Vegetables in hot garlic sauce is a delicious vegan Chinese-style vegetables recipe, perfect to be served with any Asian noodle or rice dish. The combination of crunchy vegetables in a delicious hot and sweet garlicky sauce makes it irresistible.
If you love Asian food but want to avoid greasy unhealthy takeouts, then today's recipe- Chinese vegetables in hot garlic sauce is a recipe that you must try making at home.
This vegan Asian dish is very easy to make, gets ready in less than 30 minutes, and is loved by everyone.
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What's needed to make vegetables in garlic sauce?
To make veggies in garlic sauce, you will need the ingredients shown below:
Ingredient notes and substitute suggestions
- Vegetables: I have used broccoli, bell peppers, carrot, French beans, baby corn, and mushrooms. You may add or skip vegetables to suit your taste. Some other vegetables that go well in this dish are snow peas, cauliflower, zucchini, etc. Ingredients like tofu can also be added to it.
- Sugar: I have used brown sugar but you can also use palm sugar or regular white sugar. Adding sweetener helps in balancing the heat of the dish, if you don't like slight sweetness in your savory dishes, skip it.
- Dried red chili: Any variety of dried red chili can be used.
How to make (step by step instructions)
Step 1: In a bowl mix soy sauce, red chili sauce, vinegar, and brown sugar. Keep the sauce mix aside.
Step 2: Heat some vegetable oil in a large wok or cooking pot. Add chopped vegetables and saute for around 5-6 minutes on high flame. The vegetables should be cooked but stay crunchy.
Step 3: Take out the vegetables on a plate and keep them aside.
Step 4: In the same wok, heat sesame oil. Add chopped garlic, ginger, the white part of spring onion, and dried red chilies. Saute for about a minute.
Step 5: Add diced onion and cook until it becomes translucent.
Step 6: Add chili flakes and saute for a few seconds.
Step 7: Add sauce mix and cook for around 30 seconds.
Step 8: Next, add water and allow it to boil.
Step 9: While the water is boiling, make a corn starch slurry by mixing corn starch with some water at room temperature.
Step 10: Add corn starch slurry to the boiling sauce and stir continuously for about a minute. Cook until the sauce thickens.
Step 11: Add sauteed vegetables and cook for 1-2 minutes.
Step 12: Garnish with chopped spring onion greens.
Your delicious Chinese vegetable curry is ready to be enjoyed.
Serving tips
This Asian style mixed vegetable curry goes well with almost every Asian rice or noodle dish.
Whether you serve it with plain steamed jasmine rice, corn fried rice, mushroom rice, or a noodle dish like chili garlic noodles, veg chow mein, or mushroom noodles, this dish tastes amazing.
How to store?
To store, allow the dish to reach room temperature and then transfer to an airtight container. Refrigerate for 3-4 days.
Gluten-free tips
To make a gluten-free version of this recipe, just replace soy sauce with tamari and make sure to use a gluten-free variety of red chili sauce.
All the other ingredients used in the recipe are gluten-free.
Recipe tips and tricks
- Chop all the vegetables into equal bite-size pieces.
- Don't overcook the vegetables, they should be cooked but stay crunchy.
- Stir fry the vegetables on high flame in a large wok. If you cook them on a low flame or in a small pan in which they can't be stirred properly, they won't remain crunchy.
- Since most of the cooking is done on high flame, keep the ingredients ready before starting the cooking process.
- After adding corn starch slurry, don't stop stirring for at least 1-2 minutes to avoid lump formation in the sauce.
- Adjust the amount of chili sauce and chili flakes depending on your heat tolerance. Remember, black pepper and ginger will also add some heat to the dish.
- You can also enjoy this dish in a drier form like stir-fried Chinese vegetables. For that, add only around ¼ cup of water instead of 3.
- For extra flavor, feel free to use mushroom stock or vegetable stock instead of water.
Frequently asked questions
No, this dish doesn't freeze well. The frozen vegetables will turn soft on getting thawed and we want crunchy vegetables in it.
No, it has a medium heat level. You can make it more or less spicy by adjusting the quantity of chili sauce and chili flakes.
Regular sesame oil is used for cooking as it has a high smoking point. So, in this recipe, since we are using it for sauteeing ginger-garlic, use regular not the toasted one.
Toasted sesame oil is drizzled on a lot of Asian dishes to add a nutty flavor which makes them taste even better. If you wish, you can drizzle a little on this dish also but don't use it for cooking as it may turn slightly bitter on getting reheated for a longer time.
More Chinese recipes with vegetables
If you liked this recipe and looking for more Chinese recipes made with vegetables then don't miss checking the following links:
- Kung pao noodles with charred broccoli
- Kung pao cauliflower
- Broccoli in garlic sauce
- Vegan tofu noodle soup
- Eggplant in garlic sauce
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Recipe
Vegetables in hot garlic sauce (Chinese style)
Equipment
- Wok/ cooking pot
Ingredients
Vegetables (around 4 cups)
- 1 small onion diced
- 5-6 button mushrooms diced
- 5-6 baby corns diced
- 5-6 French beans diced
- 1.5 cups diced bell peppers
- ½ cup diced carrot
- 1 cup broccoli florets
Sauce
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon red chili sauce adjust to taste
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar adjust to taste
Other ingredients
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger
- 2 stalks spring onion or scallion finely chopped, keep the white and green part separated.
- 2-3 whole dried red chilies
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2.5 tablespoons corn starch adjust to get the desired consistency
- 1 teaspoon red chili flakes adjust to taste
- Ground black pepper to taste
- Salt to taste
- 3 cups water or as required to get the desired consistency
Instructions
- Heat vegetable oil in a wok or large cooking pot. Add chopped vegetables and saute on high flame for 5-6 minutes. The vegetables should be cooked but remain crunchy.
- Take out the vegetables on a plate and keep them aside.
- In a bowl, mix soy sauce, chili sauce, vinegar, and brown sugar. Keep the sauce mix aside.
- Heat sesame oil in a wok. Add chopped garlic, ginger, the white part of spring onion, and dried red chilies. Saute for about a minute.
- Add diced onion and saute until it becomes translucent.
- Add chili flakes and saute for a few seconds.
- Next, add the sauce mix and cook for about 30 seconds.
- Add water and let it boil.
- While the sauce is boiling, mix corn starch and some water in a small bowl. Add this corn starch slurry to the boiling sauce.
- Stir continuously and cook until the sauce thickens.
- Add sauteed vegetables and mix. Cook for about 1 -2 minutes and then switch off the stove.
- Garnish with chopped spring onion greens.
Notes
- Chop all the vegetables into equal bite-size pieces.
- Don't overcook the vegetables, they should be cooked but stay crunchy.
- Stir fry the vegetables on high flame in a large wok. If you cook them on low flame or in a small pan in which they can't be stirred properly, they won't remain crunchy.
- Since most of the cooking is done on high flame, keep the ingredients ready before starting the cooking process.
- After adding corn starch slurry, don't stop stirring for at least 1-2 minutes to avoid lump formation in the sauce.
- Adjust the amount of chili sauce and chili flakes depending on your heat tolerance.
- More recipe tips and tricks are given within the post above. Please follow them to make this recipe.
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