GLUTEN-FREE Kinpira Style Vegetables
If you’re looking for an easy way to add extra flavour to a range of different vegetables, try this simple Japanese technique.
This recipe for Kinpira Style Vegetables mixes a base of gluten-free soy sauce, mirin, sugar, chilli and sesame with a method that starts with a sauté and finishes with a simmer.
The aim is to cook the vegetables in a minimum amount of water so that they end up tenderly cooked and with none of their flavour or nutritional value lost into discarded cooking water.
Traditionally the technique has been used to braise burdock or lotus root, but it works just as well in Australian kitchens with carrots, parsnips, broccolini, capsicums, green beans, asparagus and snow peas. (To make the mix more substantial you can also include mushrooms, meat, chicken or tofu.)
It just depends what you have on hand.
Jan
Gluten-free Kinpira Style Vegetables
Serves 6 as a side dish
2 tablespoons peanut or rice bran oil
1 dried red chilli, cut into slivers, or a pinch of chilli flakes
4 carrots, peeled, halved, and cut into 8-10mm sticks
150 gm broccolini, trimmed and halved
150 gm green beans, snow peas or sugar snap peas, trimmed
1 red pepper, trimmed and sliced into 8-10mm strips
3 tablespoons gluten-free soy sauce
2 tablespoons mirin
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 tablespoon white sesame seeds
2 teaspoons sesame oil
Heat the oil and chilli in a large frying pan or wok over a medium-high heat.
When the chilli begins to sizzle, add the vegetables and sauté for a few minutes until they start to soften. (If using sugar-snap or snow peas you might like to add them a bit later so they keep their crunch.)
Then add the soy sauce, mirin, and sugar. Mix well and cook until the liquid has reduced to a thick glaze.
Add the sesame seeds and sesame oil and stir through.
Serve immediately or at room temperature.
(Recipe adapted with thanks from Vegan JapanEasy by Tim Anderson.)