Spicy Udon Noodle Vegetable Stir-Fry

Udon Noodle Stir Fry Ingredients

Vegetarian noodle stir-fry is extremely easy to make for a couple of reasons. One, you only really need 3 main ingredients:

• Udon noodles
• Stir-fry vegetables
• Stir-fry sauce

Two, the veggies and sauce can be customized to your liking and based on what you already have at home, or what looks good at the grocery store. Here’s what we use for our favorite udon noodle vegetable stir-fry:

Our Go-To Udon Noodle Stir-Fry Vegetables

• Snap peas
• Scallions
• Bell pepper
• Yellow onion
• Baby bok choy
• Garlic

Udon Stir-Fry Sauce

• Soy sauce
• Brown sugar
• Rice vinegar
• Sesame oil
• Minced garlic
• Chili garlic sauce

If you decide to customize the vegetables in your stir fry, we recommend sticking to about 5 or so vegetable types to keep the proportions balanced. For some ideas on what other vegetables work well for stir-fry, see the section below on Recipe Variations.

While the sauce provides a lot of flavor, the veggies you choose can greatly impact the flavor and texture of the dish. This makes it easy to have udon veggie stir-fry over and over again with new ways to enjoy it every time!

How To Make Spicy Vegetable Stir-Fry With Noodles

It really just takes 3 steps to make a delicious vegetable stir fry at home: make the sauce, cook the noodles, and stir-fry the vegetables. Then just combine everything together in the wok and dinner is served!

Here’s a complete breakdown for how to make our udon noodle stir fry recipe:

1. First wash and prep the vegetables: cut the bell pepper and onion into thin strips, chop the scallions and baby bok choy (separating out the leafy greens from the white stems, keep both).
2. Combine soy sauce and brown sugar in a small bowl and mix well until sugar is dissolved, then add rice vinegar, sesame oil, minced garlic, and chili garlic sauce (to taste). Stir well to combine and set aside.
3. Cook the udon noodles according to the package directions. 
4. While the noodles are cooking, heat 2 tbsp vegetable oil in a wok or large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and snap peas, stirring occasionally until snap peas start to soften, about 6 to 8 minutes.
5. Add the bell pepper, onion, and scallion and bok choy stalks to the wok with an additional 1 tbsp of vegetable oil. Cook until vegetables soften, about 3 to 5 minutes.
6. Add the scallions and bok choy leaves to the wok. Stir frequently and cook for another 1 to 2 minutes.
7. Lower heat and add cooked udon noodles and sauce to the wok. Stir well to combine and serve hot.

If you decide to add different vegetables to your stir-fry, here’s the key to ensuring that everything is cooked correctly: group ingredients into similar toughnesses, and cook them in stages (from most to least tough). Just like how we add the snap peas first, followed by pepper, onion, and bok choy stalks, and then finally followed by leafy ingredients. Follow this method and you’ll end up with perfectly cooked vegetables every time.

We also like to cook our veggies a little longer since we prefer them on the soft side. If you prefer more crunchy veggies in your stir-fry, shorten the cook time for each batch of vegetables by a couple of minutes. 

Lastly, the chili garlic sauce is what gives these spicy noodles some heat. If you want a more mild dish, just reduce the amount of chili garlic used in the sauce. Alternatively, if you want this dish extra spicy, you can add some pure chili oil to the sauce (we love doing this sometimes!).

Serving Spicy Udon Noodle Stir-Fry

While this spicy udon stir-fry can be a standalone dinner, we highly recommend serving it with our pork dumplings or your favorite Asian side dish to complete the meal. This stir-fry is also the perfect addition to a family style buffet along with a couple other Asian dishes such as General Tso’s chicken, or spicy Szechuan dumpling soup.

Recipe Variations

Like we mentioned, stir fry is a great dinner because you can easily customize it based on what’s available in your fridge. All you need is a variety of fresh vegetables – we recommend about 5 different types. Here are a few suggestions that work well:

• Carrots
• Celery
• Chili peppers
• Ginger
• Water chestnuts
• Broccoli
• Mushroom
• Baby corn spears
• Snow peas

Storing & Reheating Leftovers

This recipe is great for meal prepping as it makes a big batch of food. However, that means you need to ensure it is stored properly! This stir fry will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days when stored in an air-tight container.

We like to prep a big batch of stir fry for Sunday night dinner and portion out the leftovers for easy microwave lunches throughout the week. To reheat, simply microwave single servings for about 2 minutes, stirring halfway through.

If you want to reheat a larger batch of stir fry (around 4 servings or more), you can toss it back in the wok over medium heat for a few minutes until warmed through.