When I first started on my healthy eating journey stir fry was one of the dishes that I ate most. It was straight forward and full of vegetables. Back then, I used bottled sauce from the store, but now I always make my own garlic soy stir fry sauce instead.
This sauce is very simple and easy to make. I only make as much as I am going to use because it is so easy to make a fresh batch. The recipe is written for 4 servings, but you will see that the ingredients are easily divided so you can add or subtract the number of servings you want to make.
Each serving has 1 TBS reduced sodium soy sauce, 1 TBS rice vinegar, 1 garlic clove, 1 tsp brown sugar, ½ tsp chili paste, and 1 TBS water.
Finally, cornstarch is used for thickening the sauce and it is is not as easily divided for a single serving, with 4 servings using 1 ½ tsp. However, the thickness of the sauce is easily variable based on how long you let it simmer. For example, when I make a half batch for 2, I can use ¾ tsp cornstarch (the portion is easy here). When I make a batch for 3 servings I use only 1 tsp cornstarch (instead of 1 1/8 tsp) and let the sauce simmer a little longer to compensate for the slight reduction in cornstarch.
If you want to make only a single serving, I would recommend using ¼ tsp cornstarch with a longer simmer time. Alternatively you can also make a half or full batch and only pour one portion into the skillet and refrigerate the remaining to use another time.
About the Garlic Soy Stir Fry Sauce recipe:
- There are two methods listed in the instructions. I almost always use the stir fry method, which has you make the sauce as a part of your own stir fry dish. You can also make the sauce alone and drizzle it over other dishes.
- Cooking with cornstarch: Cornstarch must be boiled to thicken. It will be very pasty and unpleasant if you do not boil the sauce. It does not need to simmer long, one-minute will do.
- What kind of dishes can I use this sauce in? Beyond stir fry, you could drizzle the sauce cooked by itself over roasted sheet pan vegetables, grain bowls, noodle bowls etc.
- Empty Peanut Butter Jar Stir Fry: Shake this recipe up in an emptied peanut butter jar to clean the last remnants of peanut butter out and add delicious flavor to your sauce.
- Simple swaps: Replace brown sugar with honey, replace chili paste with sriracha, replace rice vinegar with lime juice, replace cornstarch with arrowroot starch.
- Make it gluten free: Use reduced sodium tamari in place of soy sauce.
- ¼ cup reduced sodium soy sauce
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 4 tsp brown sugar or honey (optional, or to taste)
- 2 tsp chili paste (such as sambal oelek; optional, or to taste)
- ¼ cup water
- 1 ½ tsp cornstarch
- Whisk together all sauce ingredients. To make a stir fry, cook any proteins in a hot skillet or wok (use enough for 4 servings). Remove and add vegetables to the skillet and cook until tender crisp. Add all proteins and vegetables back to the skillet. Whisk the sauce one more time to incorporate any fallen cornstarch. Pour the sauce into the hot skillet over the stir fry, stirring to coat. Let simmer for 1 minute, or until thick.
- Serve the stir fry over rice.
- Whisk together the soy sauce, rice vinegar, garlic, brown sugar, and chili paste in a small sauce skillet.
- In a small bowl make a cornstarch slurry by whisking together the water and cornstarch.
- Heat the soy sauce mixture over medium heat until it just starts to boil. Whisk the cornstarch slurry one more time to incorporate any fallen cornstarch and pour the slurry into the soy sauce mixture, whisking to combine. Bring back to a boil whisking frequently and let simmer for 1 minute.
- Serve the sauce drizzled over a stir fry, sheet pan vegetables, rice bowls, noodle bowls etc.
