You know that moment when you have a lot of half used vegetables in the refrigerator and you need to do something with them very soon? Well, today was that day.
I think that asian style cuisine is the best way to put together ingredients that, otherwise, could never work together in a dish. And let me emphasize the phrase "asian style" because this was in no way a traditional chinese dish, it was more like wok freestyling. Keep that in mind if you want to try this dish, because like I said before, cooking doesn't need to be specific recipes all the time; cooking can be like painting and you can just let your creativity guide you in the kitchen.
For this dish I used spaghetti, because, well, I am in north of Italy and is not so easy to find asian noodles in the supermarket (and when you do, they are not really asian and not so good either). Cook your spaghetti in salted boiling water as you would normally do.
In a pan or wok, saute chopped onions, garlic and ginger. Then start adding the vegetables. I added the vegetables in this order:
Swiss chard (chopped stalks)
Julienned carrots
Green pepper
Swiss chard leaves
Chopped cabbage
Give this a stir, adding more oil if needed. If you have access to sesame oil, lucky you. Use sesame oil. If not, normal vegetable oil will do. Season a bit with salt and pepper just before the vegetables are cooked, and take them out of the pan.
In the same pan, add your sauce ingredients. Start with some water, then soy sauce, a few drops of worcestershire sauce, curry powder, turmeric, white pepper, salt and sugar. The salt depends on your soy sauce, please taste before adding the salt. Then take some corn starch diluted in a little water and add to the sauce when it is boiling, cook until it thickens. I used the ingredients I had in my pantry for this sauce, but you can add any other thing you have like oyster sauce, a little vinegar, some broth, cumin powder, chili powder or even smoked paprika. I have used those before and the result is always delicious.
When your sauce has thickened, add the cooked spaghetti and mix for a minute, so the pasta absorbs some of the sauce flavor. Mix in your cooked vegetables, taste again to correct salt and pepper if necessary, sprinkle some sesame seeds on top and your improvised asian spaghetti is ready to be served!
This is a vegetarian version but, if you really need meat, this recipe will work beautifully with chicken or salmon. The combination of soy sauce, curry, turmeric, garlic and ginger is a flavor bomb, and you can make it even more tasty with chili flakes. Pair with a nice hoppy beer, I recommend an IPA for this.
Enjoy ;)
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