I had a wonderful birthday complete with the perfect yoga class, a fun day of work, dinner with hubby and so many wonderful friends, a delicious cake and I finished the night off with a glass of wine and a visit to my parents house. A wonderful and blessed day, indeed.

Besides it being my birthday month and my absolute favorite season, the only thing (besides the cold) that I really dislike is how early the sun sets this time of year, and it’s just gonna keep getting earlier, too. I miss the beautiful and perfect end-of-day light when I am in the kitchen cooking, after I am done working for the day. Most nights as of recent, by the time we are done working and dinner is made and ready to eat, it is pitch black outside. For some reason I find that to be so depressing. This also poses a problem for taking photos of the dinner that I prepared, if I plan to share the recipe on here. So this fall and winter I am going to try something a little different, since we work from home, on the days I have a recipe I want to create to share with you guys, I am going to actually cook it and serve it for lunch, this way I can take all of my photos, and we can eat it fresh and hot. Win win. Then I can work a bit later in the day and we can just eat a light dinner. I am pretty excited about this as most days I am much hungrier in the middle of the day anyhow, since I got to yoga in the mornings. I think hubby and our assistant are both going to be more than happy about this new schedule, too.

For this stir-fry I used some of the beautiful veggies we got in this week’s CSA. Bok choy, leeks and lots of peppers, plus I added in some shitake mushrooms and carrot that I grabbed at the Co-Op this morning. I served it all with some kelp noodles that I have been so excited to try. After my obsession with zucchini noodles this summer, I thought kelp noodles sounded like another fun grain-free noodle alternative, especially for Asian meals like this one and woah, was I right. They were perfect in this stir fry and I am already dreaming of other fun Asian inspired dishes that they would be great in. (Please note that kelp noodles do have a unique crunch to them from the kelp and their texture is different from that of regular noodles.)

I included some notes below on preparing the kelp noodles, since they technically do not need to be cooked. I ended up rinsing them and running super hot water over them for a while to heat them up a tad, then I tossed them right in the wok with the stir-fry so they would get mixed right in and served right away.

Have you ever tried kelp noodles? How do you like them served? 

[print_this]Vegetable Stir-Fry with Kelp Noodles – Gluten-free and Vegan (Grain-free)
Serves 4

Kelp Noodles:

1 16-ounce package of kelp noodles, I used these

Kelp noodles come ready to eat, no need to cook. You just need to rinse them, however they are very crunchy so I rinsed them and ran them under hot water for a bit to soften them up. I found the noodles were best tossed with the vegetable stir fry and the sauce and heated up a bit, they softened up a tad this way rather than just spooning everything over. I have also read that letting them soak in water and lemon for about 30 minutes and massaging them a bit with your hands (as you would kale), makes them a bit softer and not as crunchy. I like the crunch and found it to be a nice texture in the stir-fry

Sauce:

• 1/4 cup gluten-free tamari
• 1/4 cup vegetable broth
• 1 tablespoon coconut sugar
• 1-2 teaspoons sriracha sauce
• 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• 1 teaspoon of corn starch or arrowroot starch
• optional: 2 teaspoons of fish sauce, if not vegan

Whisk all of the ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.

Stir Fry:

feel free to use whatever vegetables you have on hand, I went with what we had on hand from our CSA and the market

• 2 tablespoons sesame or peanut oil
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 leek, rinsed very well, slice thinly the white and light green parts only
• 2-3 bell peppers, sliced (I used a purple bell, red bell and red cubanelle pepper)
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 3-inch piece of ginger, peeled then grated
• 1 bunch Bok Choy, sliced thinly the long way, you want about 3-4 cups
• 1 carrot, peeled into ribbons
• 4 ounces of shitake mushrooms, sliced
• 1/4 teaspoon dried red-pepper flakes

Additional ingredients:

• Scallions, sliced
• Sesame seeds
• Roasted Peanuts

Heat a wok or large skillet over high heat until a drop of water evaporates immediately. Add oil, then stir fry onions, leeks and bell peppers for about 2-3 minutes. Then add in the ginger and garlic and cook for another minute. Add the remaining ingredients to the wok, the bok choy, carrot ribbons and mushrooms. Toss around and cook until the vegetables are just tender. Add in the sauce, reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in some of the scallions, peanuts and sesame seeds, leaving some for sprinkling on top.
Serve over the kelp noodles or add the kelp noodles to the wok and toss it all around. Serve topped with sliced scallions, peanuts and/or sesame seeds.

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