Sweet & Sour Veggies

Last Monday, to celebrate Chinese New Year, Bailey and I had decided we were definitely going to be making a slap up Chinese meal for our tea. We had no idea what we were going to make though, so I was really happy to be inspired by the latest Serious Eats newsletter which had a recipe for homemade Sweet & Sour sauce.

I know Bailey loves a good portion of Sweet & Sour Chicken from the Chinese so I thought we could make a nice veggie version with some egg fried rice.

I was quite surprised to read the recipe for the Sweet & Sour Sauce and to see that the ingredients required to attain that distinctive flavour are in fact just a load of common ingredients that most people have knocking about the kitchen cupboard anyway. It was also super easy to make and turned out very tasty - what a result! Not that I ever did, but I will definitely never be buying those supermarket stir in versions of Sweet & Sour after this! 

Happy Chinese New Year to you all!

Recipe: 

2 onions

1 green pepper

1 red pepper

1 packet of Quorn pieces (optional)

1 425g tin of pineapple rings in juice

1 tablespoon corn flour

1 tablespoon water

80ml Chinese rice vinegar

66g light brown sugar

3 tablespoons ketchup

1 tablepsoon soy sauce

Start by cutting the onions and peppers into strips. Place into a wok or large pan and fry over a medium heat. 

When the veggies have softened, add the quorn pieces, if using and allow to brown. Separate the pineapple rings from the juice. Put the juice to one side. Cut the pineapple into bitesize chunks and add to the wok with the veggies.

Meanwhile, make the sweet and sour sauce. Add the cornflour to a bowl and combine with the water. Stir well until free of lumps and you will have a small pool of white liquid.

In a small saucepan, combine the pineapple juice, rice vinegar, ketchup, brown sugar and soy sauce. Bring to the boil over a medium heat. Add the cornflour and water mix to the pan and cook over a low heat for just a few minutes until saucy and thickened.

Once the veggies are cooked through, add the Sweet & Sour Sauce to the veg and serve with your favourite rice or noodles! Delicious.