Parboiled shiitake and broccoli florets are tossed in soy garlic sauce thickened with potato starch. The addition of mirin makes this side dish subtly sweet.
Cook’s notes
It’s not a stir fry. The cooking process consists of boiling, sauteeing and braising. The boiling takes all of two minutes, the sauteeing and making the sauce take another two minutes, and then it takes a final minute to toss everything together until heated through.
If you had counted the minutes from the previous paragraph, you’d have arrived at a cooking time of five minutes. That’s correct. Five minutes.
But prep time is twice as long. Well, unless you can get pre-cut broccoli florets and pre-sliced shiitake. Of not, a total of 15 minutes for prepping and cooking is not pretty bad considering how delicious this meatless side dish is.
Shiitake and broccoli in soy garlic sauce
Ingredients
- 6 to 8 shiitake caps only
- ½ head broccoli
- 8 cloves garlic
- 1 onion
- salt
- 1 teaspoon sesame seed oil divided
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons mirin
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ cup vegetable broth (the water in which you cooked your broccoli and shiitake)
- 1 heaping teaspoon potato starch or cornstarch
- chili flakes (optional)
Instructions
- Slice the shiitake caps.
- Cut the broccoli into small florets.
- Peel and pound the garlic cloves.
- Peel and thinly slice the onion.
- Boil four cups of water in a wok with two pinches of salt and half a teaspoon of sesame seed oil.
- Drop in the broccoli florets, stir and boil for a minute. Scoop out and dump into a bowl of icy water.
- In the remaining water, boil the shiitake slices for a minute. Scoop out and add to the broccoli in the icy water.
- Drain the broccoli and shiitake and spread on a rack or a kitchen towel.
- Rinse and wipe the wok, pour in the cooking oil and heat.
- Saute the garlic and onion just until softened.
- Mix together the soy sauce, mirin, black pepper, vegetable broth, remaining sesame seed oil and starch. Pour the mixed sauce over the garlic and onion, stir and leave to boil.
- Lower the heat, stir once more, and cook for a minute.
- Add the shiitake and broccoli. Toss until heated through.
- Taste, adjust the seasonings, if needed.
- Optionally, sprinkle with chili flakes before serving.
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