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Looking for new weeknight dinner ideas? Try a stir-fry with dehydrated vegetables.
This quick method saves time on meal prep and cooking, especially if you're busy and want to make tasty, healthy meals without spending hours in the kitchen.
I mean who has time these days to spend slaving over a hot stove? (No offense to chefs).
Dehydrated vegetables help simplify meal planning. Dried foods are light, they last a long time, and the best part to me is that they don't need refrigeration.
When I get home from the store, I prep all my fresh veggies in one sitting, if you will. Doing this makes sure they don't get enough time to go off!
Dehydrated vegetables work well in stir-fries, soups, and casseroles, making them ideal for dinners during the workweek.
Did you know that dried foods also keep most of their nutrients, providing good nutrition for your family?
First, we need to gather a few main ingredients for our dehydrated food stir-fry.
NOTE: The meat we're using is fresh, not dried. But first things first - we need to rehydrate the dried veggies.
Yep - don't forget to add the water back into your dried veggies! And, as stated in point 2 below, use broth for added flavor, and my go-to stock of choice is always "Better Than Bouillon" by Superior Touch.
OK, I have to admit that I'm not a fan of rehydrating dried foods in hot water. You see, if you forget about them, you run the risk of germs showing up as germs love warmth... but honestly, my brain can handle a 15-minute wait.
When your dried veggies have plumped back up, toss the water/broth and allow the vegetables to drain. We don't want excess water getting in the way of our perfect stir-fry!
If you love seeing bright red peppers, dark green broccoli, and gorgeous orange carrots, you might want to blanch your veggies BEFORE you dry them (yep going back to the beginning of prep when you get back home from the store!)
Blanching helps preserve their bright colors. Boil the veggies briefly, then transfer to a bowl of ice cubes and water to stop the cooking action.
Yep, it's all about technique. Let's aim for a restaurant-quality look'n'taste at home!
Time to focus on the flavor... in "Time it right" (point 4) in the previous section, I mentioned aromatics and that means onions, and garlic (and not just herbs).
A good stir-fry sauce makes all the difference, right? Here's a simple soy sauce recipe that goes well with dehydrated vegetables and meat:
How to make the sauce: Mix everything in a glass bowl - until you see and feel that the sugar has completely dissolved (no grittiness).
Add your sauce to your stir-fry near the end of cooking - stirring all the time until it thickens. Sauce a bit too runny for you? If you want your sauce to be a bit thicker, add some cornstarch but remember to mix the cornstarch with water by itself first!
Bear in mind, the cornstarch/water mix must be cooked out. The ratio is one tablespoon of cornstarch to two tablespoons of water.
Again, if the sauce is thin, add a tad more of the cornstarch/water mix, keep cooking and keep stirring!
Now we've got the sauce and proteins figured out, how about we get going with a full recipe how-to? Here are the steps:
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For a true vegetarian version, skip the protein or replace it with tofu or tempeh.
Jeez, even though I ate lunch an hour ago, I can't wait to make a stir-fry right now!
To make weeknight stir-fries even easier, try these time-saving tricks:
While you're here at Easy Food Dehydrating, what better time than right now to learn how to store dried food safely? Follow these four steps:
When you follow those four rules, your dried foods can last for months - years even - when dried properly. What a neat way to always have veggies (and fruits!) on hand.
My mouth is watering at the thought of making a stir-fry, and I hope it's got you eager to try a stir-fry, too. In no time flat, we'll be tossing and cooking our stir-fries like a pro.
The best part is there are endless ways to enjoy a stir-fry simply by changing out a veggie here and there. Oh, and maybe use beef instead of chicken, or how about pork, or thick chunks of ham?
Or go vegan. Either way, you're a stir-fry winner in my eyes!
Thanks for stopping by to read all about a simple stir-fry with dehydrated vegetables.
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