Stir-fry has to be one of the most quintessential weeknight meals — quick and easy to prepare. Quick and easy doesn’t necessarily mean delicious….we all know the key to a good stir-fry is in the sauce.

Ask Janik and he’ll tell you that I’ve been experimenting to find the right stir-fry sauce since we first met over 10 years ago….soy sauce vs hoisin sauce, vegetable broth vs no broth — there have been countless attempts to get just the right flavour and consistency. This Sweet & Sour sauce is by far the best one I’ve tried — I even brought it to work (with leftover rice only, no veggies or tofu) and I devoured it.

Bon Appetit~

Note: If you are including Smoky Maple-Marinated Tofu in this dish, prepare this ThermoMix recipe first Maple-Hickory Tofu Marinade followed by the vegetable base, and lastly the sauce.

ThermoMix functions used in this recipe:
-Weighing
-Chopping/Mincing
-Cooking (Sauté)
-Stirring
-Temperature Control

SAUTEED VEGETABLES

Ingredients
1 onion (halved)
2-3 garlic cloves (peeled)
Pinch of Himalayan Pink Salt

20 g olive oil

600 g mixed vegetables (e.g. carrots, zucchini, celery, snow peas, etc)

Instructions
1/Add onion and garlic to TM bowl. Chop 5 sec/Speed 7.
Use spatula to scrape down sides of bowl.

2/Add olive oil and pinch of salt to TM bowl. Saute 3 mins/120C/Speed 1.

3/Add mixed vegetables to bowl. Chop 10 sec/Speed 4.
Saute 6 mins/120C/Speed 1.

Empty the vegetable mixture into a serving dish.

SWEET & SOUR SAUCE

Ingredients
(I recommend you double this recipe for a family of four, or if you prefer to go generous on the sauce!)

3 garlic cloves (peeled)
15 g olive oil

1 cup water
5 Tbsp Tamari soy sauce (I recommend Amano Foods Organic Tamari Soy Sauce)
1/4 cup brown sugar
VegNugget: Refined sugars do not contain any animal products, and so by an ingredients-based definition of vegan, refined sugar is vegan. However, some refined sugar is processed with animal bone char. Bone char – often referred to as natural carbon — is used to remove colour, impurities, and minerals from sugar, resulting in its white colour. Typically, sugar is made from sugarcane, sugar beets, or coconuts. Organic sugar cannot be filtered through bone char. If the sugar you want to buy isn’t organic, check to see if it says “unrefined” or if it’s made from beets.

2 Tbsp Agave Syrup

2 Tbsp each of:
-cold water
-corn starch

Instructions

1/Add garlic to TM bowl. Chop 5 seconds/Speed 7.
Use the spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

2/Add olive oil. Saute 3 mins/120C/Speed 1.

3/Add water, Tamari sauce, sugar, and agave syrup to TM bowl. Cook 5 mins/120C/Speed 1.

4/In a small, separate bowl whisk together water and corn starch, then add to TM bowl.
Gently stir for 2 mins/100C/Speed 2 (Reverse blade).
Reminder: Use the ThermoMix reverse blade function to change blade rotation direction when you want to stir gently on low speeds (Speeds 1 through 3)

Pour sauce from the TM bowl as needed.

Table-ready suggestion: I tested this recipe using organic brown rice as the base, layered with sautéed vegetables and Smoky Maple-marinated Tofu, and topped with a generous serving of Sweet & Sour sauce.

Note: This recipe was made using a Thermomix appliance, however it can easily be adapted using similar food prep tools (e.g. mutli-function processor, immersion blender etc) or using a more traditional stovetop method.

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