Store-bought stir fry sauces are great because of their convenience, but many contain unnatural ingredients, synthetic colors, and artificial flavors. By making your own easy stir fry sauce at home, you get to choose exactly what goes into your recipe and your body! Plus, you can control the spice level – turn up the heat or tame it way down. Use this healthy stir fry sauce in all of your favorite Asian dishes!
Must-Know Cooking Skills
For recipe success, learn how to:
Culinary Tips for the Best Healthy Stir Fry Sauce Recipe
Be sure to use cold water to mix the sauce together. Hot water will cause the cornstarch to clump.
Want to make a large quantity of healthy homemade stir fry sauce? Double all ingredients except for the ginger. Increasing spices too much can cause them to taste bitter. After doubling, add more ginger to taste.
Use fresh garlic over pre-chopped. It makes a huge flavor difference!
For finely minced garlic, consider using a microplane. This creates very small pieces of garlic that will distribute evenly in your recipe. A microplane is also helpful if using fresh ginger. You could even use it to zest a small lime for an extra pop of brightness!
Ingredient Substitutions
- Soy Sauce: substitute reduced sodium tamari, liquid aminos, or coconut aminos.
- Water: substitute chicken or vegetable broth.
- Honey: substitute brown sugar or agave nectar for a healthy vegan stir fry sauce.
- Garlic: substitute 1 teaspoon garlic flakes, ½ teaspoon granulated garlic, or ¼ teaspoon garlic powder.
- Ginger: substitute 1 Tablespoon grated fresh ginger.
- Sriracha: substitute chili paste or another hot sauce.
We love buying our spices from The Spice House. Click on the picture below to view & try out hundreds of flavorful spices and herbs!
Recipe Variations
You can make stir fry sauce without cornstarch, but note that the cornstarch is a thickening agent that helps bind the sauce to the stir fry ingredients.
To make an orange ginger stir fry sauce, replace the water and honey with ¼ cup orange juice.
Equipment Recommendations
Use these kitchen tools for recipe success!
Health Benefits of Homemade Stir Fry Sauce
Although stir fry sauce is not necessarily a “health food”, homemade stir fry sauce is certainly healthier than store bought alternatives! The key ingredients that make this stir fry sauce healthier are reduced sodium soy sauce, ginger, and no unnecessary ingredients.
Reduced Sodium Soy Sauce
Too much sodium in the diet is not good for heart or kidney health. Reducing overall sodium intake and increasing calcium and potassium intake, as recommended by the DASH diet, is important for decreasing hypertension and kidney disease risk. Adding spices to dishes (such as garlic, chili peppers, and ginger), may reduce the overall need for salt in a dish, and therefore promote overall health. (1)
Ginger
Ginger is a powerful antioxidant and has strong medicinal properties. It may help lower blood sugar levels, aid weight loss, treat nausea, and prevent heart disease. (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
No Unnecessary Ingredients
Not all food additives are bad or dangerous, but we believe that it’s best to be cautious when handing your health over to food manufacturers. Many store-bought sauces contain fillers, stabilizers, and flavor enhancers that may not promote your health. Learning how to make healthy stir fry sauce can give you some peace of mind; you will be able to see, pronounce, and taste all of the ingredients!
Serving Suggestions for Easy Healthy Stir Fry Sauce
Use ¼ cup of this healthy Asian stir fry sauce in our vegetable stir fry base recipe. It also is great tossed with plain cooked quinoa or brown rice. Use the flavored grain as a healthy side dish alongside Indian meatballs or salmon.
Storage Tips
Keep leftover stir fry sauce in an airtight container or shaker bottle in the refrigerator for 1 week. If you made the sauce with garlic powder instead of fresh, it may keep for longer.
Want more healthy sauce recipes?
Try out these flavorful recipes!
Healthy Stir Fry Sauce
Ingredients
- ¼ cup reduced sodium soy sauce or tamari
- ¼ cup water
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- Sriracha to taste (optional)
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a small mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Add near the end of cooking in stir fry recipes. Enjoy!
This Post Has 8 Comments
I tried this stir fry sauce without the sriracha and it was amazing. The cornstarch helps make a thicker sauce and it is delicious. I’m so happy I found a stir fry recipe that’s easy and simple and low sodium.
Thank you so much for your review! Very glad to hear that you were able to find a recipe that suits your taste preferences. 🙂
How many servings does this make?
About 4 servings. It does however depend on how saucy you like your stir-fry 🙂 We use 1/4 cup to cover 4 cups vegetables in our vegetable stir fry base recipe.
Did I miss the nutritional facts on this?
Hi Krystal!
As a company, we are more focused on promoting a whole food, plant-forward eating pattern and the skills that can sustain that eating pattern, rather than specific nutrients. We know from research that this lifestyle eating pattern naturally promotes satiety and can help with overall health. If you want to know the nutrition information for your own sake, you can input the individual ingredients in a tracking app, such as MyFitnessPal, to determine how these nutrients align with your body’s needs. Hope that helps!
Substitute Arrowroot powder for the cornstarch and Coconut Aminos for the Soy Sauce if you really want to reduce the salt and Glycemic Index without losing flavor / umami.
Thanks for sharing! Those substitutions would definitely work great 🙂