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Szechuan Pork Stir-Fry
with snow peas / carrots / barley

Active: 30 min Total: 1 hr 5 min
Using ground meat and lots of vegetables, this stir-fry is about as fast and colorful as they come. Feel free to increase the spice if you'd like.
Smarts: It will seem like a lot of vegetables when you first add them to the pan, but the carrots will shrink down considerably as they cook. Just keep cooking them until they are very tender and reduced in quantity.
Tags
Proteins
Cuisines

Ingredients

Metric
Servings:
4
Szechuan Stir-Fry Sauce:
  • Ginger - 2 tsp , grated
  • Garlic - 2 cloves , chopped
  • Stock, any type - 1/2 cup
  • Soy sauce, low-sodium - 1/4 cup
  • Cornstarch - 1 Tbsp
  • Brown sugar - 1 Tbsp
  • Vinegar, rice - 2 Tbsp
  • Oil, toasted sesame - 2 tsp
  • Chili garlic sauce - 1 tsp (sub any hot sauce)
Szechuan Pork Stir-Fry:
  • Carrots - 10 oz , shredded (look for pre-shredded)
  • Cilantro leaves - 2 Tbsp , chopped
  • Oil, cooking - 1 Tbsp
  • Snow peas - 8 oz (sub snap peas)
  • Pork, ground - 1 lb
  • Lime juice - 2 tsp
Barley:
  • Barley, hulled and uncooked - 2/3 cup

Prep

  1. Barley - (Double if making Thursday's meal.) Bring a saucepan of water to boil. Salt water generously and add barley. Simmer for 45 to 55 minutes until tender but not soggy. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
  2. Ginger / Garlic - Prep as directed. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
  3. Carrots - If not pre-shredded, shred with a box grater or food processor.
  4. Make sauce - Whisk together ginger, garlic, stock, soy sauce, cornstarch, brown sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, and chili garlic sauce. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
  5. Cilantro - Chop cilantro.

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Make

  1. Heat a wok or large saute pan with cooking oil over medium-high heat. Add carrots and snow peas and saute until tender, 6 to 7 minutes.
  2. Move vegetables to one side of the pan and add pork to the other side. Saute pork, breaking it apart as it cooks, until cooked through, ~5 minutes. Stir pork into vegetables.
  3. Give sauce a good stir (or shake if using a jar with a lid) to be sure that the cornstarch fully dissolves.
  4. Pour sauce over stir-fry and bring to a simmer. Cook everything together until sauce thickens, ~3 minutes.
  5. Add lime juice and cilantro to stir-fry.
  6. If barley was made ahead, reheat in the microwave (reserve half if doubled).
  7. Serve stir-fry over barley. Enjoy!

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