Weeknight dinner friendly, this 20 minute spring stir fry with a garlic butter sauce will satisfy on the busiest of spring evenings!
Spring rolls around these parts rather slow (in my impatient opinion it does anyways!).
We have a week of snow, then a week of summer-like weather, all swapping back and forth for about 2 months. It’s all just a great big tease sometimes! But I can always count on the last week of April and into the first part of May to really feel like spring around here.
We have a gorgeous hedge of forsythia that blooms right around then, and our magnolia tree buds start to wake up. Our local farmer’s markets start opening every Saturday with fresh Michigan asparagus and other greens and roots, and our raw milk share has more milk available to offer.
We can always count on Earth Day week being a fun time at my daughter’s school. Last week they cleaned up the gardens by their playground and planted flowers.
Our evenings are filled with so much more light and warmth and outside time which can take its toll on any kitchen time for making dinner. I love taking advantage of fresh spring veggies though, so my compromise is a handful of quick, nourishing dinners packed with seasonal produce that can be made in 20 minutes or less.
This fresh stir fry has a delicious garlic butter sauce that is light enough for spring but tastes amazing rich and decadent. You really could add anything you wish for the veggies. I love to use chopped radishes as well as golden beets – use whatever you have access to. You can also swap the noodles for rice or leave the grain out all together if you can’t tolerate grain. Sweet potatoes or other root veggies would make a nice starch for my grain free friends.
20 Minute Spring Stir Fry With Garlic Butter Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 TB avocado or olive oil
- 4 TB butter divided
- 1/2 medium onion diced
- 1 lb asparagus sliced on the bias into 1 inch/bite sized pieces
- 5 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen peas
- 1 medium tomato seeds and juices scooped out and diced
- 1-2 cups cooked chicken chopped (I use leftovers from a roasted chicken dinner or Instant Pot chicken)
- 1/3 cup white wine or chicken bone broth
- Pinch of cayenne optional but the slight heat is so good! If you prefer more heat you can add more - I tend to keep it pretty kid friendly for the little ones in my house but add a little more to my plate
- 8 oz pasta of choice cooked (I use the these gluten free rice noodles. You could use rice if you wish, or if you are grain free just leave this part out or possibly add some potatoes to the veggies cooking or other root veggie for a little starch)
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
- Optional freshly grated parmesan to garnish
Instructions
- You can start boiling your water for your noodles when you start the stir fry and they should be done around the same time.
- Melt 2 TB avocado oil and 2 TB butter in a large skillet and add the onion and asparagus. Put a generous pinch of sea salt over the veggies and cook over medium heat for about 7 minutes until the veggies soften and sweeten and the asparagus is bright green.
- Add the garlic, peas, tomatoes, chicken, and cayenne, combine, and cook over medium heat for 5 minutes.
- Pour in the white wine and the other 2 TB of butter, combine and cook about 5 minutes until the liquid cooks into the veggies and reduces down and the alcohol in the wine simmers off. You can add some splashes of the starchy pasta water or bone broth if you need more liquid.
- Add the cooked and drained pasta to the veggies and chicken, combine, and sea salt and pepper to your taste. You can garnish each dish with freshly grated parmesan if you wish.
For more real food dinner ideas you can follow my Dinner Ideas board on Pinterest!
More real food ideas you might like:
Golden Beet Slaw
15 Minute Ginger Chicken Stir Fry
This looks delicious! I love asparagus and green pea addition.
Thank you Anna!
Love those sweet spring photos. xo This looks delicious! I love quick meals like this.
Thank you Emily!
Looks awesome! I love easy skillet dishes!
Gorgeous as always! Pinned. Love that this meal is quick and that garlic butter sauce sounds amazing!
Such a fun and quick meal. Love all the veggies in this!
Yummy! I love all the fresh spring veggies (I can’t get enough of asparagus right now), although if I made this I’d probably consider it pasta. I wonder what the exact difference between pasta and stir fry is? Cooking time? Heat? #foodiethoughts
This looks amazing! I want it for dinner tonight
Looks so colorful and flavorful! 🙂
This a super easy and quick dinner! And delicious of course!