There is just something about the magic combination of sesame oil & rice wine vinegar & soy sauce.
I use it to marinate my tuna for poke bowls. I use it to make a very quick dipping sauce for dumplings. I use them in my peanut satay sauce for my Thai Wraps.
And now, it’s my go-to sauce for stir fry.
We are in the height of the winter doldrums here, where temps are just about to dip arctic and the warmest sweaters are being employed. We finally got a nice white fluffy snow fall today to make everything pretty, but earlier this week it was bare and gray and bleak. So we loved how stir fry veggies brought some sunshine.
I was talking with someone on Instagram about bok choy sounding so good to us and I wondered what was in it that would make us crave it. Turns out there is phosphorus, zinc, sodium, copper, manganese, selenium, niacin, folate, choline, beta-carotene, and vitamin K. Bok choy actually ranks sixth on the Aggregate Nutrient Density Index (ANDI) for fruits and vegetables.
Don’t you love it when food is healthy and delicious?
You could eat this dinner because of all the nutrition, but this will also be on heavy dinner rotation for us because it is FAST (20 minutes!) comfort food. It tastes better than the last time we had Chinese food take out.
You probably hear from everyone that the secret to making dinner easy is to have a well stocked pantry, and this dish is a great example. I have been buying my udon noodles from Amazon so we always have those, but you could easily substitute spaghetti or rice or even lettuce leaves for a low carb option like our Asian pork lettuce wraps. I also load up on ground pork when its on sale because we love it in Asian dishes. That magic combo of sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, and soy sauce is always in our pantry too, so the only thing needed to pull this dish together is some fresh veggies. Feel free to use whatever veggies you like – carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, etc. The combo of baby bok choy and peppers felt super healthy though.
So happy to have a new easy dinner option to warm up these cold winter nights! Hope you get to try it soon.
Happy Eating, xoxo Katie
20 minute Ginger Pork & Boy Choy Noodle Stir Fry
1/2 cup low sodium soy sauce
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1-2 teaspoon chili flakes use to your taste (optional)
1/4 cup water
5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or sesame oil
1.5 lbs ground pork (feel free to use more or less if you have 1lb. pork, its flexible!)
2 bell peppers, preferable red and yellow, sliced
5 baby bok choy or 2 cups spinach, roughly chopped
2 inches fresh ginger, finely minced
2 packages udon noodles (can use more if desired)
4 green onions, chopped
sesame seeds, for garnish
Directions:
Combine sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, soy sauce, hoisoin sauce, water and chili flakes (if using) into a small bowl.
Heat a large pan over medium heat, and add 2 of remaining sesame oil tablespoons into pan. Add ground pork and brown until cooked through. Add the ginger, peppers and bok choy (or other veggies you are using) and cook until veggies have softened, about 5-7 minutes.
While the veggies are cooking, in another pan heat remaining sesame oil and 1/3 cup water over low heat and cook noodles to soften and warm up, about 3 minutes.
When veggies are soft, add soy sauce mixture and cook for another 5 minutes. Add noddles and combine. Serve with sesame seeds and green onions.