Thank you so much for posting this thread! I have extremely severe food allergies to all meats, and really everything except vegetables and a select few other foods, so vegetarian meals are all I can eat these days.
I cook with a wok at home to make stir-fry dishes, but you could probably use a frying pan or just cook these things another way if you don't have one. This is my very favorite recipe.
Sesame Ginger Vegetables with Garlic
You'll need any vegetable that you like cooked. I personally use onions, bell peppers, celery, and green beans. However, carrots, peas, corn, really anything else can go in there. I encourage you to be creative!
You'll also need some oil. You have to be pretty careful about what oils you use, as some aren't good at high heat. For example, never use olive oil when cooking with a wok. Use 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and 2 tablespoons of sesame oil. It's okay to mix them together.
You then want fresh minced ginger. Can be pretty difficult to find in stores, but typically an organic store will have it, and if there is a Fresh & Easy in your neighborhood, they sell it. You also want some kind of garlic. I love garlic so I experiment a lot here, I use pre-chopped garlic, garlic that is minced and frozen (sold at Trader Joe's, but you can probably find it elsewhere), fresh garlic that I cut myself, and something called "garlic juice", which is like a garlic extract.
Now this ingredient you really need. It is called stir-fry sauce and your dish will taste very plain without it. They sell a lot of different ones, and you should watch the labels closely because some have meat in them. There are a lot that don't, though. I would consider this non-optional, but of course, I guess it's really up to you. I'll warn you though, if you don't use it, you'll be very disappointed. I would say use 3 tablespoons of this, but it can be more or less depending on how much food you're making.
I also like to marinate my vegetables so they have more flavor, but that's completely up to you. You can use Italian dressing as a marinade in a pinch. I picked up some interesting things from the store the other day, White Garlic Marinade and Ginger Peach Marinade. Can't wait to try them. Anyway, if you want to do this, look around your stores for ideas. If you don't, you don't have to.
Take my advice: prepare EVERYTHING before turning on that wok! You won't have time to be preparing food midway through. So measure things, chop things, whatever. Keep it all seperate though, don't mix anything together until it's in the wok.
Since you're cooking vegetables, it doesn't really matter what your wok is set at. 375 degrees was the recommended heat, but I found the oil splashed pretty badly, so I keep it around 250 degrees.
Put the oil in first, and then you have a choice: either add the garlic and ginger or the vegetables. I suggest adding the garlic and ginger. Mix those with the oil and then put all the vegetables in. Make sure your vegetables get mixed with everything. Cook the vegetables for as long as you want, I usually only cook them for 5 minutes or so. Then throw in your stir-fry sauce. Once it covers the vegetables completely you're done and you can turn off the wok.
Once I'm done I like to toss everything with olive oil, mix it with some rice, and sprinkle sesame seeds on top, but this is up to you. It tastes fantastic either way.
I know this seems like a complicated recipe, but it's really not. The preparation is the worst, but if you have a habit of keeping pre-chopped veggies in your fridge, like me, then even that barely takes any time. Also portion control is hard. You notice I didn't give you too much direction in amount, and even what I gave you is just a guide. That's what I like about cooking stir-fry dishes, you can be very creative.
Hope everyone enjoys this!
I know I'll be trying some of your recipes soon