I’m a total control freak at the grocery. Sometimes I think I’m only person in the aisles picking out my own stuff as I pass by Instacart shoppers. Does anyone else still look forward to that weekly errand?

I’ve had groceries delivered only a handful of times, and I just can’t take it. I want to be the one choosing the best apples and making decisions about substitutions.

Last week we had a day of rain followed by a temperature plunge. When I tried to open the back door to our garage, I couldn’t get it to work. The lock was frozen. 

With no way to get to the car, I ended up doing Lyft round trip to the grocery. It felt kind of silly, but I had to get there. We live within walking distance of another store, but it’s not the place where I find everything I need.

The whole situation had me frazzled, so I wasn’t my usual focused self on my list. I ended up with lots of vegetables that I didn’t need. 

Blame the blogging for my obsession with lists and meal planning! It’s not a bad thing every once and a while when things are more spontaneous.

I knew a stir-fry would be a great quick meal that would take care of all those vegetables at once. 

The most time consuming step of any stir-fry is cutting and prepping. I started by dusting off my spiralizer for the sweet potatoes. It had been ages since I used this gadget.

Then I sliced red cabbage and a red bell pepper. After that, it was onto transforming a head of broccoli into florets. My stir-fry needed a sauce. I limited it to pantry ingredients: a mix of peanut butter, soy sauce, hoison and sesame oil.

With everything ready, I got cooking. I started with the aromatics: garlic, ginger and scallions. Then I added the veggies. In minutes I was ready for the sauce. It was fragrant as it bubbled away.

Before serving this rainbow vegetable peanut stir-fry, I topped it with more scallions and roasted salted peanuts.

I kept my stir-fry simple with just veggies, but you could add a protein like tofu, chicken, shrimp or beef.

Rainbow Vegetable Peanut Stir-Fry

• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 10 minutes
• Total Time: 20 minutes
• Yield: Serves 4

Ingredients

For sauce
1 tablespoon smooth peanut butter
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon hoison sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil

For stir-fry
2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled (about 3/4 pound)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon minced ginger
1 garlic clove minced
2 scallions, sliced thinly, white and green parts separated
2 cups broccoli florets
1 red bell pepper, sliced into 1/4-inch wide strips
1 cup shredded red cabbage
1/4 cup chopped roasted salted peanuts

Instructions

For the sauce, whisk together the peanut butter, water, soy sauce, hoison sauce and sesame oil in a small bowl. Set aside.

Cut the ends off the sweet potatoes, so they are flat. Then run them through a spiralizer. (If you don’t have a spiralizer, you can use a julienne peeler.)

Heat a wok or large skillet over high heat and add the vegetable oil swirling to coat. When the oil is shimmering, add the ginger, garlic, and the white parts of the scallions. Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the sweet potatoes, broccoli, peppers and cabbage. Sauté for 5-6 minutes until the sweet potatoes and peppers are cooked but still crisp and the broccoli is bright green.  

Add the peanut sauce and sauté for 1-2 minutes until it has finished bubbling. Garnish with the green parts of the scallions and peanuts before serving.

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