In the Kitchen: Yasai Itame (Easy Vegetable Stir-Fry) Recipe

In the Kitchen will be the category where I will post some of the recipes I cook for my family. I promise you these are super-duper easy recipes because I’m really not an expert in the kitchen plus the fact that I don’t want recipes with so many steps/how-tos. Just 4-6 instructions, anything more than that, I skip the page of my recipe book and look for simpler recipes. So newbies in the kitchen, I hope you’ll try my recipes or suggestions and let’s share kitchen secrets!

When eating at Japanese restaurants. you’ll notice the vegetable side-dish that comes with our tempura or misono, check out my Beef Misono with Stir-fried Vegetables. Yasai Itame pala ang tawag dun, Yasai means vegetables and Itame, derived from the verb Itameru, which means stir fry.

I make it a point to cook more vegetable dishes at home, it’s a good thing that my daughter Gwen loves eating ginisang gulay, as long as I add more water because she prefers it masabaw :).

My Yasai Itame recipe has no meat, but you can add few slices of pork, beef, or chicken. And whatever vegetables you have in the ref. In my case, what I found is french beans, a small piece of cabbage, bell pepper, and carrots.

Yasai Itame Recipe

Ingredients

cabbage, chopped into small pieces
carrots, sliced into strips
french beans
red bell pepper, sliced into strips
2 tbsp. Mirin (optional but this will give your dish the Japanese taste)
2-3 tbsp. soy sauce
sesame oil
garlic, minced
onion, sliced
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Heat 1 tbsp. of sesame oil in a pan.
2. Saute the garlic, then add the onion.
3. Add the carrots and french beans because they take longer time to cook. Continue to stir fry until the two are slightly cooked.
4. Add the cabbage and bell pepper.
5. Add mirin and soy sauce.
6. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle with sesame oil before serving.

This cooks fast that’s why you have to season and taste fast. I didn’t add water, the liquid came from mirin and the vegetable juices. Matamis ang mirin so use sparingly, kaya taste as you go.

Other Yasai Itame recipes use bean sprouts or togue, wala ako nun. Pero that’s the beauty of this dish, you get to use whatever left-over vegetables you have. You can also add broccoli!

I share more recipes in my Facebook page and Instagram, @badudets. Follow the hashtag, #BadudetsCooks. See you there!