Vegetarian Udon Stir Fry

A simple stir fry is one of our go-to comfort food dinners as it’s always easy to make, warm, cozy, and delicious. We also love that it’s highly customizable, and can be made with whatever produce or proteins you already have in your fridge or freezer. Whether it’s an old bag of frozen vegetables you want to use up or a pile of carrots you got at the farmer’s market, being able to customize your stir fry can help simplify dinner after a busy day.

And since we aren’t always the best at getting enough vegetables in our diets, a veggie heavy meal like this one goes a long way to help us out! Raise your hand if you feel the same.

What This Recipe Entails

Depending on what produce you go with, this recipe may require a decent amount of chopping, slicing, and dicing. (It still surprises us how long it takes to prepare peppers, onions, carrots, and everything else for stir fry!)

• Prep time: 20 minutes
• Cook time: 20 minutes

If you’re looking to make this a quick and easy dinner, then we recommend using frozen veggies. Something like a stir fry veggie blend works really well when you’re short on time or don’t have it in you to prep all the produce. Just be sure to defrost anything frozen according to package directions before starting this recipe. Leftover produce that you already have prepped also works wonderfully!

Ingredients

Vegetarian udon stir fry is extremely easy to make, since you only really need 3 ingredients:

• Udon noodles – Udon is perfect for stir fry because it’s thick and can stand up to all the veggies.
• Stir fry veggies – Customize these to your liking, or based on what you already have on hand! Our go-to veggies are snap peas, scallions, bell pepper, onion, and baby bok choy.
• Stir fry sauce – A homemade blend of soy sauce, brown sugar, rice vinegar, sesame oil, garlic, and chili garlic sauce adds simple, delicious flavor to this stir fry.

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.

How To Make Vegetarian Udon Stir Fry

1. Make the sauce. Combine the ingredients in a small bowl and whisk together until the brown sugar is dissolved.
2. Cook the noodles. Boil or steam the udon according to the package directions.
3. Stir fry the vegetables. Using a wok over medium high heat, start with the veggies that will take the longest to break down (snap peas, peppers, onions, etc) and add the leafy veggies later on so as not to overcook them.
4. Combine and serve. Once the veggies are softened and the noodles are ready, add the noodles and sauce to the wok and toss to combine. Serve hot.

Recipe Variations

Like we mentioned, we love this stir fry because it can easily be customized based on what’s available in our fridge. All you need is a variety of 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

Alternatively, if you want to always have ingredients for a recipe like this on hand, frozen vegetables work too. That way, no matter what your day or week brings, you know you can make an easy, comforting dinner with what you already have on hand.

You can also add a variety of proteins to this stir fry to make it extra nutritious and satisfying. Add tofu to keep it vegetarian, or if you eat meat we recommend adding chicken or pork. (Take a look at our pork lo mein recipe for inspiration!)

Serving Suggestions

• Dinner for two – Serve stir fry with a side of dumplings, egg rolls, or wontons for a tasty dinner, and enjoy leftovers for lunch the next day.
• Easy weeknight family dinner – This recipe makes about 4 servings, so it’s the perfect dinner for a family of 4 if you don’t want leftovers.
• Family style buffet – Make other Asian dishes like our spicy Szechuan dumpling soup or garlic udon noodles for a family style feast.

Storing and Reheating Leftovers

Honestly, the leftovers from this stir fry are almost better in our opinion. We love to make this dish for dinner and then enjoy it for lunch the next day!

Store leftover udon stir fry in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat single servings in the microwave for about 2 minutes, stirring halfway through. Or, reheat multiple servings at once in a wok over medium-high heat for just a few minutes until warmed through.