How To Make Low FODMAP Shrimp Stir Fry

On today’s menu, I’ve got a quick and easy sweet and sour low FODMAP shrimp stir fry. This low FODMAP shrimp stir fry is a variation of a family favorite dish I had growing up. It’s flavored with tamarind, turmeric, and sweet soy. That’s it! 

To learn how to make this low FODMAP sweet & sour tamarind shrimp stir fry, stick around until the end. We’ll be covering a few other things in this post too:

Now that we’ve got the gist of our dish out of the way, let’s dive right into it and start with an introduction to tamarind. It’s the key ingredient that makes this dish sour with a hint of sweetness.

What is Tamarind?

Tamarind is a fruit that comes from a genus of hardwood trees known as Tamarindus indica. It is thought to be native to the African continent but can be found in tropical regions like India and Malaysia for instance.

I actually grew up with a tamarind tree in the garden and spent a lot of my time as a child sitting on the branches and happily munching away on the fruit. In Malay, we call this fruit, “asam jawa.” The bean-shaped pods have a thin and hard shell but once you break through it, you will find fibrous pulp encasing seeds.

The young green pulp is crunchy and very sour but as the tamarind ripens, it becomes softer and the sour notes are accompanied by a hint of sweetness. The texture changes from crunchy to soft and gooey. It kind of resembles a thick caramel. 

Used widely in Southeast Asian cuisine, tamarind is used in both sweet and savory dishes. Sometimes, you’ll find tamarind paste rolled into balls and coated in sugar as candy. Not only is this pulp used in cooking, it’s also revered for its medicinal qualities and to polish metal.

Alas, we will not be polishing any metal in this post and the tamarind will be used strictly as an ingredient in one of our sweet and sour prawns low fodmap sauce recipes. Tamarind is often sold in two forms: as a ready-made paste or in solid blocks of fresh pulp. If your grocery store has the latter and not the former, the next section might come in handy.

I’m going to teach you how to prepare fresh tamarind and turn it into a paste for any low sugar sweet and sour sauce.

How To Prepare Fresh Tamarind

Preparing fresh tamarind and turning it into a paste is actually very easy. All you have to do is add water and wait. Have a look at the picture below:

I scooped about 1 tablespoon of tamarind pulp into a bowl, added 2-3 tablespoons of hot water, and allowed it to sit for 5 minutes. After that, mix it thoroughly, and voila, tamarind paste at your disposal. 

Because this fruit is naturally sweet and sour it makes the perfect base for this gluten free sweet and sour sauce.

I should warn you that sometimes there is fibrous pulp and hard like stone seeds in the fresh tamarind mix. If the fresh tamarind you buy is not seedless, then mix everything together and make sure to run the paste through a sieve. Trust me when I say you do not want to bite into any seeds. That’s just a one-way ticket to the dentist. 

Speaking of health, this is a low FODMAP recipe after all and we should probably discuss tamarind fruits’ FODMAP.

Is Tamarind Low FODMAP?

According to Monash University, tamarind is low FODMAP at servings of 1/2 tablespoon or 11 grams. Large servings of 3 tablespoons contain moderate amounts of fructans and should be avoided. 

Thankfully for me and Lisa, neither of us has a problem tolerating this ingredient. That would be a sad tale because tamarind paste is a common pantry staple in my house. It adds a unique sweet and sour flavor to this healthy sweet and sour sauce.

Since we’re all properly acquainted with tamarind, let’s move on to the other pressing issue at hand. Shrimps and how to clean them.

A PSA: Clean Your Shrimps

I think this is an important section because you should know what’s going into your body. And until I moved to the Netherlands, I had no idea that there was a nation of people that were not cleaning their shrimps.

So, part three of this post is a PSA on cleaning your shrimps. All shrimp have a vein or digestive tract that looks like a sack. I’m not going to sugarcoat it, it’s filled with poop. When making any low FODMAP seafood dish, it is important to clean your seafood of choice.

Today, we’re going to learn how to clean shrimps for this low fodmap fish and seafood sweet sour sauce.

I left the shell on for this recipe because it clings onto the sauce perfectly. You can remove or keep the shell, it’s up to you. If you’ve kept the shell on, then use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut downwards from the back of the head to the tail, see that poop shoot? Take it out and throw it away.

If you’re using shrimps that have been shelled, use a knife to score the surface right down the middle of the shrimp and you’ll see the vein. Repeat this step until all of the shrimps have been cleaned and you’re done.

There’s nothing toxic about eating the digestive tract. The heat from the cooking process kills any bacteria but honestly, I wouldn’t want to eat any poop shoot, so I take the extra time to devein my shrimps. 

One last look at the ingredients roundup and we’re on our way to making the dish, folks.

Everything You Need To Make Low FODMAP Shrimp Stir Fry

My mother’s original recipe includes onions but I can’t eat those anymore. The silver lining though, is that shortens the list of ingredients of this low FODMAP sauce. To make this vegan sweet and sour sauce (the sauce is vegan, this dish isn’t.) you’ll need 4 things:

• Turmeric powder (have a look at this post for information about turmeric)
• Tamarind paste
• Sweet soy (also known as ketjap/kicap manis)
• Shrimps (or any other seafood of your choice. This sauce pairs well with anything!)

An important point about this low FODMAP sweet and sour sauce is timing. This dish is simple but it is flavorful. Part of giving this low FODMAP shrimp stir fry dimension is in the way it’s prepared. How about we talk about that?

How To Make This Sweet & Sour Low FODMAP Shrimp Stir Fry

Yes, technically, you could toss everything into a bowl and mix it all together but I urge you to see how this dish comes together. Because how can 3 ingredients give such powerful results? It’s all about timing. 

Toss some turmeric powder on your shrimps and make sure they’re fully coated.

In a hot pan on medium heat, add some garlic oil and your shrimps. Cook them for a minute or 2 and make sure they’ve transformed from a grayish color to a pinkish hue.

When that has happened, add in the tamarind paste. This needs to be sauteed for an additional minute to remove that ‘raw’ flavor and add a depth of flavor. After a minute, add in the sweet soy and saute for another 2 minutes. 

The same principle applies to sauteing these sweet sour prawns. Adding everything one at a time after some sauteing, changes this sweet and sour sauce from a basic one to an elevated sweet and sour prawns recipe. It allows all the ingredients to develop and cook separately. The sauce will thicken and turn into (almost) a glaze that is not flat in flavor.

If you combined the ingredients in a bowl to make a sauce, you would still get a wonderful dish but taking the time to cook each ingredient in this sweet and sour sauce makes a world of a difference. 

Once the shrimps are cooked, take them off the heat immediately and serve on a plate. Look at those lusciously glossy shrimps. The best part about this dish is eating it with your hands. It is the epitome of “finger-licking” good.

Serving This Dish

Growing up, I often ate this dish with plain white rice but recently, I’ve had the utmost pleasure of eating them with mantou buns. They’re the perfect vehicle to soak up all that delicious sweet and sour turmeric-infused sauce. Add chili crab to the table and you have yourself a seafood feast.

There you have it, a sweet and sour low FODMAP shrimp stir fry in 5 minutes and 4 ingredients. That’s gotta be a winner. Quick, easy, cheap, and absolutely delicious: everything I want in a dish. If you’re wondering what to serve with this low FODMAP shrimp stir fry (other than rice or noodles) try making these:
Super Easy Fried Mantou Recipe 

Low FODMAP Singaporean Chili Crab

Looking for more low FODMAP Asian recipes? Check these recipes out:

Vegan Low FODMAP Rendang

Chicken Thai Low FODMAP Noodles

Vegetarian Low FODMAP Bee Hoon Goreng

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