This is a Vegetable Stir Fry to make your own. Use it for any veggies you want, and serve it as a main or as a side dish with any Asian food. The tasty Chinese brown sauce is just like you get from Chinese restaurants and will make any veg totally scoff-able. And there’s a generous amount of it to soak your rice!
Vegetable Stir Fry
I make this approximately once a week, and it completely baffles me how I’ve been running this recipe website for 5 years (!!) without sharing it.
A Vegetable Stir Fry is:
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my end-of-week Fridge Forage meal;
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how I (happily) consume a ton of vegetables in one sitting;
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something I make with a mix of vegetables – or just one (like snow peas or Asian mushrooms).
I serve it over rice or noodles. I toss noodles into it while cooking. I top homemade Chinese noodle soups with it. And I make instant ramen respectable by piling on this saucy stir fried vegetables.
So I repeat again – 5 years. No recipe. BAFFLED. 🤷🏻♀️
What goes in my Vegetable Stir Fry
You can basically ignore all the vegetables in the photo below, and visualise whatever YOU want to use! Just use the sauce part of my recipe. 🙂
Can I make this with Charlie?
100% yes, you’ll need 4 tablespoons of Charlie and directions are in the recipe below. For new readers, “Charlie” is my ready made All Purpose Chinese Stir Fry Sauce. RTE readers and I love him so much, we’ve named him. He has a shelf life of months, and can be used in 90% of my stir fries and noodles, either outright or with the addition of a few extra flavourings. Try him once, and you’ll be obsessed with him too!
How to make stir fried vegetables
There’s only two rules here:
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Have all the ingredients chopped and ready to toss in the wok / skillet because this recipe moves fast once you start cooking!
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Don’t let the veggies cook until floppy and sad. They should be vibrant, just cooked so they don’t have the raw bite to them but they’re still a bit crisp. That’s the point of optimum flavour and nutrition for vegetables!
What order to cook vegetables in stir fries
There’s no need to turn this into an exact science! Just start by cooking aromatics to form the flavour base then add vegetables that take the longest to cook first, and delicate things like leafy greens towards the end.
Here’s a rough guide:
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Aromatics in first- onion, leeks, garlic, ginger, chilli
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Firm vegetables in second – like carrot, capsicum/bell peppers, stems of Asian Greens (Buk Choy in this recipe), zucchini / courgettes, eggplant, asparagus, canned baby corn, green beans, okra.
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Quicker cooking vegetables added next- snow peas, kale, cabbage.
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Delicate vegetables in last – toss until just wilted. Leaves of Asian Greens, spinach, bean sprouts, green onions, fresh herbs.
Pre cooked vegetables – broccoli, cauliflower and broccolini should be pre-cooked prior to using in a stir fry as they take too long to cook from raw in a stir fry (unless chopped small). And though I rarely use them in stir fries, I also pre cook things like pumpkin, potato, squash, and other root vegetables.
A big skillet of vegetables never looked so tasty!!
Also – the stir fry sauce. I like making plenty of it so it can soak through the rice or noodles, or whatever you serve it over. It’s also particularly good at disguising cauliflower rice – for those of you *trying* to cut down on carbs. 😇
What to serve with Stir Fried Vegetables
This can be served as:
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a main dish with rice or noodles (try cauliflower rice for a low carb option); or
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a vegetable side dish.
Though this stir fry has Chinese origins, don’t restrict yourself to serving this alongside just Chinese dishes. You’ll see similar version of this sauce used all across Asia. So serve it as a vegetable side the next time you make any Asian dishes – such as Vietnamese, Thai or Japanese! Here are a few suggestions (just a few….😂):
What to serve with Stir Fried Vegetables
Woah. For someone who’s taken so long to share such a *simple* recipe, I sure did have a lot to say about it! 😂 – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Saucy Vegetable Stir Fry
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 garlic cloves , finely chopped
- 1 tbsp ginger , finely sliced (optional)
- 1/2 onion , peeled and sliced
- 1 carrot , large
- 3 medium buk choy or other leafy greens of choice (Note 1)
- 1 cup mushrooms , sliced 3mm / 1/8" thick
- 1 capsicum , sliced 1/2cm / 1/5" thick
Sauce (or use 4 tbsp Charlie, Note 4):
- 1 tbsp cornflour / corn starch
- 1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce , light or all purpose (not dark soy) (Note 2)
- 2 tsp Oyster Sauce
- 1 tbsp Chinese Cooking Wine or Mirin (Note 3)
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil (optional)
- Dash of white pepper (or black)
- 3/4 cup / 185 ml water
Garnishes, optional:
- Finely sliced green onions
- Sesame seeds
Instructions
Vegetable Prep:
- Carrot: cut in half lengthwise then diagonally sliced 2mm / 1/10" thick
- Buk Choy (Note 1): Trim base off, then cut leaves off the stem. Cut the stem lengthwise into 1cm / 2/5" wide pieces. Keep leaves separate from stems, they will be cooked at different times.
Sauce (Charlie - Note 4):
- Place cornflour and soy sauce in a bowl and mix until cornflour is dissolved, then mix in remaining Sauce ingredients.
Cooking:
- Heat oil in a wok or large heavy based skillet over high heat.
- Add garlic and ginger, stir for 10 seconds. Add onion, stir for 30 seconds.
- Add carrot, capsicum and stems of buk choy - stir for 1 minute.
- Add mushrooms, then stir for 2 to 3 minutes until the vegetables are almost cooked.
- Add Sauce and toss for 1 minute until Sauce thickens and becomes glossy, coating all the vegetables. Don't overcook so they become floppy and limp - they should be just cooked, "crisp tender".
- Remove from stove and serve over rice (low carb option: cauliflower rice). Garnish with green onions and sesame seeds if using. A big dollop of chilli sauce wouldn't go astray either!
Recipe Notes:
- Mirin - best, the Japanese equivalent of Chinese cooking wine;
- Dry sherry - next best, any cheap and cheerful dry sherry
- Japanese cooking sake
- Non alcoholic - substitute the water in the recipe with LOW SODIUM chicken stock/broth
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
More Dozer pool action! Well, not so much action here, just Dozer climbing out of the pool. Currently using a ramp because the step in is so high, he actually sprained his lower back with all his crazy leaping in and out.
I know, I know. First World Problems.🙈
How do I add tofu to the veggie stir fry? Do I pre cook it? Thanks
When do you add the leaves, near the end of cooking or off heat at end?
Hi Nagi,
I’m a huge fan but tons of your recipes use oyster sauce, and I never see a note for a substitution. Do you have any options for those with shellfish allergies?
This is a substitute note from another recipe: all purpose stirfry sauce. Link is in this recipe notes.
To make this sauce vegan, substitute the oyster sauce with hoisin sauce. This gives the sauce a slight Chinese Five Spice Powder flavour which is thoroughly authentic!
Love this. I pull it up when I need to repurpose a veggie tray. I chop up the broccoli and thinly slice celery. This is a great leftover buster!
when is BUK CHOY LEAVES added ? With the sauce?
That’s exactly what I do, works well for me. Great recipe, really velvety yet crisp and fresh.
Wow, what an amazing vegetarian dish. My cat is giving me the evil eye the whole time eating, can’t understand how there’s no meat in there when it smells so good. Many thanks again Nagi, love your work and we’re looking forward to your Cookbook arriving soon.
Just what we were looking for. Many thanks
An easy to prepare and very tasty recipe. Very much appreciated the cooking time for the various vegetables. I paired the vegies with roast Peking flavoured duck legs ( and a good Shiraz).
Delightful.
I was looking for a quick vegetable side for dinner last night and am so glad I came across this! The sauce took seconds to throw together to add to the broccoli, capsicum, carrot and onion I had in the fridge! It was delicious served along side some noodles and your teriyaki meatballs. Love how versatile it is too with the different veggies you can use 🙂
Forgot to add five stars!
Yum. So easy to make and absolutely delish!! We just added a few birds eye chillies cause hubby likes it spicy.
This is outstanding! I added some noodles to it. Tasted just like what I get at my local Chinese take away. Thank you so much for sharing your recipes with us, Nagi. I really hope your upcoming book will be available in the States.
I was craving stir fry veggies and this hit the spot. Thank you for posting. This will be a regular in our house now.
Tried this recipe today and it turned out great! Love the way you have broken up when to add vegetables and which ones to precook. That was a great tip. Thank you!
That’s amazing Shreya – I am glad that you liked it! N x
I visit your website every time I need inspiration. Thank you thank you
That’s so great Heather!! I’m so glad you like the recipes! N x
Made this recipe tonight , love it ! Simple to make & so tasty. I actually added a small amount of brown sugar to the mix. A definite keeper for many recipes.
Thanks for that tip Jan! I am glad that you enjoyed it! N x
Made the stir fry but using lots of broccoli and celery instead of bok choy. Used mirin instead of Chinese cooking wine. I also stir fried some shrimp at the start and set aside to add when the vegy’s were cooked. Served over rice and it’s a one dish meal – start to end in 45 minutes tops. Really delicious – it’s now a healthy go to recipe at our place.
This recipe is so good, my wife told me we don’t need to order it for take-out anymore. Very versatile.
Holy moly this was so delish! I paired it with your Korean beef and it was perfect! Easy peasy and flavorful!
Thanks Gretchen! I am happy you liked it! N x
Holy moly this was sooooooo delish! Easy peasy too!
I paired this with your Korean beef recipe!! Perfect!
Such an easy recipe that tastes so good!! Added tofu as well which I loved 😍