By Samantha Chabior, RD
Insanely Good Low-Sodium Shrimp & Ramen Noodle Stir Fry
This dish puts a heart healthy twist on the ramen noodle stir-fry by using whole grain ramen noodles, tons of veggies, and keeping the sodium much lower than the restaurant versions. Shrimp is also a low saturated fat protein choice, which makes this a great heart healthy comfort food!
When it comes to classic comfort foods, noodles are one of my favourite dishes! But many restaurants unfortunately use a lot of high sodium sauces to add flavour, which really impacts the level of heart healthiness of the dish. This is especially true for people who are trying to limit their salt intake, or need to watch their blood pressure.
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The recommended daily limit for sodium is 2300 mg per day, which is only about 1 teaspoon of table salt! Many people don’t realize that the majority of the sodium in our diet comes from processed and restaurant foods, which can make up almost 60% of our daily intake of sodium. It’s not just salt, but also sauces and condiments such as soy sauce, chili sauce, fish sauce, oyster sauce and others that can quickly add up in Asian style cooking. For example, 1 teaspoon of soy sauce can have anywhere from 200 – 350 mg of sodium – that’s almost 15% of your total daily limit of sodium in just one small spoon! And most people use much more than just 1 teaspoon with cooking. The sodium content is only slightly reduced with “low sodium” or “less sodium” soy sauces, so you should check the food label and be aware that they are still high in sodium.
I like to teach my clients about the 5% and 15% rule to help them quickly identify if a food is high or low in sodium. When a food shows a sodium content of less than 5% of the Daily Value (DV) on the nutrition facts table, it would be considered a low sodium choice. If the food has more than 15% of the Daily Value, then it’s a high sodium choice. This means if 1 teaspoon of soy sauce has 350 mg of sodium (15% DV), then it would be considered a high sodium choice. Super simple!
Don’t forget to adjust the serving size for the amount you actually use in cooking. So if you use 3 teaspoons of soy sauce, you are actually getting 45% of your daily amount of sodium (3 x 15% DV). Wow – almost half of your daily limit in sodium from just a few small spoons!
Ok, enough with the math. If you’re looking for a lower sodium version of a ramen noodle stir-fry recipe, then keep on reading!
As I said, I am an absolute noodle lover, so when I discovered these whole grain ramen noodles made from brown rice and millet at Costco I knew I had to try them out! To be honest, I didn’t have high expectations for the taste or texture of these noodles, but was actually so impressed by how good they ended up tasting!
My family didn’t know the difference between these noodles and the regular white ramen noodles, and I felt good knowing they were a fibre-rich choice with 3 grams of fibre per “noodle cake”. I think that’s a real win-win!
Another great thing about this recipe is how customizable it is. You can use pretty much any vegetables you have on hand. I just used cabbage, carrots, and broccoli because they were what I had in my fridge, and I feel they went really nicely together. But some other great combinations could be mushroom, carrots, and green peas, or even green beans, red peppers, and some frozen edamame beans.
Now, I do warn you that there are A LOT of vegetables in this dish. So feel free to cut down the broccoli to one head instead of two, as I did have trouble finding a pot large enough to combine all of the ingredients at the end!
You could also make this recipe vegan by swapping the shrimp with tofu for your protein source, or if you’re not a fan of shrimp, then chicken breast, lean beef or pork would work nicely as well. I prefer shrimp because it is super quick to cook on a weeknight, and it counts as a serving of seafood which is recommended at least 3 times per week on the Mediterranean Diet.
I’d love to hear what combinations you used, and how you found the flavour of this dish in the comments below!
Happy cooking,
Samantha
Low-Sodium Shrimp & Ramen Noodle Stir Fry
Ingredients
Sauce
- 2 Tbsp low sodium soy sauce
- 2 tsp chili garlic sauce
- 1/2 cup rice vinegar
- 2 tsp sugar
- 600 grams large shrimp peeled and deveined
Stir-Fry
- 2 cups cabbage shredded into small strips
- 3 carrots shredded into small strips
- 2 small heads of broccoli chopped into small florets
- 2 tbsp ginger minced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 shallot minced
- 2 bunches scallions (or green onion), sliced thinly
- 4 tsp canola oil
- 5 ramen noodle cakes whole grain
Instructions
- In a small bowl whisk together soy sauce, chili garlic sauce, rice vinegar, and sugar. Place shrimp in a large shallow bowl and pour sauce over shrimp to marinate while prepping vegetables. Set aside, stirring occasionally.
- Prepare all vegetables. Shred cabbage and carrots into a large bowl using a mandolin (or finely slice them using a knife into small strips (jullienne)). Chop broccoli into small florets. Mince ginger, garlic, and shallot. Thinly slice scallions. Set vegetables aside.
- Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and cook ramen noodles until al dente (firm), about 3 minutes (or follow instructions for cooking time on package). Drain noodles in a colander, rinse under cold running water, set aside.
- Heat canola oil in a large pan or wok. Place shrimp into frying pan, and set aside remaining sauce. Saute shrimp until cooked, about 2-3 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate. Add cabbage, carrots, ginger, garlic, shallot, half of the scallions and cook until softened, about 10 minutes.
- Add broccoli and leftover sauce, cook about 5-10 minutes or until broccoli is tender.
- Toss in ramen noodles, cooked shrimp, and remaining scallions, and stir to combine. Heat for about 2 minutes to allow ramen noodles and shrimp to warm.
- To serve, simply spoon ramen noodle and shrimp mixture into a bowl.
Notes
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