This hearty Japanese inspired stir-fry is made with buckwheat noodles and miso paste.
Miso paste is fermented soya beans. Granted, this doesn’t sound like the best ingredient to mix into your stir-fry, but miso has some amazing health benefits.
As it’s fermented, miso is good for your gut. It contains probiotic bacteria so improves digestion and boosts the immune system, a key part of skin healing.
When buying miso paste, make sure to get the variety that’s stored in the fridge because it’s this one that contains the live beneficial bacteria you’re after.
The darker the colour, the stronger the flavour. I prefer the milder white or yellow miso varieties. Experiment and find your favourite.
Buckwheat noodles are perfect if you’re avoiding gluten. Despite their name, they’re wheat and gluten free. You can team them with whatever vegetables you have left in the fridge at the end of the week for a quick Friday night stir-fry.
This is a good dish if you’re just transitioning to a healthier diet. It pairs a good variety of vegetables with the familiar flavour of iron-rich beef and filling noodles.
Ingredients
1 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
20mls water
1 tbsp miso paste
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp grated ginger
1 tbsp coconut oil
8 spring onions
1 red pepper
150g sugar snap peas
250g thinly sliced grass-fed beef
120g buckwheat noodles
Sesame seeds and lime wedges to serve
Serves 2
Directions
Make the sauce first by mixing the tamari, water, miso paste, crushed garlic cloves and grated ginger together.
Put the buckwheat noodles on to cook as per the pack instructions. They take just 5 minutes in boiling water. Once they’re cooked, drain and rinse them with cold water to stop them from sticking together. They’ll reheat in the wok just before serving.
Whilst the noodles are cooking, melt the coconut oil in a wok over a medium heat. Add the spring onions, red pepper, sugar snap peas and steak. Stir-fry until the beef is cooked to your liking.
Turn off the heat then add the sauce to the wok and mix well. You want to put the sauce in at the end of cooking just to warm it. This is so you preserve as much of the good bacteria in the miso as possible.
Mix the noodles through and serve with a sprinkling of sesame seeds and lime wedges.
Tip: when it comes to meat, think quality over quantity. Meat can absolutely feature in a healthy, skin-friendly diet. I’ve been both vegetarian and vegan in the past but I’m definitely healthier when I eat some meat and fish.
Buy organic grass-fed meat so you know you’re getting the benefits of the meat rather than the downsides of eating highly processed, grain-fed, antibiotic pumped beef. It’s more expensive but it’s also more humane. An added bonus is that you’ll likely eat less of it making space for other healthy foods to come into your diet.
Eating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables is one of the best things you can do for your skin.