I made this one night after a long day at work knowing I wanted to get something on the table quickly that was healthy, filling and kid-friendly at the same time. The inspiration for this recipe came from a vegan pad thai recipe I ran across in a cookbook. I didn’t have some of the necessary ingredients so I improvised a bit and this creamy, peanutty, flavorful, super-easy veggie stir fry came about. I left out the sweet red chili to make it kid-friendly but feel free to spice it up by adding some sweet red chili or hot sauce to it.
The key to a good stir fry is to heat up the wok to a high heat and not drown the veggies in liquid. This dish is oil-free (but not fat-free due to the peanut butter) and that can be a bit tricky when stir-frying but if you stir constantly the veggies turn out nicely crisp and not soggy.
There are a million ways to make a veggie stir fry and you can feel free to substitute different vegetables to use whatever you have on hand. The peanut butter in the sauce thickened up while cooking and gave the dish a nice, creamy taste to it that we thoroughly enjoyed.
The other nice thing about this stir fry is that it uses 100% whole grain brown rice noodles so you can stick to your plant-based whole grain diet if you like. We like Annie Chun’s Pad Thai Brown Rice Noodles and they are gluten-free too.
Let us know how your veggie stir fry comes out!
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Easy Veggie Stir Fry (Vegan, Oil-Free, Gluten-free)
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 25 mins
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Stir Fry, Main Course
- Cuisine: Asian, Thai
Description
A creamy, peanutty, flavorful, super-easy veggie stir fry that is vegan, oil-free and gluten-free.
Ingredients
- 8 ounces brown rice noodles
Peanut Sauce
- 4 Tablespoons tamari sauce (or Coconut Aminos or No Soy Soy Sauce if you are avoiding soy)
- 4 Tablespoons orange juice
- 4 Tablespoons warm water
- 2 Tablespoons peanut butter (I used chunky and recommend smooth)
- ½ Teaspoon granulated garlic powder
- ½ Teaspoon ground ginger
- 1–2 Tablespoons sweet red chili (optional and to taste)
- Salt to taste
Veggies
- ½ cup mini carrots sliced into match sticks
- ½ onion diced
- 3 cups spinach
- 1 cup sliced celery
- 1 cup red and/or orange bell pepper, diced
- 1 zucchini sliced into ¼” slices and quartered
Garnish
- 3 ounces bean sprouts or alfalfa sprouts
- 2 Tablespoons chopped raw peanuts
- Lime wedges
Instructions
- Boil water and add the rice noodles. Turn off heat and let sit for 7-9 minutes, until tender. Drain.
- In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, orange juice, warm water, peanut butter, garlic powder and ground ginger until smooth.
- Taste and add salt and sweet red chili to taste.
- Heat up a non-stick wok to high heat. Add in carrots and onions and stir fry for a few minutes, stirring very frequently. If you keep stirring you won’t need any liquid and the veggies stay more firm and crisp.
- Add spinach, celery, bell peppers, and zucchini. Add a few tablespoons of water to help the spinach steam and stir frequently until the spinach is wilted, usually about 3-4 minutes.
- Add in the peanut sauce and the rice noodles.
- Stir well to coat and cook for 2-3 minutes until everything is heated through.
- Serve immediately and garnish each plate with bean sprouts, chopped raw peanuts, and a lime wedge.
Notes
If you pre-chop your veggies on the weekends like we do this goes even faster. We usually have diced onions, diced bell peppers, and diced celery on hand. All I had to do was quickly slice and quarter a zucchini, cut up the carrots and toss in a few handfuls of spinach.
Hi! Would glassnoodles or ricenoodles work for this recipe?:)
Yes they would. Thanks for stopping by and please let us know how it turns out.
Lovely.
The only noodles I like are the soba noodles. I can see this as just fine.
I love the peanut sauce vegan gf so perfect! I only get orange juice occasionally but could do several recipes I make a lazy 3 ingredient fruit cake and freeze in tiny bits as it is so solid and filling,
Thank you!