This easy Vegan Stir Fry is loaded with veggies, soy curl “chicken” and the most amazing stir fry sauce made with soy sauce, agave, ginger, garlic and sesame oil! It’s ready in under 30 minutes and the whole family will love it. Make sure to try my Vegan Beef and Broccoli and Easy Drunken Noodles for more quick dinners!
I’m a huge fan of stir fry because it’s a really easy and flexible meal you can make with vegetables, tofu, tempeh, noodles, rice, and so much more. I’ve made Peanut Tempeh Stir Fry and Tofu Veggie Stir Fry before, but this Vegan Stir Fry with soy curls and homemade stir fry sauce is so meaty, filling, and perfectly balanced. Like a chicken stir fry but veganized!
This vegan stir fry checks all of the boxes. It’s:
- Loaded with veggies and a flavorful sauce.
- Swaps chicken for meaty soy curls.
- Made with really simple ingredients.
- The perfect clean-out-your-fridge meal!
This entire easy dinner takes less than 30 minutes to put together. Bites of tenderly cooked vegetables and soy curls tossed in a flavorful sauce are so satisfying. As a bonus, this flexible recipe can be made with almost anything you like!
What are soy curls?
Soy curls are one of the best vegan meat substitutes because they’re made with only one ingredient: whole soybeans! They’re naturally gluten free and vegan, and sold dehydrated so all you have to do is rehydrate them in water or vegetable broth before using them in stir fry’s, sandwiches, kebabs, and more.
You can usually find soy curls for a good price online or at your local health food store. I recommend buying more than one bag so you get a better bang for your buck.
What are the best veggies for stir fry?
Anything you like! I used zucchini, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, and red bell pepper to make this vegetable stir fry but almost any veggie will work. If you’d like, add in snap peas, baby corn, cauliflower, leafy greens, water chestnuts, asparagus, bok choy, or cabbage as well.
To make the meal even easier, purchase pre-chopped veggies. I love using frozen minced ginger and pre-chopped garlic!
How to make easy vegan stir fry
It may seem like there are a lot of steps to this recipe, but the process is quick and simple. You can have this easy weeknight dinner ready in less than 30 minutes! Here’s how it’s done:
- Rehydrate the soy curls in a few cups of water for about 10 minutes. When they’re done, drain the curls well and squeeze out any excess water. Next, make the vegan stir fry sauce by whisking all of the sauce ingredients together in a bowl.
- Sauté the soy curls in a skillet with some broth and chicken seasoning to brown them slightly.
- Transfer the soy curls to a plate nearby.
- Add the veggies to the hot pan and sauté until tender.
- Next, add the ginger and garlic.
- Add the soy curls back to the pan and pour the stir fry sauce over everything and stir. Once the sauce thickens, remove the stir fry from the heat and stir in the cashews. Serve with rice or noodles and your favorite toppings, then enjoy!
Serving suggestions
Complete the meal by serving each bowl of vegan stir fry with noodles, grains, toppings, and tasty side dishes. Use these suggestions to get started:
- Noodles – Toss the stir fry veggies in rice, udon, ramen, soba, or any long pasta noodles.
- Rice – Jasmine, basmati, white, or brown rice can be served underneath or on the side of the stir fry. You can even try my Vegan Fried Rice or Coconut Rice for extra flavor.
- Other grains – Swap the traditional choices for quinoa, farro, or cauliflower rice.
- Toppings – Top each bowl with peanuts, red pepper flakes, sesame seeds, green onion, cashews, hot sauce, lime juice, bean sprouts, red chili peppers, or cilantro.
- Side dishes – Enjoy your stir fry with spring rolls, Thai peanut noodles or golden fried rice on the side.
Variations
- Tofu – If you can’t find soy curls, you can substitute them with extra firm tofu instead. Simply pan-fry, air fry, or bake the tofu cubes first, then add them in with the stir fry veggies at the very end.
- Vegan meat – Marinated tempeh, vegan chicken or any other vegan chicken-like product work in place of the soy curls as well! Or just use all veggies.
- Gluten free – Use gluten free tamari instead of soy sauce.
- Nut free – Omit the cashews/peanuts.
Want more soy curl recipes?
Vegan Stir Fry
Ingredients
For the Stir Fry
- 4 ounces soy curls (half a bag)
- 3 cups water
- 2 1/2 tablespoons Butler Chik-Style Seasoning, optional
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 medium zucchini, sliced and halved or quartered
- 2 cups broccoli florets
- 1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped
- 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped into large chunks
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons fresh minced ginger
- 1/2 cup cashews or peanuts, optional
- chopped green onions
- sesame seeds
For the Stir Fry Sauce
- 1/2 cup vegan no chicken broth or vegetable broth
- 1/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup agave
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
- Prepare soy curls: In a large bowl, add the dehydrated soy curls, then cover with about 3 cups of warm water. Let them rehydrate for about 10 minutes until they have grown in size and softened. Drain in a colander and squeeze any excess water from the pieces.
- Make the sauce: In a medium bowl, whisk together all the sauce ingredients. Set aside.
- In a large sauté pan or wok, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and heat over medium-high heat. Add the soy curls, optional chicken seasoning and stir fry for about 5 minutes. Transfer the cooked soy curls to a plate nearby.
- To the pan, add an additional tablespoon of olive oil, then the onion, zucchini, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms and red bell pepper. Stir often for 2-3 minutes until crisp tender.
- Add the garlic and ginger, and cook for another minute, stirring.
- Add the soy curls back to the pan. Whisk the stir fry sauce one last time and pour over the soy curls and vegetables. Stir to combine; the sauce will thicken a bit.
- Once the sauce thickens, remove the pan from heat. Stir in the cashews or peanuts, if using. Serve over rice or noodles with chopped green onions, sesame seeds and hot sauce, if desired. Enjoy!
Notes
-
If you don’t like soy curls or don’t have them, you can substitute tofu instead. Simply fry it in a pan first, bake it or air fry, then add in at the very end. You can also just use more veggies, tempeh or vegan chicken.
- The Chik-Style seasoning is totally optional, but so good. It gives the soy curls a lot of flavor.
-
Make it gluten free by using gluten free tamari.
-
Nut free? Leave out the cashews/peanuts.
Wow Nora!! So easy, fast and delicious!! It tasted just like takeout! Thanks for another great recipe to add to the rotation for busy weeknights!!
You are welcome, Karen! I”m so happy that my recipes are helping you plan and serve delicious weeknight meals. That can be a challenge! I sure appreciate your wonderful review and feedback! Thank you, and happy cooking!
What r the measurements for the butter seasoning?
I’m not sure I understand the question. There is no butter seasoning? Do you mean Butler’s Chik-Style Seasoning? It’s listed in the ingredients and calls for 2 1/2 tablespoons.
What would be a substitute for Butler Chik-Style Seasoning? Can’t find it in Ireland or the UK? And, I’d really LIKE to have that flavour!
thank you
You make your own seasoning mix using the seasonings listed in the ingredients of the Chik-Style Seasoning instead (salt, onion powder, garlic powder, celery seed, turmeric, dried basil, and cayenne). Hope this helps!
Delicious!!!! One of the best sweeter stir fry sauces.
This was my first time cooking with soy curls, and it turned out great! Thanks for another amazing recipe, Nora!
Hi Christina. You are welcome! I’m glad you liked the soy curls and the stir fry! Thank you for using my recipes! I appreciate your wonderful feedback!
i made this for dinner tonight and it was super good!!! i used snap peas instead of mushrooms and no nuts. this would definitely be a good addition to the weekly rotation!
I’ve been looking for a really good stir fry sauce and finally found it. The flavors are perfectly balanced and so delicious. Thank you for another wonderful recipe!
Wonderful stir fry recipe Nora! I used your vegan chicken as I didn’t have soy curls on hand and everything went to together so well. The sauce is simply the perfect blend.
Thanks again Nora for all your hard work and sharing your talent with us!
Hi Shar. Your kind words are encouraging and mean a lot to me! Thank you for your fabulous review and feedback! Wishing you lots of happy cooking!
Going to try this one this week… I know that this would make it not vegan, but could I sub honey for the agave? I feel like maple syrup would change the flavor quite a bit… any other suggestions? maybe just regular sugar or brown sugar?
Regular or brown sugar would work, maple syrup honestly works well.
Another great recipe. I don’t know what we would be eating without your recipes. You make vegan cooking easy and delicious.
Thank you so much Cheryl, I’m glad I help keep you fed. 🙂 I’m glad you enjoy the recipes here!
I love the sound of your recipes and the accompanying pictures and would love to make them but we do not use oil ? Have you ever considered eliminating oil from some of your recipes or telling us what to sub for the flavor? I normally just eliminate the oil from the recipes when sautéing but not sure what to do about sesame oil. Thanks!
I have an Oil Free Recipes section you should check out. Often, you can just use water or broth when sautéing, and something like sesame oil you can just omit. It adds great flavor but the stir fry will be perfectly tasty without it. I don’t know of a substitute that would add the exact same flavor.