Spicy Peanut Noodle Stirfry

I have been experimenting with making peanut sauces lately. It's not too hard but you have to get the right combination of vinegar, soy, and peanut butter. Looking at the ingredients list on the back of most supermarket peanut sauces, the motivation is easy to find.

As an initial foray into the real of peanut sauce, it's probably easiest to start with an easy dish -- stir fry. I basically cleaned out my fridge, grabbing all the veggies I had left. When Toni and Dave stopped by for the Sigur Ros show, Toni left a few things at my house, including some black soybean angel hair pasta and a zucchini. I would have felt bad if I didn't make and eat them on the Internet.

Ingredients:
1 package (8 ounces) angel hair pasta (Rice vermiccelli is typical for this type of dish but I don't have any today)
5 cups of asorted vegetables (I'm using Brusells sprouts, tomato, carrot, onion, broccoli, radishes, and zucchini)
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup tamari or Bragg's
1/4 cup peanut butter (creamy is preferable)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons turmeric
















Start a few quarts of water boiling in a big pot and cook your noodles as indicated on the package.

Make sure you keep an eye on the noodles while you take care of the other steps. Drain them and set them aside when they are done. Don't overcook them or they won't hold up to the stir fry.
















Chop up all your vegetables. Halve Brusells sprouts; coin the zucchini, radishes, and carrots; dice the onions and tomato; and cut the broccoli into florets (if you buy them in stalks). If you are using other vegetables, cut them up into 1- to 1.5-inch pieces.
















Heat up the olive oil on med. high in a large pan and add the "harder" vegetables that take longer to cook (broccoli, Brussels sprouts).
















After a minute or so, add the tomato, onion, vinegar, tamari, peanut butter, chili powder, and turmeric. Saute all this for a few minutes until the resulting sauce is uniformly distbuted over the vegetables.
















You have probably finished your noodles, drained them, and set them aside by now. Add a handful or so (about 3/4 of the noodles) to the stir fry. Put the rest in a container and stick 'em in the fridge.
















Stir everything for another minute. Turn the heat down and add a little more vinegar or tamari if the sauce is starting to crust and burn on the sides.
















After a few more minutes (once the carrots are cooked), your stirfry should be done. The noodles should have developed a nice ruddy yellow color from the turmeric and soy.
















Variations:
Stir fry is a good way to clean out your fridge and use up those vegetables that are close to getting a little questionable. I make stir fry a few times a month for this reason. There aren't a whole lot of vegetables, or even fruits for that matter, that don't work well with stir fry, given they will taste good with the sauce.
If you use rice pasta, like vermicelli, it will develop a color closer to the thai noodles you most often see in restaurants or the boxes of prepackaged meals.
If you want it the sauce a little thicker but don't want the extra fat from peanut butter, add some molasses or rice flour.