find it easier to track what I have if I use 4 bowls to prep. The bowls make it easy to see what I have working at any given time. The bowls are:

• Bowl One: Flavoring veggies like onions, garlic, celery and carrots
• Bowl Two: Main veggie mix. I make about 3-4 times the volume as I use in Bowl one with some combination of fresh things like summer squash, green beans, bell peppers, corn and eggplant . Then I add things that aren’t growing in the garden usually frozen or fresh from the grocery store: broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale and cabbage. It is important to cut these veggies into roughly equal sizes and to balance the green veggies with the more colorful ones. An all green stir fry looks very strange!
• Bowl Three: Protein from nuts or tofu (you can see how I make it here)
• Bowl Four: Quick cooking veggies like spinach, pea pods, Bok Choy and mushrooms.

Cooking time takes between 6 and 10 minutes depending on your stove, the fry pan or wok you use, the veggie mix and your personal taste. You begin by finding a  Wok or large frying pan and:

• Add oil 1/4 c of oil; preferably peanut or grape seed (if not available coconut oil or olive oil works fine) and heat. You can test heat by adding a drop of water; when it sizzles the oil is hot enough
• When the oil is hot, add Bowl 1 and cook until the onions start to clarify – approximately 2 minutes
• Add Bowl 2 and stir fry (that means stir often) the veggie mix for approximately 2 minutes. The time can vary widely based on the mix of veggies; you will need to watch carefully and possibly taste test for crunchiness
• Add ginger sauce and mix well
• Add Bowl 3 and stir fry for 1 minute
• Add Bowl 4 and stir fry for about 1 minute so that veggies are hot and wilted. Again you will need to watch carefully

Serve with soy sauce over brown rice or rice noodles.