Quick Stir-Fried Noodles with Vegetables, Tofu and Peanut Sauce
We all know these situations: It's 7:30 PM, you come home and your stomach's already growling so loud that you can't hear your own thoughts. Or: You're working from home, lunch break starts and the clock's already ticking until you need to be back at your laptop, well-fed and satisfied. Or: Friends spontaneously announce they're coming over for dinner because they're in the neighborhood anyway and will be there soon. Or: You just don't feel like spending ages in the kitchen today (yep, we know that feeling just as well). For all these (and many more) moments, you need a few recipes in the back of your mind that are quick, delicious, and really satisfying.
In my case, it's often potatoes with quark (surprise!), noodles with a spread-becomes-sauce situation, a classic bread meal, or today's recipe: quick stir-fried noodles. This dish is designed so that the fresh ingredients can either be cut quickly, grated directly, or torn apart with your hands. The hot cooking water gets double duty for frozen vegetables and noodles, plus there's a sauce that just needs to be quickly whisked together. And boom, everything's on the table in 25 minutes.
To help you succeed with other recipes and the rest of the week, here are a few tips for that.
5 Tips for Cooking More Efficiently and Faster in Everyday Life
Mise en Place: Weigh, measure, and cut all ingredients beforehand and arrange them so you can quickly access them while cooking
Read recipes completely beforehand: Helps you get a basic understanding of the recipe, but also to spot potential moments where you can work parallel to cooking, resting, or baking time (for example, use the rice cooking time to prepare the sauce)
Kitchen appliances are your friends: You have a food processor that's gathering dust because you don't feel like cleaning it? Trust us, it'll only take a fraction of the time you'd otherwise spend cutting vegetables by hand
Think about tomorrow today: When possible, prepare things for several days ahead by, for example, making double the amount of dressing or cutting the whole cucumber even though you only need half for your salad. Well-stored in the fridge, you'll be grateful the next day that you can skip this step
Nothing gets thrown away: Leftover cooking is the best cooking! Yesterday's leftovers can often be reheated quickly and transformed into a new dish with a few extra ingredients
Ingredients That Are Great for Quick Cooking
- vegetables with short cooking times, such as bok choy, spinach, pointed cabbage, broccolini, carrots, snap peas, leeks, zucchini, or bell peppers
- frozen and canned alternatives for vegetables and legumes
- grains like 2-minute polenta, couscous, Asian noodles, and there are quick-cooking rice varieties too
- (smoked) tofu, tempeh, and of course ready-made vegan meat alternatives for frying
- nut butters, nutritional yeast, and miso paste as quick flavor boosters
- tortillas and wraps
- curry pastes
- and yes, ingredients like ready-made sauces are allowed too (hello pesto!)
More 20- and 30-Minute Recipes
Since we've already established that there are enough situations where you have little time to cook, our vegan 20-minute meals and 30-minute recipes come just in time. Feel free to browse through our ideas.
Quick Stir-Fried Noodles with Vegetables, Tofu and Peanut Sauce
Ingredients
For the stir-fried noodles:
- 100 g (3.5 oz) frozen edamame
- 150 g (5.25 oz) ramen noodles (or other noodles)
- 2 bok choy
- 2 scallions
- 125 g (4.5 oz) pointed cabbage
- 200 g (7 oz) smoked tofu
- 15 g (0.5 oz) ginger
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- peanut oil for frying
For the sauce:
- 4 tbsp (0.25 cup) peanut butter
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 1.5 tbsp roasted sesame oil
- 1.5 tsp agave syrup
- 1 lime (juice)
- water for thinning
For the toppings:
- chili crisp
- cilantro
- sesame seeds
- lime
- peanuts
Instructions
- Fill a pot with water and bring to a boil. First, let the frozen edamame simmer in it for approximately 2 minutes. Then add the ramen noodles and leave them in the hot water for another 2 minutes. Then drain and rinse with cold water.
Tip: Follow the preparation instructions on the respective noodle packages, but reduce the cooking time by 2 minutes so they don't become too soft later in the pan.
While the water's heating up and the edamame and noodles are cooking, it's time for cutting. Cut bok choy, scallions, and pointed cabbage into thin strips. Set the green parts of the scallions and bok choy aside separately. Crumble the smoked tofu with your hands.
Heat peanut oil in a pan. First add the smoked tofu to the pan and grate in the ginger and garlic clove. Fry everything on high heat for 3–4 minutes until the tofu is browned. Add a splash of soy sauce and the remaining cut vegetables, but don't use the green parts of the bok choy and scallions yet. Fry on high heat for 3–4 minutes.
During the frying time, combine peanut butter, soy sauce, roasted sesame oil, agave syrup, and lime juice for the sauce and add enough water until a creamy sauce forms.
Add the pre-cooked noodles and edamame to the pan with the tofu and vegetables and pour the sauce over everything. Heat everything together for another 2–3 minutes.
Top the stir-fried noodles as desired with chili crisp, cilantro, sesame seeds, lime juice, and chopped peanuts.
