Stir-fried Okra with Rice Noodles

As I had mentioned two Saturdays ago, my blogger friend Puja sent me rice paper spring rolls to try out. I love Vietnamese spring rolls that have rice noodles inside of them. In assembling ingredients to give something like that a try, I purchased thin dried rice noodles on Saturday and am thinking of trying some simple marinara recipes and others with them. Tonight, I used them in an okra stir fry.


I diced a little more than half of an 8-ounce package of seitan into small cubes between 1/4-1/2" and started them sauteeing. After a few minutes, I added two scallions that I had diced into 1/4" rings. Just a minute or so later, I added some lovely locally grown organic okra that I had cut diagonally into halves (a few large okras I cut into thirds). I sauteed for about 5-8 minutes, then added rice noodles (I had first soaked the noodles in hot tap water for about 6 minutes then drained them, running cold water over them); half of a red jalapeno pepper, diced into small pieces, less than 1/4"; about a half dozen basil leaves, roughly torn; a little soy sauce; and, since I was unfortunately out of fresh ginger, maybe a quarter teaspoon of ginger powder.

I thought it was a good and unique dinner; my wife enjoyed it, but less than I did. Tomorrow, by the way, is my wife's birthday - though it's a big landmark one, she really doesn't like celebrating and didn't want a party, but it seems like my parents, she, and I will go out for South Indian food. We're also eating out on Thursday as a new photography class begins then.