This is a basic recipe for a very quick and easy vegan stir-fry. Perfect for creating a Sunday evening dinner from what’s in the fridge.
Ingredients for the easy vegan stir-fry
You can garnish the food beautifully with nuts or fried onions, chilis or Sriracha sauce. And of course fresh herbs.
The basic components are soy sauce, maple syrup (or other syrup), lime (including the peel if it is organic) and ginger. I also love how dried cranberries balance out the acidity and the spices.
Onions and garlic can be used as well if you like, and either noodles or leftover rice. Udon noodles work especially well here, they’re thick and chewy and soak up the sauce beautifully, but rice noodles or regular wheat noodles work great too. The rice should be cooled off before you use it in the recipe, which makes it way more manageable.
You can use almost any veggies: carrots, broccoli, pumpkin, cabbage, soy bean sprouts, fennel, bell peppers, celery, peas.
Beans and tofu or other meat replacements as a protein source are great too.
The Perfect Vegan Stir-Fry Sauce
The base is simple: soy sauce for that salty umami depth, maple syrup for sweetness that rounds out the saltiness, fresh lime juice for the necessary acidity, and ginger for aromatic warmth in the background. Getting these four components in balance is really the whole secret.
A few ways to adapt the base sauce:
- For more creaminess: stir in a tablespoon of peanut butter or tahini
- For more heat: add a splash of chili oil or freshly chopped chili
- For more depth: a splash of rice vinegar or a bit of miso paste adds extra umami
- For a thicker consistency: mix half a teaspoon of cornstarch with a little water and add it towards the end, it’ll thicken the sauce slightly
Best mixed directly with the noodles or rice in a bowl before they go into the pan, that way everything gets coated evenly instead of the sauce just sitting on top at the end.
Easy Vegan Stir-Fry with Noodles or Rice
Recommended Equipment
Ingredients
- 250 g noodles or 600 g cooked and cooled rice
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
- juice and peel of 1 lime
- 1 tablespoon chopped ginger
- 1 tablespoon dried cranberries
- 2 cups veggies and protein sources, e.g. carrots, broccoli, smoked tofu, peas
- black pepper, fried shallots, fresh herbs, lime wedges for garnishing
Instructions
- First, gather all your ingredients and prepare them in the right amounts. That makes it so much easier and more fun and you're less likely to forget anything.
- Combine soy sauce, maple syrup, lime juice and peel in a big bowl.
- Add drained noodles (or cooked and cooled rice) and stir well.
- Heat some coconut oil in a wok or a wok skillet and add ginger, then add the other veggies, protein sources and dried cranberries.
- Now stir-fry them for a few minutes and add the noodles or the rice. Keep stir-frying until lightly browned.
- Serve on plates and garnish.
Video
Nutrition
FAQ
What makes a good stir-fry sauce?
A good stir-fry sauce needs a balance of salty (soy sauce), sweet (maple syrup or another syrup), tangy (lime), and aromatic (ginger). This basic formula is easy to adapt, for example with a splash of chili oil for heat or peanut butter for extra creaminess.
What noodles work best for a stir-fry?
Asian noodles like mie noodles, udon noodles, soba noodles or rice noodles work especially well here, but if needed, you can also use regular pasta, depending on what you have on hand.
Can I make this stir-fry gluten-free?
Yes, this recipe is already vegan. For a gluten-free version, just use tamari instead of soy sauce and stick with rice noodles or rice instead of wheat noodles.
Other recipes with leftover rice are: my lime rice with smoked tofu, my pineapple rice with “egg” and my tomato rice with black beans.
