Shallot & black-pepper stir-fry
Plus 12 sauces with fewer than 3 ingredients.
Here at 40 Ingredients Forever, recipes are abundant in flavor and joy yet streamlined in process—because they’re all made of the same 40 ingredients.
The speed and flexibility of a stir-fry is appealing most every night, but its deliciousness hinges on the sauce. The thing is…
This is what it looks like when I’m developing a recipe for a sauce. It starts with pulling out all the ingredients I want to try; organizing them on a sheet pan by salt, fat, acid, and heat; and then trying out different combinations until the end of time.
When I’m making a sauce for dinner, honestly, it kind of looks the same. So many bottles and measuring spoons. You’re right, I could look up a recipe or memorize one of the good ones I’ve made before, but, call me lazy or hard to please, sometimes stirring together a separate sauce is just too much.
For a stir-fry sauce that involves not making a sauce, I’ve been making an abridged version of Ottolenghi’s famous black pepper tofu. The balance of umami, acid, sweetness, and heat comes from soy sauce, Sherry vinegar, browned shallots, and black pepper. You could use any mixture of vegetables and small bits of protein, whether ground or diced. Today’s recipe features one of my favorite vegan proteins. It starts with a T and ends with a yay. And YAY for how it willingly crisps and absorbs flavors.
Sauces coalesce what might otherwise be a random jumble of ingredients. They flavor, bind, and caramelize. But if there’s anyone else out there who would rather not mad-scientist a sauce tonight, here are some ideas that use three or fewer ingredients. Fewer variables, fewer uh-ohs.
Peanut butter + harissa (versions 24 through 30 shown above)
Just tahini. Just yogurt. Just a squeeze of lemon or lime.
