In my opinion, stir fry recipes are some of the best weeknight meal recipes. Stir fry dishes tend to be really quick to make, and are generally pretty healthy. I am a total vegetable pusher in my household and I am always putting them in where I can 🙂
This recipe is made even easier than your average stir fry, because the shrimp take about 1 minute to cook, and the sauce is made of very simple ingredients you can buy at almost any super market. I do highly recommend using a wok (see my favorite items list for the one I use) for stir fry recipes (and so many other things too!). They are relatively inexpensive and they just add so much flavor to these dishes with their very high heat cooking. No worries though, if you don’t have one, you can use a skillet instead.
This recipe could use pretty much any vegetables that you like. I chose some asparagus and bell pepper this time. Snow peas would also be so good here. I used sambal oelek for the chili garlic sauce, but you can use any brand. I happen to love that one and most grocery stores now carry it. You can serve this with any rice you like. If you want to use Asian rice and don’t have a rice cooker, see my post on cooking Asian rice on the stove top for perfectly cooked rice.
Garlic Shrimp Stir Fry
Ingredients
- 6 garlic cloves thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp chili garlic sauce I love sambal oelek
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp oil more as needed
- 1 red bell pepper thinly sliced
- 1 bunch asparagus trimmed and cut into 2 inch pieces
- 2 lbs peeled and deveined shrimp defrosted if frozen
- rice for serving
- sesame seeds for serving
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, 1/4 cup water, rice vinegar, soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, sesame oil and cornstarch and whisk well.
- Defrost the shrimp according to instructions if using frozen. Then drain and pat dry.
- Heat wok or skillet over as high of heat as you can with a tbsp of oil. Add the bell pepper and asparagus and cook, stirring only once in a while, just until they blacken in spots. You want them to still have some crispness to them. Move to a plate.
- Add another tbsp of oil and add the shrimp. Cook, stirring occasionally until they are mostly pink, then add the sauce to the wok and reduce the heat to medium low. Stir and finish cooking the shrimp while the sauce thickens. If it gets too thick add a little water. Toss in the veggies and mix well. Serve over hot rice topped with sesame seeds.