Lemongrass Green Pea Stir-Fry

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr)

This surprising meal is repurposed from a side dish, tweaked, and streamlined.  The result is a sweet pea-and-onion stir-fry that goes fantastic on rice.  Served with a green it’s a full meal without being heavy and is pretty easy to prepare.

The only challenge is finding the lemongrass and preparing it.  You can either chop it fine or chop it in a blender with water (used then to dry-sauté).  Lemongrass does not cook like onions to and still stays woody when they’ve long ago softened.

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

  • 2 trimmed stalks of lemon grass.
  • 1 large yellow onion, chopped fine.
  • 4 Tbsp soy sauce
  • 4 Tbsp lime juice
  • 1 Tbsp maple syrup (optional)
  • 4 cups frozen or fresh green peas

Preparation:

  1. Mix the soy sauce, lime juice, and maple syrup in a separate bowl.
  2. Add shredded lemongrass and about 2 tbsp of water to a blender and use it to chop the lemongrass.  If you can get finely shredded lemongrass skip this part.
  3. Dry-sauté the onion in the lemongrass-water mixture, adding water as needed until onion softens.
  4. Add all other ingredients, sauté until the sauce reduces and the peas are coated.

– Steve