Vegetable Stir-Fry with Orange Peanut Sauce

Preparation

This delicious, colorful, Oriental style stir-fry with a spicy orange peanut sauce recipe will serve eight people as a main meal when served over a bed of brown basmati rice. It is best prepared in a wok, but it can also be prepared in batches in a fry-pan on the stovetop.

Prepare the sauce by washing and peeling 2 of the navel oranges, and placing the orange sections and all the other ingredients in a blender and running the blender at high speed until the sauce becomes smooth.  Set aside.

Place the rice pot on the stovetop with the water and bring to a boil. When the water boils, add the rice, cover, lower the heat to simmer, and cook the brown rice (at the same time that the vegetables are being prepared) until all the water is absorbed into the rice.

Clean and wash the vegetables.  Trim off the stem ends of the string beans, if fresh. Peel the onions and carrots. Slice and cut the vegetables into bite-sized pieces and place in a wok.  Small string beans can be left long, if desired.  Stir-fry at 375 degrees F. with a little water until tender.

Peel the remaining 2 oranges and split into sections and cut each section into halves or thirds, and add to the wok.

Lower the heat in the wok to simmer and add the peanut sauce to the vegetables, continuing to cook and stir until the sauce thickens and all the liquid in the wok is combined with the sauce. Cook for another minute. (Note: 1 tbsp. of corn starch will thicken 1 cup of liquid; therefore, if there is liquid in the wok, add the second tbsp. of cornstarch to the sauce in the blender, and blend in before adding to the stir-fry.)

Serve over a bed of brown rice.  Enjoy!