Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Low Sodium Stir-Fry Sauce

When I made this Crockpot Asian Beef and Noodles, I thought it was DELICIOUS - but very salty. Since I couldn't find low-sodium stir-fry sauce in the grocery store, I set out to try to find my own for next time.

I came across this one from Spark People and it definitely did not have the same level of saltiness. However, it was also a tad bit lacking in flavor. While I would for sure still use it in place of a bottle, I will experiment in trying to spice it up. For starters, I should have used beef broth and not chicken; perhaps I'll add a bit of low-sodium beef bouilon too.


Ingredients
6 teaspoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
2 teaspoons minced ginger
2 cups Swanson Organic chicken broth
4 tablespoons Kikkoman Lite soy sauce
4 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon pepper
6 teaspoons lemon or lime juice
6 teaspoons cornstarch
4 tablespoons water
Crushed red pepper flakes
Heat the sesame oil in a small saucepan. Add the ginger and garlic and stir-fry 15-30 seconds over medium heat to bring out the flavor. Add the chicken broth, soy sauce, brown sugar, red pepper flake, pepper, and lemon juice. Bring just to a boil, stirring. Dissolve the cornstarch in the water and whisk into the sauce. Heat until sauce thickens and reaches a full boil.
Simmer for 30 seconds. Remove from the heat and set aside.This makes 4 cups of sauce; you can freeze in 1 cup batches for later.

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting this! The high amounts of sodium in stir fry sauce is a turn off for me, too. I've never used beef broth before, but I bet it's good in stir fry sauce.

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  2. LOVE YOUR BLOG! I just read an article in my America's Test Kitchen cook book about how beef broth (unlike Chicken broth) is not regulated for sale and so includes VERY LITTLE real beef for flavor - is mostly chemicals.... I don't know what else you could use for better flavor.... have you tried making your own broth? Not hard and the taste is wonderful!

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  3. I make my own beef(actually it's venison) and chicken broth from our own raised chickens. The taste is beyond, and you can control the salt. Lot's more flavor. I'm anxious to try to lower the sodium even more but you do need some flavour.

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  4. This is excellent! Instead of making a big batch, I quartered the recipe to make only what I needed that day. I added the sesame oil, ginger and garlic to my chicken, just before adding the veggies, and added the other ingredients to the whole mixture near the end. I will definitely be making this again!

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  5. I just have one question.....I love this sauce and have made it multiple times. But every time, it turns out to be about 2.5 C of sauce, not even close to the 4 C you mentioned. Is there something I am missing? Because 2 C of chicken broth plus about 20 Tbsp of all that other stuff combined would not give you 4 cups either? I suppose no matter what, I wouldn't change anything, because we use the entire thing in our stir-fry, as we have a TON of veggies with our chicken (we have to wait for it to cook down a bit so that we can stir it in our stir-fry skillet) but just a heads-up for people reading this....don't expect to have 4 C of sauce when you're done. Best sauce I have had at home, though. LOVE IT! Thank you!

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