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Imagine that you cannot use soy sauce (or any fermented soy product), cornstarch or commercial broth. What then? Any suggestions?

@Rianne, Liquid Amino (gluten-free substitution)--Dr. Bronner's of soap fame used to make one but I can't find it anymore. Bragg's?

I often make sauce without cornstarch or broth. I stir fry my veggies and tofu, then I make a space in the middle of the pan to add my aromatics. Usually garlic, ginger, red pepper flakes, and juice (orange, or my fave, apricot nectar). Onions or scallions are generally already in the pan. Stir fry that for a pinch in that empty spot, then fold it into the whole batch.

Miso is another of my fave ingredients for stir-fry, added at the end (obviously not for a fermeneted-soy-free recipe!).

I want the stir-fry in the picture! It looks so delicious.

This is awesome - what a great post to have it in one place! Thank you. If no soy or cornstarch, a little flour may help. Or add a bit of oyster sauce to thicken.

@Rianne, can you do other fermented items? How about mirin (rice wine) or Chinese rice wine? Can you do arrowroot instead of cornstarch? Water, juice, or homemade broth, of course, can stand in for store bought broth. Otherwise, I agree with cmcinnyc--just leave out those ingredients and it will still be delish.

Also, question--you don't really specify the timing of making the sauce and then adding the stir-fry ingredients. I'm assuming that say, with the lobster sauce, you do the aromatics, then add veggies (or whatever you're stirfrying), and then when they're nearing done, then you add the broth, egg, and cornstarch mixture? Otherwise, what would you do in terms of timing for the stirfry ingredients?

Arrowroot powder is also a nice thickener ...

@lotusmoss - hi, your questions are answered in this post, which is a really great instruction guide on stir-frying: http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/tips-techniques/quick-meal-technique-how-to-stir-fry-094954

Sauces are always added at the end of a stir-fry; you parcook your vegs and proteins (don't cook too much!) and then remove them from the wok and set aside, which is why you parcook them - their heat while set aside will make them cook a little more. Then you make your sauce, turn off the heat, put everything back in the wok, and gently toss/fold everything in the sauce. I hope that helps.

This is very helpful!

Thanks Kathryn--I assumed the sauces would go in at the end, but I've never cooked up a sauce for a stir-fry separately.

When I make stirfry with sauce, I always put whatever aromatics go in the sauce first with the stir-fry ingredients (veg and/or meat), then sprinkle on any sugar or salt, then add vinegar/broth/soy to help steam or simmer the veg/meat through, and finally, finish the stirfry with the cornstarch/water or cornstarch/broth slurry at the very end. So this was a new technique for me! You can definitely do it either way...

Sesame oil. It's the best flavor ever in stir-fries. I've heard some people warn that you shouldn't cook it, but I've never had a problem with it. My favorite stir fry sauce is equal parts soy and sesame oil plus equal parts garlic and freshly grated ginger. Fish sauce might be a viable alternative to soy sauce; just a thought, though. I've never actually tried it as a soy sauce substitute, but it's salty and fermented-y tasting.

@Polpol, YES, toasted sesame is the best. I've had good luck with plain oil specifically refined for high heat (Spectrum makes a couple different ones). I get things going with that and add a bit of the sesame oil later so I don't burn it.

these are great! Thank you!

I have dietary sodium restrictions (no more than 3000mg of sodium per day), and even low-sodium soy sauces (I use Eden Organic's Low Sodium Shoyu) are about 500mg of sodium per tablespoon, so limiting soy in a recipe to 2 tablespoons or less is vital to me. Most of these work, so thanks! (Even with a lower-sodium sauce, 2/3 cup of soy is 5333mg of sodium, and that's not counting any other sodium in any other component. That's a problem! lol)

"Regular" soy sauces are 1000-1500mg of sodium per tablespoon. Fish sauce is around 1200mg per tablespoon, so that's out for me too (oyster sauce is around the same as well). In the current issue of Everyday Food, there's a very tasty Cashew Chicken recipe using only 2 tbsp of soy sauce, and I've made that several times already. It won't be online until the next issue is published, though.

Dick Logue has a recipe for a low-sodium soy sauce substitute, but I don't find the flavor to be anything like soy and haven't used it often. Other people swear by it, so your mileage may vary. (I do notice his latest version does not include reducing it on the stove by half, as older recipes of his you can find online do. I haven't tried the newest one, but I can handle limited quantities of the real thing.) It would work nicely for some color and a little of the flavor.

For thickening, I tend to use King Arthur Flour's Signature Secrets Culinary Thickener, because as they say, it dissolves instantly in hot or cold liquids, it survives freezing and reheating well, and doesn't have raw flavors that need to be "cooked out." A PR-type page with all kinds of claims for it is here, but I've generally found it to work as this page says. (I follow recipe instructions for roux or cornstarch, but if something is done and isn't thickened enough, I reach for a little bit of the SSCT to fix it instantly, and it works.)

King Arthur's page lists ingredients and nutrition information so you can check for allergies. Good luck!

Marvellous! Thanks

@Rianne No joke, but you may be best off avoiding Chinese food altogether.