Adding as much syn free flavour to stir frys?

Eternalflame

Excited about the new me!
Hi.. I absolutely love stir fries, EE and on Green with noodles, but only really use the same bits and pieces to flavour them. Fresh Ginger, Garlic, chilli flakes, and Soy Sauce.. has anyone got any syn free alternatives, or extremely low synned ideas? The only thing that I usually add towards the end of cooking is a tbsp of l/f peanut butter to stir in, kind of adds a satay flavour.. but thats 4.5 syns! Its a shapers choccie bar to me!

Wanna be spending my syns much more wisely on stir fry's!!
 
Do you the mag from a couple of months ago? There's a recipe in there for chicken chow mein which uses chinese 5 spice and stuff. It's really yummy, if having a green day use quorn pieces in place of chicken. It doesn't have much veg in the recipe so just more. I'll try and find it if you don't have.
 
Hope you like it. When I made it I didn't have the sesame oil but was nice even without, I've bought some now so you've reminded me to try it again thanks.:D
 
Mine comes out lovely - really spicy and tasty.
I use:

Pack of stir fry veg
Whatever meat / prawns got in
Dried egg noodles cooked halfway before adding in
a beef oxo cube
garlic clove crushed
soy sauce
salt and pepper
tablespoon cajun (yes cajun) spice.

I discovered the cajun spice thing by mistake one day, and now always use it in stir fry. It reminds me of when I used to have chinese takeaway and got singapore noodles.
 
For me the best stir fry sauce is a dressing I add on my plate at the end. When I cook the stirfry I use the usual garlic, ginger, chilli, veggies, meat etc but just season with a little salt & pepper. But in a small bowl I mix equal parts of soy sauce and vinegar, tsp sugar or splenda and a finely chopped chilli. Mix well and drizzle generously over your stirfry just before you eat it. Delicious!
 
I tend to marinate my meat for a few hours before doing the stir fry.

I normally fill a bowl with soy sauce, fresh grated ginger, spring onion and crushed garlic and add my meat and then refrigerate. Then when I am ready to cook, I add the entire contents of the bowl to the wok, as the meat absorbs most of the liquid and flavour, once the meat is brown, I throw in my veggies and if needed add a bit more soy sauce. A bit of tomato paste can be nice too.

If I want something a bit different, all the usual stir fry sauces are not too bad syn wise really, I just use very little and make it go further by using a bit more soy sauce with it. I love asian food, so my cupboard is full of hoi sin sauce, mirin, black bean, yellow bean, oyster sauce etc.

I do really miss Thai curries though, I have made one with milk flavoured with coconut extract and although it was nice, it wasnt quite the same unfortunately and even light coconut milk is quite high syn wise. I am yet to try making it with fat free evaporated milk, which I discovered can also been used as a substitute for the coconut milk.

sorry went off on one there lol.
 
Not at all BM, thanks for that.. I love asian food too and have most of what you use apart from the yellow bean sauce. Whats that like? I did a prawn stif fry tonight and marinaded my prawns in l/fat peanut butter (1tbsp 4.5 syns), grated ginger, garlic and lime juice, for about 2 hrs.. did my veggies, in soy, chilli flakes and fry light, then added noodles and the five spice.. towards the end added the prawn mix and it was nice and filled me right up too.

Just like to jazz it up so its a bit different, all that veg down you too, lol.. thanks again xx
 
I add some Cajun seasoning to everything, I love it! Although now it's nearly run out i'm going to be making my own to try to cut down on the salt. It's made with a combo of stuff like garlic powder, paprika, black pepper, onion powder, cayenne powder, oregano and thyme (and salt usually). Bit of a faff but once you've got the mix you can just add it to whatever.

I find that dry seasonings tend to flavour more than sauces. I always seem to need to swamp the food in the sauce but just use a little bit of dry.
 
I used to add ginger and chilli powder to the oil/frylight then chuck the veg in.

Now I usually chuck in a tablespoon or 2 of sweet chilli sauce, that's 1.5syns a tbsp. :)
 
You could try a Thai alternative- just mix together and pour over at the end
Juice of 1 lime
Table spoon fish sauce
teaspoon sugar
1 chopped chilli

Also- a nice alternative to your peanut butter if going with chinese flavours is toasted sesame oil- 2 syns for 1 teaspoon. Add it at the end- it has quite a strong nutty flavour so the teaspoon goes a long way.

Another idea would be a teaspoon of chinese 5 spice powder

xxx
 
Ok, the ingredients list here is long, but if you like asian food you may have much of it in anyway. It came from an SW book and is a dark, very flavourful stir fry sauce - great with beef or chicken thighs.

The oyster sauce does have syns, but it can't be many as the recipe is labelled as free for 4 servings ..

In a bowl mix together;
4 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sweetner
1 chilli, chopped
1 tbsp grated / chopped ginger
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp ground star anise
1 tsp five spice powder
1 tbsp oyster sauce

fresh mint and basil help this along no end :D
 
Back
Top