Simple stir fry sauce recipe wanted.

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Dave7

Legendary Member
Location
Cheshire
Problem....... I have been told by the Doc that I need to lower my blood pressure.
That eliminates sachet sauces** as they are high in sodium and AFAIK sugar.
The recipes I see on Google call for ingredients I don't have and as it's only for me I a loathe to buy stuff I will never use.
OK, some rice vinegar and soy sauce I can justify.
Garlic and ginger I can buy in tubes.
Sesame sauce.....maybe, if necessary.
So...... simple recipes for one person needed please.
Thanks.
**if anyone knows of healthy sachet or bottled sauce that would be great.
 
Stir fry sauces tend to be a case of balancing sweet (wine, mirin, honey) with sour (vinegars) and oils to your taste.
Store cupboard staples are runny honey, soy sauce (both light & dark), sesame oil, mirin, oyster sauce, rice wine vinegar, garlic, ginger paste.
I tend to just then make it up to taste and use the honey if I want it to be a sticky sauce.
You can typically substitute the likes of mirin, sake, wine etc for each other if you do not have everything.
Experiment and go for it
 

T4tomo

Legendary Member
OK, some rice vinegar and soy sauce I can justify.
Garlic and ginger I can buy in tubes.
that's pretty decent base, also consider
honey
tomato puree (or ketchup)
a splash of water if you need it runnier
chilli paste or flakes if you want it spicy
 

raleighnut

Legendary Member
3 ingredients essential to a stirfry are ginger, garlic and spring onions, I make a sauce out of a stock cube (reduced salt) cornflour and a quick spurt of light soy in half a pint of water with variations including sesame oil, dry sherry or Hoisin sauce. A few roasted raw cashew nuts sometimes get added but don't use 'roasted and salted' ones (too salty)
 

presta

Legendary Member
How much bread do you eat? That's where most of the salt in an average person's diet comes from:

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https://assets.publishing.service.g...a/file/338782/SACN_Salt_and_Health_report.pdf
soy sauce I can justify
Soy sauce is sky-high in salt, and has limited shelf life. If you finish off a bottle within its use-by date, that'll be 20% of your total salt allowance just in soy sauce alone. A bottle of soy sauce contains enough for about 30 meals, and keeps for 28 days, do you fancy eating stir fry every day for a month? (Worcester sauce keeps indefinitely, and with less than a fifth of the salt that's in soy.)

Most ready-made flavourings are laden with salt though, so if that's what you need to avoid, you're pretty much limited to blending individual herbs and spices yourself rather than ready made blends.

Garlic and ginger I can buy in tubes.
Pastes are often difficult to use up within date, dried herbs & spices keep indefinitely. Or alternatively fresh garlic & ginger will freeze.
 

Dadam

Über Member
Location
SW Leeds
I've kept the tubes and jars of ground or shredded garlic/ginger for literally months in the fridge, and tasted just fine.

But you can blend your own from fresh and keep it in the freezer. As you're cooking for one put it in ice cube trays and pop them out as you need.
 
Good Chinese curry sauce is a bit of stock, garlic, a finely minced onion and some finely minced ginger, curry powder and a bit of 5-spice powder. Then thicken the lot with cornflour.

You can add some honey and a bit of minced apple if you want something closer to a Japanese Katsu curry.

Otherwise, a good sweet & sour can be made from a small can of pineapple in juice (chop the pineapple, use the juice to make the sauce), tomato paste / ketchup, plus the garlic, ginger & onion added. And a bit of 5-spice. Salt to taste.

+1 for the BBC Good Food website. Also look out for any Ken Hom recipes.
 

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Senior Member
Location
Hampshire, UK
I'd never heard of those. I think I might be trying some, being as the description contains the magic word 'cheesy'.

Yes, quite a nice cheese flavour, while also being loaded in at least one B vitamin (12?).

I switched our Amazon "subscribe & save" to a cheaper option recently, ~£19 for two 500g bags. Tastes just as good as previous brand.
 
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