Teriyaki bowl

Difficulty: 3/5

Preparation and cooking time: 1 hour

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

FOR THE SAUCE

• 10 garlic cloves crushed
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 4 tbsp soy sauce
• 3 tbsp date sugar
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 1/8 tsp cayenne

FOR THE VEGETABLES

• 450g broccoli florets
• 350g mushrooms sliced
• 1 thinly sliced big-sized onion
• 5 sliced carrots
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 250g cubed tofu

FOR THE RICE

• 2 cups brown rice
• 3 cups water

Instructions:

• Place all the ingredients for the sauce in a small pot, and turn on the heat on low. Mix with a fork or a whisk until the sauce becomes smooth and even. Make sure to keep stirring it here and there while it cooks so that it doesn't stick to the pot.
• In the meantime, place the brown rice and the water for the rice in another medium pot, and bring to a boil.
• As soon as the rice pot starts boiling, turn the heat to low and cover the pot, letting it simmer--by the time the rice is cooked, there should be no water left.
• While the rice is cooking and the sauce is simmering, place all the ingredients listed in the vegetables in a big pot, for the exception of the carrots which will be added later. Turn on the heat to medium-low, and cover the pot so that the vegetables will cook evenly. The mushrooms, and partly the rest of the vegetables, should release a lot of water, so there shouldn't be a need to add any water for the steaming process.
• Keep stirring the sauce and checking on the vegetables and the rice, and after 20 minutes add the carrots to the vegetables pot. Remove the lid of the vegetables pot as you add the carrots and bring the heat to high, so that the excess water will start evaporating--if there's very little excess water, keep the lid on.
• Once the lid of the vegetables pot is removed, keep stirring to make sure the carrots cook evenly and nothing sticks to the pot, increasing or decreasing the heat depending on how much water is left, while also checking the rice and stirring the sauce.
• The carrots should be done cooking 10 minutes after they were added, at which point the brown rice and the sauce should also be ready, with the sauce being of the right consistency--if you see that the sauce already achieves the right consistency before this point, turn off the heat to let the sauce rest and not reduce any more, and you can then reheat it for a couple minutes just before the rice and the vegetables are ready, so that it will be served hot.

Serving:

Serve all the ingredients hot on a plate, topping with a generous amount of sauce.