Easy Szechuan Shrimp

Szechuan shrimp without the allergens

If you love Chinese food, but have food allergies, this Szechuan Shrimp recipe is for you! In our house, we’ve got two big ‘allergies’. I have Celiac disease, so gluten is absolutely out. While there are some Chinese restaurants that use gluten-free soy sauce, that doesn’t work for us because my wife is sensitive to soy. And gluten-free soy sauce is still based on soy, which means any kind of indulgence will cause a brutal a migraine. I may not be the one suffering, but I get it—migraines are an experience to avoid. Period.

There are some dishes we can safely order out. Szechuan shrimp is not one of them unless we grill the staff about ingredients, cooking method, cross-contamination possibilities, and more. Not exactly fun, right? With that in mind, we’re usually on the lookout for something tasty that we can’t get out.

Lots of flavor without lots of chopping

The problem with most Chinese dishes is the sheer number of ingredients. There’s a ton of prep work, and…reality check time…I’m no Gordon Ramsay. What he can do in five minutes would probably take me twenty. That means we sometimes feel like we’re doing a LOT for very little payback. That’s where this dish comes in. It’s super simple; the prep work only takes about fifteen minutes; and the payback is excellent! Win, win, win! (And I don’t need experience as a professional chef to get it all prepped in less than fifteen minutes.)

I’d suggest serving this dish with rice and a cool side. We diced up some cucumbers and tomatoes, added a little red wine vinegar and oil. Voila! Instant cool side that complimented the heat in the recipe. The next time you want a quick dinner with all those Asian flavors, give this one a try!

Did you see last week’s entry? You can find it at Santa Barbara celebrates the summer solstice in style. Click here to view more Friday Morning Post entries, or you can follow me on Twitter.

Recipe Card

Print Recipe

Szechuan Shrimp

Cook Time 5 mins Total Time 5 mins

Servings: 2

Ingredients

Servings

Sauce

• 1 tbsp Ketchup
• 1 tbsp Chili sauce
• 1 tbsp Rice wine
• 1 tbsp Soy sauce (For gluten-free, use coconut aminos)
• 1 tsp Sugar
• ¹⁄₂ tsp Salt (For low-sodium, eliminate or reduce)
• ¹⁄₄ tsp Red pepper flakes
• 1 tbsp Corn starch

Shrimp and veggies

• ³⁄₄ lb Shrimp (Peeled and deveined)
• 4 Green onions (Chopped)
• 2 tbsp Fresh ginger (Minced or cut into matchsticks)
• 2 tsp Fresh garlic (Minced)

Instructions

1. Mix ketchup, chili sauce rice wine, soy sauce, sugar, salt, pepper flakes, and corn starch in small bowl to make sauce.

2. Heat a skillet or wok over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add oil and swirl it around. When the oil shimmers, add the garlic and ginger. Stir fry for about 30 seconds, then add the green onions.

3. Push veggies to one side and add shrimp. Sear on one side for about a minute, then turn over. Reduce heat to low when shimp is no longer pink. Add a little water to the pan (if needed) to keep food from sticking.

4. Mix the veggies with the shrimp, stir the sauce, and add the sauce to the pan. The mixture will thicken quickly, so add a little water if needed to loosen the sauce. 

5. Remove from heat and serve over steamed rice.

Note

Original recipe from Food Network.