This post is part of the Food Matters Project, a cooking collaboration among participating bloggers. Each week, we will cook a recipe from Mark Bittman’s Food Matters Cookbook, which places an emphasis on mindful and sustainable eating. Follow along with us!

The latest addition to the Food Matters Project is a recipe for Seared Bean Sprouts with Beef and Sesame Orange Sauce, chosen by Dominica of Wine Food Love. I was really excited about this one, because I believe at heart it wants to be a stir fry. I am a veteran stir-fryer, and am always looking for new sauces to bring into the mix.

Because I wanted this to be a stir fry, I decided to move it into the wok (one of my favorite cooking tools), and threw in some white button mushrooms I had left over from a pizza, just for good measure. Bittman suggests serving this with noodles or rice, but to keep it in an asian theme, I made it into lettuce wraps. I’m an avid lettuce-wrapper, and, yes, ok, I also have to make an appearance in a bathing suit next week. So I took the opportunity to skip out on grains. The lettuce brought a welcome cooling, crisping element to the dish, and it also allowed me to eat with my hands, which I see as another big fat plus. The stir fry was a big success with the eaters I served this to (100% male, by the way). The orange element makes the sauce wonderfully fragrant, and the slight bitterness of the zest is nicely offset by the honey. Overall, this was a hit, and a nice alternative to ordering out for Chinese. The only note I would offer is to be sure to slice the beef very thin, especially if you want lettuce as your vehicle.

Other than the addition of the mushrooms and the wok (which also allowed me to reduce the amount of oil), the only other change I made to the recipe was to add about a tablespoon of rice wine vinegar to the sauce. For the complete recipe, head over to Wine Food Love — and check out what other FMP members did here!

Lily Bellow graduated in 2009 from Harvard University with a degree in English Literature. While in college, she bartended and cooked at the campus pub, and as a result has a difficult time eating chicken wings. She is the Managing Editor for Small Kitchen College.