Vegetable Udon Noodle Stir Fry

We can’t get Japanese takeout where I live now – even the ingredients to make it at home have only become more available in that last couple of years – but this simple udon noodle stir fry is a weeknight dinner mainstay for us.

Loaded with vegetables, it’s a kind of Yaki udon, but with oyster mushrooms acting as a meat sub. There are a hundred types of Yaki udon, of course, since it’s just fried noodles, and it’s a great quick meal.

I used to get packages of fresh udon noodles as a treat when I was a kid, and make a kind of soup with powdered broth and these fresh noodles. It was my absolute favourite and this is my adult equivalent of that same meal (with a lot more vegetables for my aging bod).

This can be even easier if you use fresh udon noodles – see notes below for more on that.

The recipe card states that this is 20 minutes total, but since you can cook and prep the vegetables to go into the pan at the same time, it’s more like 15 minutes. If you have a hard time with multitasking while cooking, allow for a little longer.

Ingredients

• Mushrooms: oyster mushrooms are the best here, with an excellent meaty texture.
• Onion: red or white, it doesn’t matter. Tennis ball sized or smaller.
• Carrots: either slice on an angle, as pictured, or julienne the carrots.
• Zucchini: the one pictured is a bit big, and I only used half.
• Red Pepper: a pointed pepper as pictured or a capsicum/bell pepper.
• Garlic: thinly sliced – mince if you prefer a more subtle garlic flavour.
• Ginger: as with the garlic, the ginger can be finely grated if you don’t want to come across pieces of it in the stir fry (though the pops of spicy sliced ginger is kind of the point).
• Coconut Aminos: or sub soya sauce, see below for more on that.
• Lime: this is an important acidic element, and the stir fry will taste flat without it.
• Udon Noodles: dried are used, and every brand requires a slightly different cooking time, so check the package.
• Cashews: a nod toward added protein and healthy fat, this is really more for texture. Toast the cashews if you want a slightly smokey flavour.

Step by Step

Notes and Substitutions

The most important thing for this recipe is to be sure that the mushrooms are seared, not steamed. High heat, little to no stirring. Oyster mushrooms don’t contain as much water as some other varieties and have a great texture, but they can be more expensive, so use button mushrooms as a substitute.

If you want to use fresh noodles, simply stir them directly into the pan with the garlic and ginger and cook for a couple minutes. If you want to go all homemade, make your own udon noodles or try Chinese egg noodles. Rice noodles can be substituted.

Change up the vegetables based on what you prefer and have on hand. Broccoli, sweet potato, kohlrabi – all good here. Frozen can be used too.

If you eat it, soya sauce can be subbed for the coconut aminos. It usually has a stronger flavour and higher salt content, so it may need to be reduced slightly.

Use lemon in place of lime in a pinch. Leave the cashews out if you don’t like them, or sub something like peanuts.

There is no salt added to the recipe because the coconut aminos add seasoning. I recommend tasting and seasoning after cooking if needed, or you’re at high risk of over-salting.

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