Vegetable Stir-Fry (Mongo-Inspired)

I'm a big fan of those Mongolian restaurants where you can choose all your veggies and noodles (and meat) and concoct your own sauce, and they grill it all up right in front of you. Especially now that I am limiting my meat and dairy intake, a good Mongolian place is one of the few places I can eat at and feel really good about afterwards. (I just leave out the meat and cut back on the noodles.)

Well, it was after a fantastic experience at a Mongolian restaurant that I decided to try to make my own Mongo stir-fry. You can use whatever vegetables you want, but I will list what I use most frequently. The key is to not add the sauce until the very end, so the garlic and ginger still have a strong flavor. We eat this a LOT! Almost weekly. It's a great way to eat tons of vegetables in one sitting. I like to stack my plate more heavily with the vegetables and less with the rice, because the flavor is just so good that I hardly notice how many vegetables I've eaten! Win. :)

Vegetable Stir-Fry
2–4 cups cooked brown rice (however much you want)
1 onion, sliced
1 bell pepper, sliced
1 zucchini, chopped
1 head of cauliflower or broccoli, in bite-sized florets
1 cup mushrooms, chopped
4 cloves fresh garlic, minced (about 1 TBSP)
1 inch of ginger root, peeled and minced (about 1 1/2 TBSP)
3 TBSP soy sauce or tamari (low-sodium if possible)
2 TBSP rice vinegar
1 TBSP tahini (optional)
1 TBSP sesame seed oil
1/4 tsp siracha sauce (if you don't like spicy food, leave this out; if you absolutely love spicy food, double it)
dash of curry powder
dash of red pepper flakes

Heat a few tablespoons of water in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and water sauté for 3 minutes. Add the rest of the vegetables (bell pepper, zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli, and mushrooms) and sauté another 5 or 10 minutes, or until they are as cooked as you desire. Stir frequently, and feel free to add more water if the vegetables begin to stick. (But only add a little at a time, because you don't want to end up with tons of liquid at the bottom when you add the sauce.)

While the vegetables are cooking, mix garlic, ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, tahini, sesame oil, siracha, curry, and red pepper flakes together in a small bowl or cup. When the vegetables are just about done, add the sauce to the skillet and stir in. Cook for 1 minute, until the ginger and garlic are just barely cooked.

Remove from heat and serve over brown rice (you could also serve it over noodles). Salt to taste, and top with additional siracha sauce, if you want. I like it super spicy!

Other vegetables you might add:
shredded carrots
green peas
bean sprouts
eggplant
pineapple (okay, not a vegetable)

It's hard to go wrong!