Quick sesame and ginger noodles

Step 1

Mix grated garlic and vinegar and set aside for 5 minutes. Immersing raw garlic in acid first neutralises the raw garlic taste a little. Next add tahini, tamari (or soy sauce), maple syrup and ginger. Mix together well and add a bit of water (1-2 tbsp) to thin the sauce a little. Pour into a small pot and set aside.

Step 2

Prepare vegetables for stir-frying by cutting them into uniform pieces so that they require the same amount of time to cook. What I mean by that is make sure all your broccoli florets are roughly the same size, but they do not need to be the same size as carrot matchsticks, for example. Apologies, I know this is obvious but just in case.

Step 3

Set a medium pot of water on the heat. Bring the water to the boil.

Step 4

Meanwhile, warm up 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok or in a non-stick pan. Stir fry spring onions until soft and remove them from the pan and set aside, on a small plate. Pour another tablespoon of oil into a wok and let it get hot. Stir-fry all the veggies until cooked but still crunchy. Start off with denser vegetables that require more cooking (butternut squash, broccoli, beans) and finish with those that hardly require any cooking at all (carrots, peppers, cabbage). Sprinkle with a dash of tamari (or soy sauce) towards the end of stir-frying time.

Step 5

Cook pasta according to the cooking instructions.

Step 6

While pasta is cooking, warm up the sauce - do not let it come to boil, just warm it up gently.

Step 7

Drain the pasta, toss in warmed-up sauce, mix stir-fried veggies and spring onions in. Serve with a sprinkle of sesame seeds and (optionally) fresh herbs.