Shrimp and Vermicelli

I love using baby shrimp in dishes because they are so dang easy and you don't have to remember the night before to defrost anything. How many times have you decided to have brinner (you know you've done it!) instead of painstakingly running water over chicken or ground beef? This is a dish for you :).

You know from previous posts that I'm a big fan of veggies in dishes and the end of the week veggie drawer cleanout. Keep reading...this one is a good one.

Everything is local with the exception of my handy, dandy spices. If you don't have red pepper flake, substitute something spicy such as hot sauce or cayenne or leave it out if you don't like spicy. Also, a piece of ginger can be chopped up into small pieces and added to the dish instead of the powdered variety that I use.

Shrimp Vermicelli

1 tsp olive oil (or other cooking oil)
Dash of red pepper flake
Dash of ground ginger
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup diced red or yellow bell pepper
1/4-1/3 cup of diced carrot
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup diced white, yellow or red onion
1 package rice vermicelli (If you haven't used this before, it's so easy!!! You'll find it in the Asian section of your grocery store.)
3 vegetable bouillon cubes +6 cups of water or 6 cups of vegetable broth (I'd stick with the vegetable broth for this dish as you don't want the dish masked with chicken or beef flavor)
Soy sauce
1/4-1/2 cup frozen green peas, thawed
2 cups of baby shrimp, thawed by running cool water over
Asian sauce such as sweet chili and ginger sauce (This is optional and I think it gives the end result a little kick.)

Heat large fry pan or wok on medium. Heat 1 tsp of olive oil and add red pepper flake and ginger. Cook for 30 seconds. Add carrot, bell pepper, and salt to spices and cook for about 5 minutes or until crisp tender. Add in onion and garlic and continue cooking until all veggies are tender. While veggies are cooking, warm veggie broth or water +bouillon cubes in microwave. Add vermicelli and allow noodles to soak, separating noodles from each other as they soak longer. Soak for a total of 5 minutes.

Once veggies are done cooking, add noodles to veggies in pan. Turn up the heat just a little. Add some of the broth to the pan to keep noodles and veggie mixture from drying out (about 1/2 to 1 cup). Add a couple of tablespoons of soy sauce. Add a little extra chili flake here if desired. After a few minutes, add peas and until warmed through. Turn off heat. Add shrimp, stir in with noodles and cover. Let sit for about 5 minutes to heat shrimp. Top individual servings with a little Asian sauce. Voila!

I had this leftover today and ate it for lunch. It's one of those dishes that you can eat for lunch the next day and it may have even gotten better!