Stir-fry Bean Sprouts & Tricolor Peppers

This stir-fry bean sprouts & tricolor peppers is an inexpensive, colourful and healthy side dish that goes well with rice. When cooked right, the bean sprouts (aka mung bean sprouts) are crunchy, tender and sweet. In this recipe, I used oyster sauce and a newly-discovered salt & pepper blend to achieve a tasty dish in quick time.

See Also:

• Simmered Stuffed Peppers Recipe

More Bean Sprouts Recipe:

• Spicy Bean Sprout Salad for Ramen
• Stir-fry Royale Chives & Beansprouts
• Korean Mung Bean Sprouts Salad (Sukju Namul)

Main Ingredients

#1 Bean sprouts & three colours of bell peppers (capsicums)

The main ingredients are bean sprouts and bell peppers (capsicum). I try to sneak in three colours of the bell peppers (green, red & orange/yellow) for a colourful dish. For me the orange pepper resemble carrots, the green pepper looks like the green portion of spring onions, and the red looks like red chilli (but without the heat). It’s so much faster and easier to cut up the bell peppers to thin strips (than to prepare the carrots, chilli etc) for this dish. If you are not particular about the colours, you can use one large bell pepper, or whatever you have in the fridge.

As for the bean sprouts, I no longer bother to pluck the tails off … they take too much time. As you can see, as a noob cook, I’m just a very lazy cook :P

My trick to incorporate more pepper colours is to use the mini peppers variety which are much smaller than the usual peppers. They take up less space in the fridge and they seem to keep for a longer time too. They are useful for small-scale cooking like mine.

Ingredient #2: Japanese Salt & Pepper Blend

I bought this salt & pepper seasoning blend from Daiso and I am addicted to using it ever since my discovery. This seasoning blend makes many dishes (grilled meat, stir-fries & fried rice etc) come to life. In this bean sprouts recipe, I use the salt & pepper blend in addition to a bit of oyster sauce and chicken stock. It makes cooking easier, and for a noob cook like me, it gets the taste of the dish a little closer to outside quality :p

You can use any favourite brand of salt & pepper seasoning blend (to taste) or replace it with traditional sea salt & pepper, mushroom seasoning powder or light soy sauce.

Step-by-Step (Stir-fry Bean Sprouts & Tricolor Peppers)

Heat oil in a wokpan. Stir fry garlic briskly until aromatic.

Add the bean sprouts, oyster sauce …

chicken stock (or water), …

and salt & pepper seasoning blend.

Stir fry until the beansprouts start to soften. Then add bell peppers and mix well.

Cover with lid and let the contents steam for 1 minute. Steaming the sprouts for a short time helps them become more tenderly cooked while still retaining the crunch.

Add a few drops of sesame oil and mix well. The sesame oil is optional, but it adds aroma to the completed dish.

This is the dish from the pan.

Plate it out, itt’s great as a side-dish with steamed rice.