Serve yourself up a generous helping of this Prawn stir fry with garlicky prawns, Asian greens, bamboo shoots and delicious soba noodles.

Prawn Stir Fry - Serve yourself up a generous helping of this Prawn stir fry with garlicky prawns, Asian greens, bamboo shoots and delicious soba noodles.

Stir fries are a perfect healthy weeknight dinner, and there are a million different versions out there, but this Prawn Stir Fry is one you HAVE to try.

The prawns are super garlicky because we marinate them in garlic while we prepare the other ingredients, and the sauce is a lovely double soy special.

What do I mean by a double-soy special? We’ll use both light (or regular) and dark soy. Dark soy is stickier, thicker, sweeter, and, well, darker, than regular soy, and makes the stir fry sauce lovely and sticky. By also adding cornflour to the sauce we’ll make sure that the sauce really coats the veggies and prawns, instead of sliding right off (like normal soy by itself would).

But it’s important to not JUST use dark soy - the light soy gives you more of a salty flavour that we all love.

We’ll serve it with freshly cooked soba noodles which take just minutes to prepare, and you’ve got a delicious and easy dinner on your hands.

To make this recipe suitable for very young kids, you may prefer to serve them their portion of prawns and vegetables before you add the sauce, so they just have plain sautéed veggies and prawns. I’ve also found that soba noodles are a massive hit with kids.

Prawn Stir Fry Ingredients

Garlic
Raw peeled prawns
Olive oil
Shaoxing wine
Spring onion
Baby corn (sub corn kernels)
Pak choi
Mushrooms (Swiss brown pref.)
Bamboo shoots
Raw soba noodles
Sesame oil
Vegetable stock
Soy sauce
Dark soy sauce
Oyster sauce
Cornflour
White pepper
Vegetable oil
Salt

See recipe card for quantities.

How to make Prawn Stir Fry

1. Bring a pot of water to boil for your soba noodles. Meanwhile, continue to the next step.

Place prawns in a bowl with crushed garlic, olive oil, Shaoxing wine and salt.

2. Peel and crush garlic, and place half in a bowl with prawns, olive oil, Shaoxing wine and salt. Set aside.

4 cloves garlic
350g raw peeled prawns
1 teaspoon olive oil
½ teaspoon Shaoxing wine
¼ teaspoon salt

3. Finely slice spring onions on an angle. Slice baby corn into 1-2 cm pieces, or you can leave long if you prefer. Chop and discard the base of your pak choi and rinse to clean out any dirt, then slice into 3 cm pieces. Slice mushrooms. Drain bamboo shoots.

⅓ bunch spring onion
125g baby corn (sub corn kernels)
3 heads pak choi
200g mushrooms
1 small tin bamboo shoots (225g)

4. Once your water is boiling add soba noodles and cook for just 2 ½ minutes, stirring regularly so they don’t stick. Drain, then add a few drops of sesame oil. Set aside, covered to keep warm.

270g raw soba noodles
¼ teaspoon sesame oil

5. Make a sauce by mixing vegetable stock, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, cornflour, sesame oil and white pepper.

⅓ cup vegetable stock
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon cornflour
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Pinch white pepper

In a frying pan, add vegetable oil and cook remaining garlic, half the spring onion, and the veggies.

6. Heat a wok or frying pan on high heat, add vegetable oil, then cook remaining garlic with half the spring onion until fragrant - 30 seconds - then add baby corn, pak choi, mushrooms and bamboo shoots and cook for 2 minutes or until crisp.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic
⅙ bunch spring onion
125g baby corn (sub corn kernels)
3 heads pak choi
200g mushrooms
1 small tin bamboo shoots (225g)

7. Remove vegetables to a plate, then add prawns to the hot wok, and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, until golden.

You may want to serve your child their portion of plain cooked vegetables and prawns at this point, before we add the sauce back in.

Tip vegetables back into the pan and add the sauce. Cook for 1-2 minutes, so the sauce thickens.

350g raw peeled prawns

Prawn Stir Fry - Serve prawns and veggies on top of your soba noodles and top with remaining slices of spring onion.

8. To serve kids, you can serve them plain prawns and vegetables with plain noodles, or with sauce on the side. You can also cut up noodles.

To serve adults, serve prawns and veggies on top of your soba noodles and top with remaining slices of spring onion.

⅙ bunch spring onion

Substitutions

Alternative protein - Swap prawn for scallops, firm white fish or strips of chicken, beef or pork.
Vegetarian - Swap prawns for tempeh, tofu, or stack with some extra veggies like carrot and edamame beans, or add some sesame seeds. Swap oyster sauce for vegetarian oyster sauce.
Gluten Free - Swap soy sauces (dark and light) for tamari.
Dairy Free - This recipe is dairy free.

Kid-Friendly Variations

Option to serve veggies and prawns before you add the sauce (plain sautéed)
Option to chop soba noodles

Prawn Stir Fry - Option to serve veggies and prawns before you add the sauce (plain sautéed) and to chop soba noodles.

Equipment

You will need a pot, a stovetop, a wok or frying pan.

Top tip

Prawns are notoriously tricky to cook, mainly because they are so easy to overcook. Don’t be tempted to let them sit too long in the pan before adding all the vegetables and sauce back in.

Recipe