Winter Veggie Stir Fry

I went to the grocery store the other day, and every vegetable I've ever wanted to cook was on sale. Rainbow chard, shiitake mushrooms, acorn squash... mmm.  In honor of such a bountiful selection, I chose to purchase all of the above items and combine them into one lovely little dish.

This Winter Veggie Stir Fry has a lot of moving parts, but it's actually really easy.

Let's start with the rice:

1 cup long grain brown rice
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
a pinch of salt
3 cloves
1 1/2 cups shiitake mushrooms

Place in a large sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Place a lid on the pan and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 50 minutes, then turn off the heat and let sit for 10 minutes before removing lid.

Once the rice is in the simmering stage, you can move onto the acorn squash:

Preheat oven to 350 and spray cookie sheet with nonstick cooking spray. Slice the squash in half and scoop out the seeds and stringy insides.  Place both halves face down on the pan.  Cook 20-25 minutes and let cool before touching. run a spoon just inside the skin to remove the center in one large piece. Discard skin and chop squash into cubes.

While the squash is in the oven, let's work on the other vegetables:

1 bunch of rainbow chard
2 small broccoli crowns

Remove hard stem from chard and break apart leaves into medium sized pieces.  Cut hard stem off the broccoli and break apart into bite sized pieces.  Steam over boiling water until chard begins to wilt and broccoli is soft enough to eat.

Tying in all together:

1 tbsp Hoisin
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce (or more)

Remove cloves from the rice. Remember, you put 3 in there, and 3 need to come out!  Place pan (with rice) back over a medium heat. Stir in hoisin, vinegar and soy sauce.  Toss in squash, broccoli and chard.  Stir continually for a few minutes and add more soy sauce if needed.

See? That wasn't so bad. And it's so colorful, proving that it's a super healthy winter dish!