Holly Stewart

Growing up, my house had a fridge full of condiments. We had everything you could ever need to flavour your food, even when we hadn’t bought food to flavour. Despite the frustration that comes with a fridge that looks full but lacks actual substance, there is an advantage to stocking up on this kind of stuff: when you have options like mustard and fish sauce, the possibilities for dinner are endless. So today I present to you one of my food staples and a great reason to keep some dark soy sauce and sambal in your fridge: spicy bean stir fry.

Ingredients:

Handful of French green beans (haricots verts)

Yellow, orange, or red bell pepper cut into thin strips

4 oz of mushrooms chopped into quarters

1 tomato, diced

1 small onion, diced

1 clove of garlic, minced

1-inch chunk of fresh ginger, finely grated

1 tbsp. sambal oelek, available at Eden or Marche Lobo

1 tbsp. dark soy sauce

1 tsp. honey or sugar

Directions:

Heat a teaspoon of vegetable oil in a frying pan and cook onions and mushrooms until slightly translucent.

Add the peppers, green beans, and garlic and cook until they start to feel tender crisp: crunchy, but not just-came-out-of-the-fridge crunchy.

Add the ginger, soy sauce, sambal, and honey, and stir.

Add the tomatoes last. If you put them in too early, they’ll release a lot of water, making the stir fry soupy. Heat through.

Serve this with fried rice, steamed jasmine rice, or pan fried noodles. Keeping these cheap condiments in your house means you have instant flavour for a healthy, delicious meal.