Listen, I am going to be honest with you here. I have not been super about sticking to a meal plan lately. Today, I am going to list some meals below that I WANT to make, meals that I INTEND to make. But let’s just all keep in mind that it may not happen, and I may simply roast some salmon and broccoli and call it a day. That sounds good. Maybe I should put it on the list and increase my chances of following, at least in part, the meal plan.
Before I get into the actual meals, I want to access your stir fry genius please.
One of my favorite meals is Stir Fry, in which I chop up a bunch of veggies and possibly a protein and then toss them together with a sauce. My favorite type of sauce is some variation on soy sauce plus something sweet plus something spicy plus a little glug of vinegar, with some garlic and possibly ginger thrown in. This Szechuan-style sauce is one of my favorite versions of this type of sauce. As you well know, I adore this chicken and zucchini stir fry, which is also a soy-based sauce, with some chicken stock thrown in for good measure.
But… I may be growing weary of that type of sauce? My husband is, that’s for sure. Every time I make something with a soy-based sauce, he comments on how salty it is. And we do use low-sodium soy sauce, so I don’t really know what to DO about that.
The thing is, I am not sure what other options there are, for stir fries? I mean, there’s the entire curry side of things, which I love. And maybe I just need to veer over into curry territory more often. My problem with curry is twofold: First, it feels heartier than a soy-based sauce; richer. And sometimes I want something that feels light. Second, I feel like curry is fussy, at least compared to the soy based sauce, which I can now do without measuring. I like a nice flavorful curry, and the curry paste that comes from a jar just doesn’t do it for me on its own. It needs doctoring. The reason my favorite red curry stir fry recipe is so delicious, for example, is because it also has kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass and a bit of sugar thrown in to amplify the flavors of the curry paste.
Now I am really itching for some red curry.
To recap: curry is doable, and worth it from a deliciousness standpoint, but it’s fussy. I have to go to a whole separate market to get the lime leaves. And the lime leaves and the lemongrass need to be washed and bruised. And the curry itself has to cook down for awhile. It’s worth it, but it’s not an everyday stir fry for me.
Same goes for fire fry, which is quite possibly my favorite stir fry of all time. It’s a process. Measuring out all the spices, and marinating the meat, and chopping the ginger and garlic (or pulling pre-chopped ginger and pre-diced garlic out of the fridge), and chopping the onion, and letting everything cook down.
It’s amazing, but it’s not a task I want to undertake every week.
So what I want to know is: What else is there, stir-fry sauce-wise?
That sounded very Carrie Bradshaw of me, if Carrie Bradshaw spent all her money on woks and Penzey’s spices instead of Manolo Blahniks.
I have never really ventured into hoisin sauce territory (but I am suspicious it would be a lot like soy sauce). I have tried oyster sauce, in beef with broccoli, and again: it’s very similar, in my mind, to soy sauce. I am a little leery of sticky sweet sauces or sauces that involve peanuts in any form, although not opposed, you understand. I am just hopeful that there are all sorts of other stir fry sauces that I am overlooking, somehow, and I want options. Lots and lots of options.
Obviously, I can google. But I want to know your tried-and-true stir fry go-tos. I have a bunch of broccoli and zucchini and bell peppers in my fridge, just DYING to be stir fried. Please help me help them fulfill their veggie destiny.
Dinners for the Week of March 1-March 7
- Green Goddess Salad with Shrimp: I got some Trader Joe’s green goddess dressing today and I need something on which to put it.
- Roast Pork Chops with Green Beans and Potatoes: I wonder if I could substitute a sweet potato for the potato, simply because I have a sweet potato waiting patiently in the pantry.
- Ginger Scallion Chicken Bowls: I am still pretending chicken doesn’t exist, so I will make this with shrimp or salmon for me.
- Roasted Salmon with Broccoli: I don’t think my husband will eat salmon any more than I will eat chicken, but luckily they cook pretty well side by side.
- Beef with Snow Peas: We literally just had this, but I saw it on The Birchwood Pie Project‘s meal plan, and it looks delicious and maybe I need to make it again. Please note that the sauce is the soy-style that will cause my husband to say, “That was good, but it was really salty.”
I feel like I’ve commented this before, so I’m sorry if that’s the case: My
suggestion here is Korean bulgogi sauce — we use this one https://delivery.publix.com/landing?product_id=1941593. We love it with chicken & broccoli, ground turkey, or even with pre-fab frozen meatballs if you use those. Or homemade meatballs if you have time. Definitely make rice with it to soak up all the sauce.
Have you tried the Korean Beef Bowl by Damn Delicious? It’s not really a stirfry but I make it with green beans and coconut rice and it’s such a crowd pleaser!
I make stir fry almost every week. I either buy a couple bags of frozen stir fry veggies from Aldi or I use zucchini or yellow squash, mushrooms and onions.
For the meat I either use beef that is already cut for stir fry or diced chicken.
I fry the meat first in a wok with about a tablespoon each of butter and soy sauce. When it’s done, I take the meat out and fry the veggies also in a tablespoon each of butter and soy sauce. I add the meat back in for the last few minutes to make sure everything is piping hot.
I serve it with homemade yum-yum sauce. If served without rice, it’s low-carb-ish, I think.
I can’t count the number of times that I’ve made stir fry for dinner and ended up with a lame sauce. I agree with the previous two comments that Korean sauces are a good, though that won’t help with the soy sauce issue. But now I want to try Szechuan sauce and the ginger scallion chicken bowls (preferably without chicken).
I’m not good with sauces but they all sound good, as long as someone else makes them for me! 🙂
I am a stir-fry QUEEN. We have them once a week – tonight I am actually making a Thai red curry! Hands down the favourite around here is noodles (send noods) with veg and I kind of just throw some sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar, garlic and ginger in. I measure almost nothing. I also have recently made a sauce that is similar, but adds hoisin and veg broth, and it is VERY delicious. It’s a little more sweet-and-sour. I got Vegan Richa’s latest international cookbook for Christmas, and she has a ton of great sauce recipes, which I never stick to exactly, but kind of use as a jumping-off point. I feel like you might like that too. She’s on IG, so take a peek at some of her recipes, because they are pretty good. At least, I think they are, but then, I don’t follow exactly YOU KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE, SUBSTITUTE THIS AND THAT.
I love stir frys but my kids hate them. I really should make a stir-fry though. They would survive the injustice of it all. I think.
My go-to is a recipe from the Ambitious Kitchen, but it does have soy sauce…though if you replace with coconut aminos (which she also has written in to the recipe), it’s not as salty. https://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/chicken-green-bean-stir-fry/
Here is another recipe that can be converted into a stir-fry sauce (it’s for Egg Roll in a Bowl and the whole point of the dish is to use Chinese Five Spice which gives it a distinct flavour; you can leave out the soy sauce and sub in some veggie stock…https://pinchofyum.com/15-minute-meal-prep-egg-roll-in-a-bowl#tasty-recipes-48419-jump-target
I really love peanut-based sauces for stir fry’s. And sesame oil just always elevates the experience. If I use PB, then I always make it creamy with full-fat coconut milk as the base and usually something sweet like a T of maple syrup.
For the record your meal plans always make me DROOL. I like having simple meal plans, but your list always makes me realize there is something more than eating the same 10 meals on repeat. #lifegoals.
This was started out as a dressing for an apple-rice salad from BHG, but it turns out that the dressing is so delicious that I want to drink it with a spoon and so we modified it some and found other uses- I’m a fan of it on beef with broccoli over rice. I usually double the ingredients and then add a little cornstarch to thicken it up before dumping it in if I’m using it as a stirfry sauce.
-2 TBS balsamic vinegar
-1 TBS sesame oil (can be part or all olive oil if you’re sensitive to the taste of sesame)
-1 TBS honey
-1/2 TBS dijon mustard (can be left out if you want, was originally there just to help the dressing emulsify. I like the taste though, so I keep it in)
-zest and juice from one orange
-2 cloves of garlic, minced
-salt to taste
Sorry I have nothing for you. Making sauces from scratch always leaves me thinking they are lame and not what my mouth wants to taste, or as you say, way too salty even with low-sodium soy. I’m pretty basic with the typical veg, almost always use tofu and then just go with a hoisin, dab of fish sauce, extra garlic and some ginger if I have it.
I do enjoy a good stir fry, but I haven’t made that in for-EVER. I think a lot of sauces have gluten in them, maybe that’s my excuse. I do buy the soy sauce alternative and I use it recipes but I do not have my own stir fry specific recipe.
I am making chicken cacciatore casserole tonight and Mini is already complaining, saying she will be eating leftovers. I haven’t made it in forever so she can survive the injustice of it all – I am borrowing that phrase from Elisabeth because it is genius. Lent starts tomorrow and we need a few meatless meals – I think I will use some cheese tortellini that I have in the freezer tomorrow. Friday, well – your guess is as good as mine.
One of my favorites was when we (used to) went for hibachi, was the Yum-Yum sauce. I sourced this recipe, which to me looks fairly straightforward. Maybe that will liven up your meal plan?
https://www.daringgourmet.com/yum-yum-sauce/#recipe
And? For what it’s worth – a plan is just that – a plan. It’s not a requirement. Life is fluid and demands changes – so if the meal plan is out the window one week (or so) it’s not a big deal.
I have found, for the things that I love but that are just Too Much Effort with the measuring and the prepping, that making a quadruple batch of the spice mix or whatever and storing everything in ziplock bags or the tiny lock-n-lock containers that seem too small to be useful for anything else works really well. (I also often double a chicken marinade, for example, and freeze half.) It does require careful labeling and keeping an inventory. But I am lazy and this lets me be lazy AND still eat the good stuff.
This soba noodles with a garlicky sauce is pretty easy and delicious – https://foolproofliving.com/soba-noodles-with-bok-choy-and-garlicky-miso-tahini-sauce/
It isn’t actually stir-fry, but I also really like Smitten Kitchen’s Sheet Pan Chow Mein. https://smittenkitchen.com/2021/04/sheet-pan-chow-mein/ We tend to use hoisin sauce for this and whatever mix of veggies that we had on hand/sounded good at the grocery store.
We made herb crusted salmon with roasted potatoes and a tomato and arugula salad yesterday, leftovers tonight, and I haven’t even pondered the rest of the week yet.
I wish I could give you some advice, Suzanne! But it looks like you’ve got some great input here in the comments.
I love to eat and I love reading recipes, looking at food pics and watching cooking shows.
Other than that, I am quite useless in the kitchen.
I am eager to know what options you tried out!
When I stir-fry I usually do some kind of soy-rice vinegar-sesame-oil-garlic-ginger sauce, now even more than before since I have to avoid sweet sauces. When I had to go off soy for two months we got some coconut aminos, but the taste is very close to soy so it wouldn’t solve the salty problem. So, I guess this comment was not particularly helpful. Maybe try using less soy sauce and dial up the other flavors– more garlic, ginger etc. Maybe Chinese 5-spice powder would help.
When I pull out the wok I tend to just throw ingredients in it willy-nilly, then make up a sauce as I go along. This doesn’t help you at all, but you did ask… and I answered honestly. 😉
You haven’t mentioned peanut sauce, so I’m guessed maybe there’s an allergy or a dislike? I whisk peanut butter, coconut milk, chili sauce/sriracha and soy sauce or fish sauce with a few drops of boiling water for stir fries or noodles. I hear you on the cooking malaise – the kids went back to school after Christmas and my cooking game went to almost zero. I’m just starting to feel like I might want to cook real meals again.
I’ve never actually made this sauce myself but let’s go down this path and see where it takes us: how about a garlic butter sauce? Tons of garlic, salt, butter and then add chicken or veggie broth and a bit of corn starch to thicken? You could manage the amount of salt and it wouldn’t be soy sauce but would still be plenty savory.
We use this sauce in many places where we used to use soy sauce. I wonder if in might be light enough for you to switch to it.
https://www.chatelaine.com/food/maggi-sauce/
I honestly enjoy veggie stir-fries that have just a touch of olive oil and then I throw in some soffritto seasoning (from TJ’s), which is basically a bit of dried garlic, onion powder, red pepper flakes, rosemary and sage. I don’t always need a sauce to make it a good stir fry.
Hmmmm. This is intriguing.