Stir-fry Vegetables! How do you do that then?

What’s better than stir-fry vegetables! Nice and fresh and you can put various vegetables together in the frying pan or wok to stir-fry. Of course, you can also put one type of vegetable in the frying pan for stir-frying. The great thing about stir-frying is that it can also be ready quite quickly, but you can also make it a whole happening. Just what you feel like. The big question is, of course, ‘How should you stir-fry vegetables. That will be explained to you here in this blog.

Heat the wok and add oil. Add spices and stir fry for a while. Put vegetables in the pan, then you can stir-fry them (with or without sauce) until they are cooked. Add spices and keep stirring. Add salt and pepper.  

Stir-fry vegetables have little taste of their own and must be seasoned, read our blog tasty herbs for stir-fry vegetables for Italian, Chinese and Dutch stir-fried vegetables. Of course, there are several ways to stir-fry. They are all covered in this blog. We start with…

What Is Stir Fry?

Stir-frying is done in a frying pan or wok. You add small chopped vegetables (alone or with several vegetables) in a frying pan in which some vegetable oil or butter has been heated. You can also fry some spices such as ginger or garlic before adding the vegetables.

Stir the vegetables until they are cooked. You can also add other seasonings during the stir-fry, such as a little stock, wine or sauce, to let the vegetables stew or simmer for a while. Flavors can then infuse wonderfully into the vegetables. Stick with it and stir-fry over and over. It can burn otherwise. 

Which Vegetable Stir Fry

There are few vegetables that you cannot stir-fry. Some vegetables shrink much more than others and there are vegetables that you only need to stir-fry very briefly because they lose flavor or their firmness, for example. Read here how it works: Which vegetables can you stir fry ‘how’.

• Leafy vegetables such as endive, kale, pointed cabbage, Chinese cabbage, spinach and leeks. You have to wash these well. After draining, cut this leafy vegetable into strips or bars, just what you want (not with spinach). You put these leafy vegetables in the frying pan, hand by hand. You wait until part of it has shrunk and then add a handful of vegetables. The stir-fry time is not that long. After the vegetables have shrunk, you can start seasoning. Add salt or pepper and taste what you think of your creation.

• Cabbage varieties such as cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and broccoli.  Wash the vegetables and let them drain. Do not cut the florets of the cauliflower and broccoli too large. You can also pre-cook it if you want large pieces. Brussels sprouts are cut in half for stir-frying. Put oil in the pan, heat it up and add one of the cabbages. Stir fry until they are cooked. After about 7 to 10 minutes they are ready. Try to see if that is the case for you too. You can eat these types of cabbage raw, al dente and really cooked. Just what you like! Here too the following applies: tasty herbs or stir-fry in a little stock.

• Onion types such as red onion, white onion, spring onion and all other types of onions.  You can stir fry well. You often put the onion in the pan first and stir fry it until translucent. About 4 minutes they are glassy and you can add other vegetables. Except the spring onions! You only add this last to a stir-fry dish. Otherwise you won’t taste it anymore and that would be a shame. Baking for 2 minutes is sufficient. Our blog about types of onions gives a complete picture of all onions in the Netherlands and what you can use them for

• Fruiting vegetables such as bell pepper, tomato, pepper, eggplant, zucchini, pumpkin.  You can stir-fry these vegetables. Often they are baked with other vegetables, spices and seasonings. The tomato is added last to the other vegetables because it will become puree if you really stir-fry it, but that is usually the intention. You get a tomato paste in which you can stir-fried.

• Sprouting vegetables such as bean sprouts, chickpea sprouts and sunflower sprouts are good for stir-frying. Finally, add to the frying pan for 2 to 3 minutes, stir well through the other stir-fried vegetables, then serve.

• Grain like corn. This can also stir-fry. Canned mini maize (baby maize) is often used for this. Drain well and then in the wok with other stir-fry vegetables. Stir-frying corn is actually done like this. Stir-fry for a few minutes and it’s hot enough to eat.

• Beans such as green beans and kidney beans. You can cut the green beans into 2 centimeters and then just stir-fry alone or with other vegetables in butter or, for example, in soy sauce. They are ready in about 10 minutes. Taste to see if it’s cooked enough for you! Kidney beans are already cooked and canned. You drain the beans in a colander and add the beans to the dish you are stir-frying. Let them heat up, stir and they are ready to eat. Raw beans must first be soaked and cooked overnight before they can be used in a stir-fry dish. Our blog about types of beans tells you exactly which bean you can use for what.

• Roots such as parsnip and winter carrot.  Before you use the roots, you must first delete them. The outer layer should come off the root (or use a vegetable peeler). Now cut the carrot into thin slices and add them to your dish. Usually they are stir-fried together with onion. You can stir-fry for 8 minutes to cook the carrots. Then you can, for example, add a soy sauce and stir-fry the carrots for another 2 minutes. Then they’re done.
• Mushrooms such as (chestnut) mushrooms . You can stir-fry these. Mushrooms, clean with a brush and cut into slices or pieces. Whatever you want or like. You can stir-fry them with other vegetables (usually they are added to the stir-fry after the onion). Mushrooms absorb different flavors from vegetables, seasonings and sauces. So leave it in the vegetable mix or sauce and stir-fry well. The mushrooms are usually completely fried in about 5 minutes, but can be fried longer if there are several vegetables in the pan. Read our blog about cooking mushrooms, a different way of cooking mushrooms.

This is an overview of many vegetables that you can stir-fry. Enough choice I would say! Good luck!