Make your stir fry go from drab to fab! This meal feeds my family of five for a grand total of less than five bucks! Not even kidding.
I’d made stir fry maybe half a dozen times before. Sometimes it turned out pretty yummy, and sometimes it was just bland no matter how much seasoning I tried to put on it. I have learned the skills now though, my friends 🙂
Several weeks my good friend Ashley came over, and when we get together we almost always tackle meal prep or cleaning together while we chat! If you don’t already have a friend like her, you need one (…that’s a whole ‘nother post though)! Anyway, I asked her if she had any stir fry advice as we were shredding cabbage. As always, she had some fabulous tips!
1) Do not over load your wok (or pan)!
Doing so will cause your food to STEAM, rather than stir FRY…. So this is why sometimes my stir fry didn’t have that awesome 
crispy/snappy texture I was craving. That was my number one reason I would fail at stir frying: it just doesn’t taste nearly as good if the veggies are soft, so I would try to add all sorts of extra seasonings and I could never get it right. So, that means you’ll need to cook in batches if you don’t have a wok, or if you’re a hungry family of 5 or more- I still do 2+ batches, even with my wok.
2) Use a high heat oil, on high heat.
Avocado oil is best, and olive oil is not a good idea.Vegetable oil will work too if you don’t have avocado oil. This is key guys- don’t skip it!
If you’re in the market to get some avocado oil, follow the link to get the best price per ounce on Amazon. (Cheaper than Costco!)
3) 2 words: Ginger. Paste.
I
f you’ve never used herb pastes before, they will change your culinary life forever! I love them because they taste just about as good as if you spent the time mincing or grating fresh herbs yourself, but you didn’t! My favorite thing about herb pastes is you always have these fresh herbs on hand and they seem to stay good in my fridge for 6 or more months, rather than like a week or two with some herbs. My staples are ginger, garlic, basil, and sometimes parsley. (no basil or parsley in this dish though!) It helps so much to just have it, and not even think about buying it at the store when I might need it.
So those are my newly-learned tips, now onto the recipe so YOU can make the perfect stir fry too!
| Prep Time | 20 minutes |
| Cook Time | 7-8 minutes |
| Servings |
people
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- 3/4 head cabbage , green, purple, or both!
- 1 onion , white
- 4 stalks celery
- 4-6 carrots , sliced match-stick size
- 1 bell pepper
- 1-2 chicken breasts optional. cut into bite-sized chunks
- 1-2 tbsp avocado oil
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 2+ tbsp ginger paste , or fresh grated ginger
- soy sauce
Ingredients
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- Slice all veggies really thin- as pictured. (Pay special attention to the cabbage- parts of their leaves are thicker- be sure to slice those sections finely so it will cook uniformly.)
- Heat a splash of avocado oil and minced garlic on high heat. Add a handful of your harder veggies: celery and carrots (and chicken, if you're using meat) to your pan. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Add in a batch of all other veggies and the ginger paste. Be sure that nothing is laying on top of eachother- they all need their own "space" on the pan (refer to tip #1 for maximum delicousness!) Cook for another 5-8 minutes.
- When everything looks just barely softened, take off the heat and drizzle some soy sauce over the top of the stir fry.
- Eat it while it's hot! Enjoy this totally fresh, delicious, and CHEAP dinner!
Ideas to serve with:
steamed rice
quinoa
potstickers
edamame
fresh fruit and greek yogurt
Roughly 225 calories per serving, with the chicken. I made this for a neighborhood meal exchange since the chopped veggies stay good for a couple weeks, and I got 3 awesome reviews I’ll paste below!
Can’t wait to try! Thanks for sharing
I’m so glad I could help make your stir fry better! It really is an excellent recipe! And yes, everyone should have a friend to meal prep and clean with.
I always forget about making stir fry when it comes to dinner time. They’re typically easy and delicious which is just what my family needs! Thanks for the tips. 🙂
xx
Faith
We’re so glad you liked it Faith! Let us know how you like the recipe when you give it a try. 🙂
Always love a good stirfry! I didnt realise Avocado oil was good for high heat! Perfect. I have had some avocado oil in the cupboard that we got as a gift. I didnt know what to do with it. Thanks so much.
These are pretty good tips! Now I know why my stir fry doesn’t taste right because I’ve been doing it wrong. Gah!
I’m so glad to share the knowledge- cause yeah- I was in your shoes not long ago, scratching my head! Let us know if you have an additional tips once you make it!
Yum! I eat stir fry pretty much every week – it is just so easy, healthy and tastes great. Ginger paste changed my life too – best thing ever to have ‘fresh’ herbs in my fridge ready to go!
I love these pastes, thanks for sharing a great recipe. Look forward to making it.
YUMMM!!! This looks so good! Might have to try it next week!
Your food photography is gorgeous! I’m a total avocado oil lover! 🙂 Now I need to go make this ASAP! 🙂
Thank you! What a compliment coming from one that takes stunning pics! 🙂
I made this for 8 women in my neighborhood for a meal exchange. Most were doing freezer meals, but I figured since the veggies stay good for a couple weeks that this would be a perfect option to have for a quick meal that’s on the table in like 10 minutes. I told them to either use the chicken that night or freeze that bag- so it sounds like a few ended up making it that night. Usually I don’t hear any feedback on how good a meal was- there’s so many of us and we’re busy! But here’s the texts I got that night: (seriously made my night!)
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Ok Jennica: this is the BEST stir fry! Your seasonings are awesome:) I never make it, so I was curious what my family would think… we all loved it!I followed your directions almost perfectly and wow!! Thank you!!
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Yes. I loved it too. I used seseme seed oil and it was fabulous.
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Ditto to that! It was so good and I’m so glad you included the instructions for stir frying because I think I always male the mistake of loading the pan up too much 🙂 It was crispy and delicious! I see a wok in my future 😉