Tamarind and cashew stir-fry

Method
Prep:15min  ›  Cook:10min  ›  Ready in:25min 

1. Mix the sauce ingredients with 2 tbsp of water in a small bowl, and set aside. Heat 1 tbsp of the sunflower oil in a wok or large frying pan and add the cashew nuts. Cook for 1 minute or until pale golden, then use a draining spoon to remove the nuts from the pan and set aside to drain on kitchen paper.
2. Add the sugarsnap peas, sweetcorn and red pepper to the wok and stir-fry over a high heat for 2–3 minutes or until the vegetables begin to soften. Pour in the prepared sauce and add the pak choy. Cook, stirring, for about 30 seconds, then cover and simmer for 2 minutes. Transfer the vegetables to a hot serving dish, scatter the nuts over and keep hot.
3. Cook the noodles in boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain, return to the pan and drizzle the sesame oil over them. Set aside.
4. Heat the remaining 1 tbsp of sunflower oil in the wok or frying pan and add the bean sprouts and onion. Stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the noodles and cook for a further 3 minutes, tossing the ingredients together well.
5. Pour the soy sauce over the noodle mixture and transfer to a large serving dish or individual bowls. Sprinkle with the coriander. Serve the tamarind vegetables separately or pile them on top of the noodles.

Some more ideas

*For a Thai-style stir-fry, use mange-touts instead of sugersnap peas, and replace the pak choy with 125 g (4½ oz) carrots, thinly sliced; 1 can sliced bamboo shoots, about 225 g, drained; and 4 spring onions, thinly sliced. Instead of the tamarind sauce, mix together 4 tbsp sweet chilli sauce, 2 tbsp light soy sauce, 1 tbsp Thai fish sauce and a 2.5 cm (1 in) piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped. Serve with the noodle mixture or with plain boiled rice. *Frozen vegetables make stir-fries even quicker to prepare. Try frozen sugarsnap peas, sweetcorn and green beans with chopped fresh spring onions, chopped garlic and/or chopped fresh root ginger. There is no need to thaw the vegetables first – just add them to a little hot sunflower oil and stir away. *For a more substantial dish, add 200 g (7 oz) peeled raw tiger or king prawns with the sauce in step 2.

Plus points

Cashew nuts offer vitamin B1 and the minerals iron, zinc, magnesium and selenium. They also contain a high proportion of fat, but most of it is of the ‘healthy’ monounsaturated kind.

Each serving provides

B1, C, E, folate, A, B6, niacin, copper, iron, B2, calcium, potassium, zinc