HEALTHY PEANUT BUTTER STIR-FRY

I love peanut butter so much. In fact, I love it so much that I was buying it far too regularly! As I would buy the 'all natural' peanut butter from health food stores, I was spending far too much on this amazing product to justify it! So I decided to make my own for half the cost. All you need is unsalted peanuts (that you can buy from supermarkets or health food stores in bulk) and a good food processor. Pour the nuts in the processor and be patient! It can take a few minutes for the nuts to release their own oils and become 'butter', but its all worth it. For the first few minutes you will need to stop the processor every so often and scrape the sides to make sure all the peanuts are processed evenly. And voila! No added salt, oil or sugar, 100% natural, homemade peanut butter. Here's one such recipe that I love to use peanut butter in. 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup brown rice
• 3 cups water 
• 2 teaspoons rice bran oil 
• 2 chicken breast fillets (450-500g), cut into even 3cm pieces
• 250g snowpeas, trimmed & roughly chopped
• 2 large carrots, cut into matchsticks
• 2 cups red cabbage, finely shredded
• 1/4 cup 100% natural peanut butter 
• 1 cup light evaporated milk or unsweetened light coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons reduced-salt soy sauce or tamari
• the juice of 1 lime
• 2 spring onions, finely chopped
• Optional- 1 small red chilli, finely chopped or 1/2-1 teaspoon chilli flakes 

COOKING 

1. Combine the rice and water in a medium saucepan, covered. Bring to the boil over medium-high heat, then simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the rice is cooked and all the water has absorbed. Remove from the heat. 

2. Meanwhile, heat 1 teaspoon oil in a wok or large pan over medium heat and swirl to coat. Add the chicken to the pan and cook for around 5 minutes, flipping the pieces over so both sides are slightly browned and just cooked. Remove chicken from the wok/pan.

3. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the peanut butter, milk, soy sauce/tamari and lime juice. Once the sauce has boiled, reduce the heat to low and continue to stir until it has thickened slightly. Add the snowpeas, carrot, cabbage and 3/4 of the spring onions to the wok/pan and stir to combine, cooking for 4-5 minutes or until the vegetables are almost tender but still a little crunchy. Add the cooked chicken to the pan and stir to combine for another minute. Remove from the heat. 

Divide the cooked rice evenly into four bowls, then add the vegetable & chicken peanut stir-fry and top with the remaining 1/4 spring onions and chilli slices or flakes, if using. Serve warm. 


Serves / 4
Total Preparation time / around 20 minutes 
Total Cooking time / 25-30 minutes 

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