- 4
- 5 mins
- 15 mins
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup low sodium vegetable or chicken stock
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp sambal oelek (or any Asian chili sauce)
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tsp fish sauce*
- 2 tbsp peanut or vegetable oil
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 small cauliflower, cored and cut into bite sized florets
- 2 cups sliced cremini mushrooms
- 1 green onion, thinly sliced
Preparation
Step 1
General Tso Chicken is a popular dish on Chinese restaurant buffets and take out menus. By the way General Tso chicken, is an American invention. They don’t eat this stuff in China. Personally, I’m not a fan. I find that the texture is often dry and chewy, and the sauce cloyingly sweet. But in that sauce there was always a hint of something really good. A little bite of heat and a tantalizing bright tartness.
I wanted to recreate that sauce for this cauliflower and mushroom dish. But lighter and without all that sweetness. However, every recipe I found had a crazy amount of sugar. So I left the sugar out completely and didn’t miss it at all. I added a little bit of fish sauce for a touch of salt and flavour. And for the spice, I used sambal oelek.
Hey come back! Don’t worry, sambal oelek is simply a chili sauce, similar to, yet different from sriracha. It’s very easy to find in most grocery stores, in the Asian section. And if you can’t find it, or don’t want to make a special trip to buy it, go ahead and use sriracha, or any other Asian chili sauce. Your General Tso sauce will still be really good, just a tiny bit different.
Yield:
1 small cauliflower, cored and cut into bite sized florets
Boil a large pot of water. Add cauliflower and allow to par boil 2-3 minutes. Drain and set aside.
In a jar with a lid, combine stock, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sambal oelek, cornstarch, and fish sauce. Put lid on jar and shake well to combine.
Heat a medium skillet (cast iron works best) over medium high heat. Add peanut and sesame oil. Add mushrooms and cook, turning, until starting to brown, about 2 minutes.
Add cauliflower and cook, stirring, until brown and fork tender, about 1 minute.
Shake jar one more time, and pour sauce over cauliflower mushroom mixture.
Cook, stirring, until sauce is thickened and glossy, about 1 minute.
Remove from heat, and garnish with green onion.
Serve hot, with steamed rice or noodles
*Make this recipe vegan, by leaving out the fish sauce. Instead, taste and add salt to desired salt level, or use a vegan fish sauce, or Chinese cooking wine.
cauliflower stir fry
mushroom stir fry
stir fry
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