At the market I came across these adorable little green flours, flower sprouts, have you ever heard of them? They’re like a crossing between kale and Brussel sprouts. Leafy and dark like kale, earthy and cutely small like sprouts. To be honest I was a bit at a loss how to prepare them.
I decided to simply roast them coated with olive oil, pepper and salt and when crispy and just cooked through I added them to a black bean and chicken stir fry. The stir fry is just as good without the flour sprouts, but delicious with as well.
Black Bean Chicken Stir Fry & Roasted Flour Sprouts
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Loading...Ingredients
- Chicken
- 350 g chicken thighs
- 3 tbsp cornflour
- Pepper & Salt
- Stir Fry Ingredients
- 3 cm ginger, peeled and julienned
- 2-3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 3 tbsp salted & dried black beans, soaked and then roughly chopped (see notes)
- 3 spring onions, diagonally cut into 2-3 cm pieces
- Vegetables of choice (see notes). In this case:
- 1 red pepper, sliced into long strips
- 3 small yellow onions, roughly chopped into large chunks
- 300 g flour sprouts
- 2-3 spring onions, diagonally cut into 3cm long batons
- 1/2 longs red chili, deseeded and finely sliced (optional)
- Sauce
- 1 tbsp sherry or shaoxing wine
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1/4 cup oyster sauce
- 2 tsp palm sugar or brown sugar
- 1.5 tsp crushed black pepper
- 2 tsp black or white vinegar
- To serve
- Steamed white rice or noodles
- Chili oil (optional), store bought or homemade
- 1 Spring onion, finely chopped
Instructions
Prep
Soak the black beans in a bowl of water for 2-3 hours. If you don't have the time 30 minutes is fine as well, you'll just have a stronger fermented flavour, which is still tasty!
If using flour sprouts: preheat the oven to 200°C.
Mix all the sauce ingredients together and set aside.
Wash and chop all your ingredients as mentioned above, so you're ready to move fast.
Get a pot of boiling, salted water ready for the rice. Boil for 8 minutes, strain all the water out, put the lid back on and steam for at least 8 minutes. This should give you enough time to make the rest of the stir fry.
The Flour Sprouts (Optional)
Spread the flour sprouts over a baking tray and toss to coat with olive oil and pepper and salt.
Place in the oven and roast for 10 - 12 minutes, enough time to make the rest of the stir fry.
When starting to char and smoke a bit remove from the oven and set aside.
The cooking
Slice the chicken into small cubes or strips.
Add the chicken to a large bowl and toss them with the corn flour, white pepper and salt until coated.
Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a wok, when hot add the chicken. Keep tossing and stirring, until crispy, ± 6 minutes.
Remove the chicken from the wok and drain on a paper towel.
Add some more oil to the wok if needed and add the ginger and chili, stir fry for 30 seconds.
Add the vegetables, stir frying on high heat for 3-4 minute until the vegetables start to char. I love the smokey flavour of the charred bits!
Add the chopped black beans and stir fry, ± 2 minutes.
Add the chicken back to the wok, stir through, 1 minute.
To the wok add garlic and the sauce.
Stir fry it all for 3-4 minutes, add a drop of water if it all feels a bit too dry.
Right before serving add the flour sprouts to the vegetables and spoon through carefully. Turn the heat off.
Serve with steamed rice, chopped spring onions and a drizzle of chili oil.
Notes
- You can also buy already hydrated black beans, so if you have those you can just these as is to the vegetables as mentioned above.
- Other good stir frying vegetables are: mushrooms, courgettes, aubergines, celery, carrots. Basically whatever you have lying around.
