Quick, easy, light and healthy, this courgette and mushroom stir fry recipe with cashew nuts makes a brilliant easy vegan midweek meal. Just serve with noodles or rice!
This courgette and mushroom stir fry makes a brilliantly simple weeknight meal. It's so quick to make and can be on the table in about 15 minutes. You can eat it as a main meal with rice or noodles if you want a simple super. Alternatively, if you want to make a Chinese feast it can just be a vegetable side dish.
I love cooking stir fries. In fact, I cook stir fries all the time but because of that, I don't usually photograph them and put them on the blog.
What ingredients do you need for this courgette stir fry?
To make this stir fry you'll need courgette, mushrooms, onion, ginger, garlic, a chilli pepper, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, vegetable stock, cornflour and cashew nuts.
I also love to add a little sesame oil for extra flavour.
The rice wine vinegar is great as it adds a slightly pickled flavour and goes really well with the courgettes in this particular stir fry.
Why add the cornflour?
Cornflour is a great ingredient to use to thicken stir fry sauces. I like to have enough sauce with my stir fry to really flavour the rice too and a thicker sauce definitely coats everything better.
Make sure you dissolve the cornflour in cold water before adding to the stir fry though. If you add it to hot water it will just clump together.
Can you adapt this Stir Fry Recipe?
Stir fries are very easy to adapt. I love making them to use up whatever is in my fridge.
Why not use the same sauce but add some extra vegetables such as baby corn, mange tout or tenderstem broccoli?
If you don't want too much heat then leave out the chilli pepper or take the seeds out. If you want it to be hotter then add an extra chilli pepper.
How to stop a stir fry from being too salty
I find that Chinese stir fries can be a bit salty because of the soy sauce so using a thickener like cornflour and water helps make the sauce go further and also stops it from being too salty. Because of the strong flavours in the soy sauce (and fresh ginger!) it is still very tasty and certainly doesn't taste watered down.
What can you do with the leftover stir fry?
Just store it in the fridge for up to three days. I usually reheat it in the microwave but you can reheat it in the oven or even just stir fry it again. You may need to add a splash of water if you stir fry it again though.
The leftovers are even great cold in a packed lunch.
Tips for cooking stir Fries
Always make sure you have all the ingredients ready and chopped up before you start. Stir fries are cooked really quickly so you won't have time for chopping once you start cooking.
Be careful toasting the cashew nuts too. They can go from golden brown to burnt very quickly!
Recipe
Courgette and Mushroom Stir Fry
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon cashew nuts
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 courgette (zuchini) cut into strips or slices
- 7 mushrooms sliced
- 1 onion cut into slices
- 1 chilli pepper thinly sliced
- 1 tsbp ginger grated
- 1 clove garlic finely sliced
- 1-2 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 100 ml vegetable stock
- 1 teaspoon cornflour dissolved in 1 tablespoon cold water
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil optional
Instructions
- In a dry frying pan toast the cashew nuts until they begin to brown. Set aside.
- Heat a little oil in a wok. Add all the vegetables and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and stock. Bring up to the boil and then stir in the cornflour too. Let it bubble and thicken for about a minute.
- Stir in the cashew nuts and serve with rice or noodles. Drizzle a little sesame oil over the top (optional)
Video
Notes
Nutrition
More Easy Vegan Recipes
If you liked this recipe then why not try one of these:
- Butternut Squash and Chickpea Curry
- Olive and Dukkah Pasta
- Chilli and Black Pepper Tofu
- Aubergine in chilli bean paste
Keep in touch
Do let me know if you make this courgette and mushroom stir fry or any of my other recipes. I love to get feedback from readers.
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Anonymous
Brilliant, esp. with the cashews.
Corina Blum
Thank you! I'm so happy you like it.
Kat (The Baking Explorer)
This looks so tasty, I love mushrooms in stir frys
Corina Blum
so do I! I'm a real fan of mushrooms but don't use them as often as I would like to as the kids don't like them.
Donna
Lot's of my favourite ingredients in this, sounds and looks lovely!
Corina Blum
Thanks so much Donna! I'm really pleased you like it.
Cat | Curly's Cooking
I love how quick and easily stir fries are. I really like stir fried courgettes and the idea of putting cashews on top for some crunch is great. Thanks for linking to #CookBlogShare.
Corina Blum
Thanks Cat! I love cashews at the moment and keep using them on lots of recipes like this as well as salads and just for snacks!
Magdalena Marsden
What a great combination of courgette and mushrooms. We often forage for our own mushrooms, so it's good to have different recipes for them. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Corina Blum
I'm so pleased you like it Magdalena. I would love to forage for mushrooms but I'm always afraid I might pick wrong ones by accident!
Sanctified Brother
I never heard squash/zucchini called courgette before. Interesting name!
We make a lot of stir frys at home, too. I'd love to put cashews in, however my son has a nut allergy. I can only cook like that when he's away from home for an extended period.
Your dish looks very tasty. Great presentation!