Szechuan Pork Stir-Fry
with snow peas / carrots / barley
Using ground meat and lots of vegetables, this stir-fry is about as fast and colorful as they come. Feel free to increase the spice if you'd like.
Smarts: It will seem like a lot of vegetables when you first add them to the pan, but the carrots will shrink down considerably as they cook. Just keep cooking them until they are very tender and reduced in quantity.
Ingredients
- Ginger - 2 tsp, grated
- Garlic - 2 cloves, chopped
- Stock, any type - 1/2 cup
- Soy sauce, low-sodium - 1/4 cup
- Cornstarch - 1 Tbsp
- Brown sugar - 1 Tbsp
- Vinegar, rice - 2 Tbsp
- Oil, toasted sesame - 2 tsp
- Chili garlic sauce - 1 tsp (sub any hot sauce)
- Carrots - 10 oz, shredded (look for pre-shredded)
- Cilantro - 2 Tbsp, chopped
- Oil, cooking - 1 Tbsp
- Snow peas - 8 oz (sub snap peas)
- Pork, ground - 1 lb
- Lime juice - 2 tsp
- Barley, hulled and uncooked - 2/3 cup
Nutrition Facts
Prep
- Barley - (Double if making Thursday's meal.) Bring a saucepan of water to boil. Salt water generously and add barley. Simmer for 45 to 55 minutes until tender but not soggy. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Ginger / Garlic - Prep as directed. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Carrots - If not pre-shredded, shred with a box grater or food processor.
- Make sauce - Whisk together ginger, garlic, stock, soy sauce, cornstarch, brown sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, and chili garlic sauce. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Cilantro - Chop cilantro.
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Make
- Heat a wok or large saute pan with cooking oil over medium-high heat. Add carrots and snow peas and saute until tender, 6 to 7 minutes.
- Move vegetables to one side of the pan and add pork to the other side. Saute pork, breaking it apart as it cooks, until cooked through, ~5 minutes. Stir pork into vegetables.
- Give sauce a good stir (or shake if using a jar with a lid) to be sure that the cornstarch fully dissolves.
- Pour sauce over stir-fry and bring to a simmer. Cook everything together until sauce thickens, ~3 minutes.
- Add lime juice and cilantro to stir-fry.
- If barley was made ahead, reheat in the microwave (reserve half if doubled).
- Serve stir-fry over barley. Enjoy!
Nutrition Facts
Reviews
Ratings
33 reviews
Yummy! Added a bunch more sriracha since we like things spicy and used quinoa we had on hand which went very well. Easy weeknight meal and great as leftovers
0 HelpfulLoved this. Not fond of barley so made rice instead. Family considers it one of the best recipes we've ever made off CookSmarts.
0 HelpfulThis was a good one! I left out the honey and used hot sauce instead of chili-garlic sauce to be Whole30 compliant. I also cheated and used a bag of frozen peas and carrots as well as frozen cauliflower rice.
0 HelpfulGood! It was a bit too sweet for me, but the sauce was tasty and coated the ingredients really well. I made brown rice and barley (my husband and I both enjoyed the barley - first time for both of us!). I'd be inclined to add more veggies next time such as bok choy, cabbage, spinach, or even zucchini. We added the hot sauce afterward due to our kids disliking anything spicy. We also wrapped some in seaweed and lettuce.
0 HelpfulI used rice instead of barley because I already had some on hand, but otherwise made this as written. This had a good flavor - not amazing, but good - and came together quickly, so perfect for a week night. I added hot sauce when serving for an extra kick.
0 HelpfulI do keto so I subbed cabbage for carrots, monkfruit sweetener for honey, and didn’t bother with a thickener. So good but will add more chili garlic sauce next time for more spice.
0 Helpful