A Healthy Vegan Stir Fry Sauce with No Sugar | this is the recipe
One could argue that almost all of Asian-made stir-fry sauce, whether normal sauce or chili sauce, are vegan or made from vegetables or herbs.
However, some stir-fry sauce is loaded with sugar that might not be good for your health.
Many of the commercially prepared stir-fry sauces contain vast amounts of sugar (some are up to 19% sugar).
And although there are good bottled stir fry sauces, most will not be the healthiest choice.
In order to make up for this small hiccup in preparing your delicious meals, it is recommended that you cook the stir-fry sauce yourself and leave the sugar out of the equation.
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Why the Vegan No Sugar Sauce Works
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, then you would have a general idea about the health implications of added sugar in foods.
It should be a logical choice as to why a vegan stir-fry sauce with no sugar is recommended in this article. You can enjoy all the health benefits that a vegan-based stir-fry sauce will give.
Not to mention its great taste despite having no added sugars to it – and still, make it a great mix for your beef, chicken, or veggies.
Healthy sugar-free stir fry sauce recipe
Equipment
- Cooking pot
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup chicken stock
- 3 tbsp soy sauce low sodium
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1/2 cup pear juice
- 1 inch ginger minced
- 1 tbsp garlic minced
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 1 tbsp water
Instructions
- Heat the cooking pot to medium heat.
- Chop the garlic and ginger into very small parts.
- Add all ingredients except the corn starch and water to the pot and whisk it around until the mix starts to bubble.
- Let it boil for a bit while you take a small bowl and add the cornstarch and water to it and mix them together.
- Keep the cooking pot boiling while adding the cornstarch and keep whisking the sauce until enough water evaporates for your desired thickness. Or add a bit more corn starch if it doesn't get thick enough in a few minutes.
- Now the sauce is ready, you can let it cool down and put it in a container for storing or start using it right away in your stir fry dish
What is stir-fry sauce made of?
Most stir fry sauce is made of soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, sugar, broth, sriracha, and cornstarch. Of course, recipes for the sauce vary by region.
And if you don’t have any rice vinegar you can use one of these ingredients as well.
However, it’s important to note that sauces usually contain lots of sugar.
The sugar is added to the sauce but the soy sauce already contains sugar, thus there’s lots of it. But our recipes on this page are sugar-free, so you can enjoy the food without feeling guilty.
Is stir-fry sauce vegan?
Many of the most popular stir0fry sauces are vegan. Look for sauces made with molasses. Hoisin sauce is also almost always vegan. But, it’s best to check the label and recipe to be sure.
Kikkoman soy sauce is a popular vegan soy sauce brand used in stir-fries.
Soy sauce is vegan because it made of soybeans, wheat, salt, and water.
Asian Stir-Fry Sauce with molasses instead of sugar
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup of vegetable broth
- 3 tbsp of low sodium soy sauce
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 1.5 tbsp of molasses
- 1 tbsp water
Cooking Directions:
- Turn on the stove and set the skillet atop, then set the dial to medium or low heat.
- Add all ingredients in the skillet and whisk them for a few minutes until the mix starts to bubble.
- Leave the skillet for a while and take a small cup and mix the 1 tbsp of water and cornstarch in it. Once mixed thoroughly and the mixture has become viscous, then pour it into the skillet with the saucepan.
- Keep the skillet hot while whisking the sauce continuously and check if the sauce has thickened to your desired level.
Nutritional Facts:
For a Serving Size of 1 tablespoon (18g)
Calories 25 Calories from Fat 0 (0%)
Daily Value (%)
Total Fat0g
Sodium 720mg 30%
Carbohydrates 6g –
Net carbs 6g –
Fiber 0g 0%
Glucose 4g
Protein 0gr
Vitamins and Minerals
Vitamin A 0μg 0%
Vitamin C 0mg 0%
Calcium 0mg 0%
Iron 0mg 0%
Molasses is a sweetener from sugar. It is the concentrated juice that derives from sugar beets and sugar cane. It is most common in syrup form.
Molasses is not refined sugar and has a lot of health benefits, but it’s still reasonably high in sugar. I just wanted this alternative to sugar in stir fry sauce out there.
Sugar-Free Stir Fry Sauce recipe with honey
This is an alternative to stir-fry sauces – this is NOT a vegan recipe because it contains honey. Consider it a tasty alternative.
Another alternative to sugar in your stir fry sauce is honey. Is it better than sugar?
While it has as a lower GI value, which means it doesn’t raise your blood sugar levels as quickly as refined sugar does, honey is much sweeter and you can use less honey in your sauces to sweeten them.
It does have slightly more calories per serving so you should take that into account when making this stir fry sauce.
Ingredients for the Main Dish:
• 1 lb chicken
• 1 broccoli crown – cut into florets
• 2 carrots – cut into penny slices
• 2 celery stalks – chopped
• 1 onion – sliced
• 1 red pepper – sliced
• 8 oz mushrooms – sliced
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 4 cups brown rice – for serving
Ingredients for the Stir Fry Sauce (No Sugar)
• ½ cup soy sauce
• ½ cup chicken broth
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 2 cloves garlic – minced
Cooking Directions:
- Create the sauce first by mixing all the ingredients for it in a medium-size bowl. The sauce should have enough volume for 2 recipes, so use the half on the first meal and store the rest in the fridge to use again for a second meal.
- After making the sauce, slice the chicken into small bite sizes and cut the vegetables as well.
- Turn on the stove and set heat dial to high heat, then put a large skillet atop. Heat sesame oil to 150 – 180° Celsius.
- Once the skillet is hot enough, then fry the chicken for 3 – 4 minutes and check to see if it becomes golden brown. Remove fried chicken pieces from skillet and transfer to a large plate and let cool.
- Add another 1 tbsp of sesame oil and then fry the vegetables until they become tender (3 minutes).
- This time cook the chicken together with half of the sauce in the skillet for another 3 minutes.
- Serve hot with brown rice.
Nutritional Facts:
Amount Per Serving
Calories 255 Calories from Fat 116
Daily Value (%)
Total Fat 13g grams 20%
Saturated Fat 1.5g grams 8%
Trans Fat 0.3g grams
Cholesterol 53mg milligrams 18%
Sodium 644mg milligrams 27%
Potassium 569mg milligrams 16%
Total Carbohydrates 12g grams 4%
Dietary Fiber 3.2g grams 13%
Sugars 3.8g grams
Protein 23g grams
Vitamin A 14%
Vitamin C 159%
Calcium 8%
Iron 10%
This would go great with a vegan tofu teppanyaki dish!
Too Much Sugar Consumption is Bad for You
Sugar is an ingredient in most popular foods such as spaghetti, ketchup, fruit juice, and even bottled sauces.
The unfortunate consequence of relying too much on easy-to-acquire processed foods for meals and snacks is the unforeseen inclusion of added sugars in them, which can have some serious disadvantages on your body.
In order to enlighten you on the potential health hazards that added sugar can give, we’ve made a list.
Here are 10 scientifically-backed reasons why sugar is bad for you.
1. Weight Gain
Artificially sweetened drinks like sodas, juices, and sweet teas are loaded with fructose. Fructose is a type of simple sugar that activates a region in the brain called the limbic system, which causes you to crave for more food. Too much fructose intake also causes your body to develop a resistance to leptin (a hormone that controls hunger) which will make your brain think you’re hungry all the time! All the while unused energy in your body from all that food you ate will, later on, accumulate as fats and make you gain weight that can lead to obesity and other related health complications.
2. Increased Risk of Cardiovascular Diseases
New research was conducted involving 30,000 test subjects that were divided into 2 groups revealed incredible results about added sugar consumption. One group was asked to consume 17–21% of calories from added sugar, while Group 2 was asked to only consume 8% worth of calories of the same diet. The findings revealed that Group 1 had a 38% greater risk of dying from heart disease versus Group 2 due to too much-added sugar consumption. Additionally Group 1 also had inflammation and high triglyceride as well as high blood pressure and high blood sugar levels.
3. Causes Acne
Acne develops from a series of factors that include an increase in androgen secretion, oil production, and inflammation. Sweet foods and beverages will accelerate the process of these factors more rapidly than you can imagine and as such, your face will produce more acne as a result.
4. Increased Risk of Diabetes
Scientific research proves that excessive sugar intake is undoubtedly linked to a higher risk of developing type 2 Mellitus diabetes.
With the increase in the diversity of sweetened products in the market nowadays (i.e. sweet tea, soda, fruit juice as well as bread, pastries, and dairy products) it’s highly unlikely that people get to choose what they eat. The problem with too much sugar in your blood is that your cells develop insulin resistance which will ultimately result in diabetes. The World Health Organization (WHO) which is a branch of the UN recently published a case study that involves the population of 175 countries. Its findings reveal that consuming 150 calories of sugar (or the equivalent of 1 can of soda) per day increases the risk of developing diabetes to 1.1 percent.
5. Risk of Cancer
This article, which is based on the research of the University of Texas, shows how breast cancer is linked to a high sugar diet. If you consume too much sugar, you risk developing esophageal cancer, pleural cancer, and cancer of the small intestine, as well as endometrial cancer in women. Although these studies are in their preliminary stages the results that they’ve uncovered are alarming, to say the least.
6. Increased Risk of Depression
According to this article women with a high glycemic index have 23% more chances of developing depression due to the carbohydrates interfering and/or acting as a catalyst for certain hormones to trigger that inadvertently causes depression. But men are also susceptible to depression if they have a high glycemic index as well.
7. Accelerate Skin and Cellular Aging Process
Have you heard about the term advanced glycation end products (AGEs) before? In case you haven’t, well it’s a good thing that you’re reading this article.AGEs damage collagen and elastin. These are proteins that help the skin stretch and keep its youthful appearance. You find AGEs in sweetened foods and beverages. AGEs are also responsible for the shortening of telomeres, which means that it will not only make you look old but will also make you feel old as it damages your chromosomes and thus shortening your lifespan.
8. Drains Your Energy
I once remembered seeing an off-duty doctor treating a person who had just collapsed with candies and a chocolate bar. I asked him why he administers the sweets instead of taking the old lady to the hospital. As you are probably guessing, the woman suffered a blood sugar crash. As a result, a trip to the E.R is unnecessary since the person just needs an energy boost. Later on, I found out that you only give sweets to people who have fainted due to energy loss and not eat sweets in excessive amounts, because while it will give you a temporary energy boost, prolonged intake of sweets could drain your energy too!
9. Causes Fatty Liver Diseases
Foods, beverages, snacks, sauces, and condiments that contain high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) can potentially damage your liver and develop into fatty liver disease. Our cells absorb glucose, sucrose, and other types of sugars easily. However, only the liver breaks down fructose. The body uses broken down fructose as energy. But too much of it accumulates as fat and once this fat surrounds the liver, then it gets worse from there. You may develop liver diseases like fatty liver disorder and other medical conditions like diabetes.
10. Accelerates Cognitive Decline
Scientists Jan T. Kielstein, M.D. of the Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany; Dr. Paul K. Crane, M.D., M.P.H. of the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, and other scientists discovered something in their new research. There’s a link between dementia and high glucose levels in the blood of people whose mean age at baseline was 76 years. This is proof of the health hazard of sugar. Food with high added sugar poses a threat to the wellbeing of a person.
Ready-Made Vegan Sugar-Free Stir Fry Sauce
You can find bottled stir fry sauce that is vegan, but finding sugar-free ones is hard. As a result, you need to search for sauces that use sugar substitutes.
While the best option is to make your own stir fry sauce, you can nevertheless find brands online that sell delicious sugar-free and vegan approved sauces.
Here is our top pick for bottled stir fry sauce.
Seal Sama- Sugar-Free Teriyaki Sauce
This sauce is sugar-free and vegan. The teriyaki is a very flavorful sauce, used in all kinds of stir-fries. Customers rave that this sauce tastes just as good as the original without all the added sugar.
To sum up, it’s great for dieters, diabetics, or those looking to reduce sugar consumption because you can cook tasty meals and skip the unhealthy additives.
Check out our teppanyaki buying guide for home grill plates and accessories.
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Bitemybun's family recipes with complete meal planner and recipe guide.
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Joost Nusselder, the founder of Bite My Bun is a content marketer, dad and loves trying out new food with Japanese food at the heart of his passion, and together with his team he's been creating in-depth blog articles since 2016 to help loyal readers with recipes and cooking tips.