Veggie Stir Fry {A Meatless Monday Recipe

Healthy meals don’t have to be challenging to make. Try this healthy recipe for veggie stir fry. So good you won’t miss the meat!

This vegetable stir fry is made with meaty mushrooms, crunchy carrots, bell peppers, bright green broccoli, onions, and sugar snap peas stir-fried in a delicious teriyaki sauce. The vegetables are tossed with toasted sesame seeds and egg-fried rice for extra protein.

Veggie stir fry bursts with lots of fresh vegetables and come together in less than an hour, which means it’s a perfect Meatless Monday recipe.

It is so easy and fresh! So good you’ll never miss the meat.

What is Stir Fry?

Stir-frying is a Chinese cooking technique in which protein, vegetables, aromatics, and sauce are fried in a wok over very high heat with a small amount of oil. Cooking over high heat helps maintain the vegetables’ flavors, color, and texture.

What’s in Vegetable Stir Fry?

• Oil: butter and toasted sesame oil to add flavor. Yes, use butter! It tastes so good and helps to brown up everything beautifully.
• Vegetables: onion, mushrooms, bell peppers, carrot, broccoli florets, snow peas. Any vegetable you desire.
• Sauce: The teryaki sauce is very simple to use, but if you don’t have all the ingredients on hand you could use any other type of stir fry sauce you like.
• Garnish: Sesame seeds, green onions, cilantro, hot sauce.

The Rice

Rice is the obvious side dish to stir fry, but you don’t have to. You can also use brown rice, or for more protein, use quinoa or Asian noodles instead.

For the rice, you have two options.

Option #1: At least one day before you plan to make the stir fry, place the rice in a sieve and rinse until the water is no longer cloudy and runs clear. Place the rinsed rice in a medium-sized saucepan. Add 2 cups of cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, and simmer until the water has cooked down to the level of the rice. Stir well with a spoon. Cover, and reduce the heat to low. Continue to cook for about 15 minutes or until the rice is tender—fluff with a fork.

Allow the rice to cool to room temperature. Once it has cooled, place it in a container with a lid and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Option #2: I usually take a shortcut and use Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice instead of making it myself. It may not be the Asian thing to do, but using prepared rice saves time. Besides, I’m not Asian anyway.

Scrambled eggs are added for extra protein but are totally optional.

How to Make Veggie Stir Fry

1. Selecting the Ingredients

There are three main components to stir fry:

1. Proteins: Vegetarian proteins like tofu, tempeh, quinoa, beans, nuts, seeds. Meats such as chicken, beef and shrimp.
2. Vegetables: any vegetable you desire.
3. Aromatics: garlic, fresh ginger, spices, hot sauces, stir fry sauces.

2. Prep the Ingredients Before Cooking

When making stir fry, it’s essential to make sure you have all of the ingredients prepped, chopped, and ready to go before turning on the stove. Stir-fries cook quickly, and this way, you won’t overcook one vegetable while preparing another.

Since all of the ingredients need to be prepared ahead of time, this stir fry is ideal for meal prep which can save you time and effort during the week when you may be pushed for time. You can prep the veggies up to 3-5 days in advance.

When chopping vegetables, make sure they are cut small and uniform in size so that they cook quickly and simultaneously.

3. Make the Stir Fry Sauce

Whether you use the teriyaki sauce or traditional Chinese stir fry sauce for this recipe, make sure it is ready before you start cooking so you can add it in at the right time when making the stir fry.

4. Stir Fry

• High Heat: is very important when making stir fry. Make sure the wok or skillet is really hot so the vegetables will take on more flavor.
• Order: Always begin the stir fry with the vegetables that take the longest to cook first.
• Keep the ingredients moving: Stir your ingredients continually in the pan with a wooden spatula.
• Cook proteins and vegetables separately: proteins and vegetables have different cook times. Start with the proteins first, remove it from the pan and then add it back in at the end to warm through.
• Add aromatics towards the end: When the vegetables are about done, add in any aromatics. This will ensure they will be bright and fresh and not fade with the heat of the wok.

5. Fry the Rice and the Egg

Add butter and sauce to the wok with the rice. Break up any clumps of the cold rice with the back of a spoon. Stir the rice constantly. Do not let the rice stay in contact with the bottom of the pan or wok for too long.

Fry the rice until it becomes golden brown, then add the egg and scramble in the wok. 

Note: If you are uncomfortable trying to cook the egg in the wok with the rice, you can scramble the egg in a separate non-stick skillet and then add it to the rice at the end.

6. Don’t Forget to Garnish!

Not only do garnishes add flavor and texture, but they also make the dish look even more appetizing. I use toasted sesame seeds for this recipe, but you could also garnish this stir fry with toasted nut, chopped green onions, cilantro, or drizzle on some hot sauce if you like spicy food.

Do I Need a Wok to Make Stir Fry?

Although a wok is nice to have, you don’t have to have one to make this stir fry. Use a large skillet instead.

Is Stir Fry Healthy?

Making stir fry at home can be a lot healthier than what you get at your favorite take-out or delivery joint because you control the ingredients. You take total control of the sodium and sugar.

The tender-crisp vegetables retain more nutrients than if they were boiled. And the fat content is considerably low because stir-frying requires very little oil.

Tips For Making Stir Fry

• Size Matters: The stir fry comes together very quickly. It is important to have all of the vegetables chopped and the ingredients ready to go before beginning to make the stir fry.
• Meal Prep: Save time prep and cut the vegetables ahead of time.
• High Heat: Make sure the wok or skillet is really hot. The vegetables will take on more flavor.
• Keep the ingredients moving. Stir your ingredients continually in the pan with a wooden spatula. 
• Thicker Sauce: If you perfer a thicker sauce, use a cornstarch slurry to help thicken the sauce. A cornstarch slurry of equal parts cold water and cornstarch. Make sure to use cold water when mixing the slurry so there will not be any powdery clumps in your stir fry.
• Soy Sauce: If the rice seems dry, you can add a few extra splashes of soy sauce. Also, feel free to add more soy sauce at the end to add more flavor especially when frying the rice. Use low-sodium soy sauce so you don’t have to worry about the stir fry becoming too salty.
• Leftovers: Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to 4 days. To reheat remove from the fridge and microwave or warm in a skillet over medium heat.

Making a veggie stir fry from scratch is simple and so worth making yourself. It’ll quickly become your go-to Meatless Monday recipe!

If it does, please let us know how this recipe turns out for you in the comments! Your feedback keeps us going, and we are always interested to hear what you think about our recipes.

See ya on the mountain!

Updated January 2022. Veggie Stir Fry was originally published on November 17th of 2014.