Building a Healthy Stir-Fry

Build-a-bowl series #1!

This month on Health Elevation I am launching the Build-A-Bowl Series – a series of posts with the goal of equipping you with knowledge and skills to put together balanced, healthy dishes to elevate your health and performance – within your budget and schedule as an active individual who is on-the-go.

While recipes are a great starting point to give you inspiration for healthy meals, knowing the basics of different dishes and cooking methods will enable you to elevate your plate by empowering you to:

• Put a healthy spin on any dish
• Adapting dishes to your taste and nutrition preferences
• Be more effective in the kitchen and actually be able to cook more often for yourself!

STIR-FRYING BASICS

The first dish we are going to look to ELEVATE is versatile, nutritious and the ideal fuel for busy weeknights: stir-fries!

Stir-fries provide an easy way to sneak in vegetables and fiber into your diet, especially in the winter, and is often a crowd favorite when cooking for groups of people. It can easily be prepared in advance and stored in the fridge or freezer for busy weeks.

Another benefit of stir-fries is that they can be the ideal recovery meal when a protein and whole grain/starchy vegetable like potato is paired in the dish.

BASIC STIR-FRYING STEPS

1. Cut up all your ingredients BEFORE adding your oil to the pan. Try to cut the meat and vegetables in such a way that the surface area is maximized.
2. Use a wok or cast iron pan if possible.
3. Cook your aromatic ingredients, like ginger, garlic, onions, green onions, leeks, etc. FIRST. These should be cooked on on lower heat, slowly. If these ingredients are added on high heat, they will burn too quickly and alter the flavor of the stir-fry. Spoon these ingredients out of the pan before increasing the heat (step 4) and add them again at the end.
4. The stir-fry, however, needs to be cooked fast and hot. Once the aromatic ingredients is done, increase the temperature. Once the oil is hot (not smoking), roll the oil around in the pan to coat it well.
5. Add ingredients according to cook time. Broccoli, for example, should go in the pan before shredded vegetables like zucchini, etc. In general, thicker vegetables should go into the pan before smaller, thinner vegetables. Meats tend to take the longest to cook – you can cook the meat first and take it out of the pan and add it again at the end OR prepare the meat in a separate pan.
6. Stir your ingredients often in order to ensure everything cooks evenly.
7. Add your stir-fry sauce. Sometimes recipes call for using ingredients like cornstarch and water to thicken the sauce at the end of the stir-fry, so make sure to mix the ingredients thoroughly to prevent clumping.

COMPONENTS OF A HEALTHY STIR-FRY

• A generous dose of vegetables

Make your vegetables the base of your dish. Stir-fry vegetables can be bought pre-packaged or frozen at the store, and if you are short on time, this might be a good option for you. Preparing your own vegetables for the stir-fry from scratch allows you to be creative and add vegetables that suit your taste preferences.

Elevate your plate: Try to incorporate at least 2-3 different colours of vegetables into the stir-fry to get the benefits of a variety of phytochemicals, antioxidants and nutrients.

• Lean protein source

Protein provides amino acids that forms the building blocks for cells, hormones, tissues and enzymes. Different protein sources provides a variety of flavours to stir-fries.

Elevate your plate: Choose lean protein sources like lean beef strips, chicken breast strips or even fish fillets for a Mediterranean-style stir-fry. Vegan and vegetarian sources of protein include legumes like chickpeas, lentils and beans, tofu, halloumi, edamame or meat substitutes like Quorn.

• Whole grains/starchy vegetables

Whole grains boast with a wide variety of nutrients like fibre, vitamins (especially B vitamins), minerals (like iron, magnesium and selenium), phytochemicals, phytosterols, phytin and sphingolipids – all which helps to elevate your health and performance! Glucose is the preferred source of energy for the brain and central nervous system and also aids in muscle recovery and in the replenishment of glycogen stores after a hard workout.

Elevate your plate: Healthy carbohydrate sources that works well with stir-fries include brown rice, whole wheat/durum wheat pasta, whole wheat couscous, quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth, brown basmati rice, legumes, cubed potato and sweet potato and even whole wheat toast or tortillas.

Healthy fats/oils

Fats have a structural role in the body, helps you to absorb fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K and are involved in vital physiological processes in the body. Healthy fats, especially omega 3 fatty acids, also have an anti-inflammatory effect and plays a role in muscle recovery. Mono- and polyunsaturated fats also play a big role in heart health and help to balance cholesterol levels in the blood, reducing the risk of heart disease.

When choosing an oil to fry with, you are looking for an oil with a high smoke point because the key to making a really good stir-fry requires cooking the food at a high temperature, quickly.

Oil that is heated to its smoking point or higher will start to physically smoke, leave a bitter taste and break down on a molecular level to produce compounds that are carcinogenic (having the potential to cause cancer).

Elevate your plate – healthy oils that have high smoke points:

Oil	Benefit(s)	Smoke point
Soybean oil	Rich in omega 3 fatty acids	230⁰C
Canola oil	Rich in omega 3 fatty acids, inexpensive	205 – 230⁰C
Peanut oil	Rich in monounsaturated fat (50%) and polyunsaturated fat (30%) Peanut oil also gives stir-fries a delicious nutty flavour!	230⁰C
Safflower oil	Rich in omega 3 fatty acids	265⁰C
Avocado oil	Rich in monounsaturated fats	270⁰C
Sesame oil	Rich in mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids	210⁰C
*Refined olive oil	Rich in mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids	240⁰C

*Note on olive oil:

While extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is a very healthy oil with numerous health benefits, it is unsuitable for stir-fries due to its very low smoke point (approx. 160 – 190⁰C).

Other oils with low smoking points that should be avoided in stir-fries include flaxseed oil (160⁰C), butter (176⁰C) or vegetable shortening (182⁰C).

Healthy stir-fry flavorings

A lot of the commercially available stir-fry sauces are high in sodium. For example, soy sauce has over 1000 mg of sodium per tablespoon. The RDA for sodium is 2300mg per day or less and the recommendation for individuals at risk of heart disease is 1500mg per day.

Here are a few suggestions to flavor your stir-fry without adding too much salt:

• Herbs like basil, oregano, cilantro
• Spices like cumin, coriander, cardamom, paprika
• Garlic or ginger
• Lemon zest
• Lower sodium sauces (look for <140 mg sodium per tablespoon)
• Replace half of the soy sauce with Balsamic, rice, apple cider or wine vinegar

STIR-FRY RECIPES

Looking for some recipe-inspiration? Here are a few ideas:

• Quinoa stir fry with garlic and pineapple from Food Republic

• Oh My Veggies 14 vegetarian stir-fry recipes for busy weeknights

• Australian Institute of Sport Chicken and peanut stir-fry

https://www.sportaus.gov.au/ais/nutrition/recipes/chicken_and_peanut_stir-fry