Vegan noodles stir fry with celery

Vegan stir fry noodles with a simple sauce and lots of veggies!

At our house, we make vegan noodles stir fry so very often. There is something SO satisfying about a nice hot bowl of noodles. Loaded with crunchy veggies, savory, spicy flavours, even writing this down makes me crave for some!

Have you tried adding celery in your stir fry? Trust me, it really brings in SO much flavour. I hope you give it a try and let me know how you liked it!

Ingredients and substitutions

Noodles

Use any thicker variety of noodles. This includes dry udon noodles, lo mein noodles, soba noodles made with buckwheat flour, rice noodles, spaghetti too!

Just make sure that the noodles are not too thin, as thin noodles can easily get overcooked in a stir fry. Anything close to the thickness of spaghetti works well.

Stir fry sauce

• Soy sauce – I recommend using naturally brewed soy sauce, organic whenever possible.
• Dark soy sauce – Dark soy sauce is darker, thicker and sweeter than regular soy sauce. It brings in a lovely colour while also adding to the flavour. SUBSTITUTION : If unavailable, dark soy sauce can be substituted with regular soy sauce + brown sugar. If you happen to have molasses, add some in for colour.
• Mushroom stir fry sauce – It is a thick stir fry sauce with soy sauce/tamari, sugar, mushroom powder and thickening agents like corn starch. SUBSTITUTION – Soy sauce + brown sugar + mushroom powder or simply use extra soy sauce.

If regular soy sauce is all you have, you can still make this stir fry. Search your pantry for brown sugar, molasses, mushroom powder. Add a teaspoon of sugar, half tsp molasses and a tsp of mushroom powder. If not, use only soy sauce and increase the amount of garlic by a clove or two. If you ask me, garlic is the solution to many problems 🙂

Aromatics

Along with the regular aromatics like onion, green/spring onions and lots of garlic, I use CELERY in my vegan stir fry noodles. Yes, it adds a ton of flavour!

SUBSTITUTION for celery : Use your favourite vegetable instead. However, it would also mean removing one of the major flavour contributor.

Vegetables

Use a mix of your favourite stir fry vegetables. Here are some of my favourites – Multi coloured bell peppers/capsicum, snow peas, snap peas, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, mushrooms.

Spices

Keeping it simple with just black pepper powder and chilli flakes/crushed red peppers. We like our stir fry noodles spicy, so we crush spicy dry red Indian chili peppers to make our own chilli flakes.

FAQ

Tips for perfect noodles!

The key to a great noodle dish is cooking the noodle right! The noodles should be chewy and never mushy. Yes, mushy noodles will still taste good, but we all agree texture takes it to the next level.

1. Check package for cooking instructions.
2. Turn off the heat when still al-dente usually around 30 seconds before the end of cooking time.
3. Drain immediately and run cold water over it. It helps to stop further cooking and also removes excess starch.
4. The noodles will cook further when being stir fried in sauce, and I find that following steps 1-3 really help in having perfectly cooked noodles every time!
5. You could also add some tofu into these vegan noodles!

Using a carbon steel wok over high heat and preparing only one serving at a time can help in achieving the smoky flavour expected from a stir fry!

Making ahead

The vegetables and noodles can be prepped ahead and stored in the refrigerator for quick weekday dinners.

Cook noodles al-dente, like mentioned in the tips above. Rinse with cold water, drain and store in the refrierator.

With that prep done, you should easily be able to make this vegan noodles stir fry in less than 10 minutes!

Am sure you will also like these South-East Asian fried rice recipes like vegan lemongrass fried rice and vegan thai basil fried rice!