A rainbow of colors make these kung pao vegetables as nourishing as they are delicious! Ladle the veggies and the spicy-savory-sweet sauce over rice for a yummy Chinese meal that is ready in under 30 minutes.
These kung pao vegetables are a weeknight-friendly recipe. They come together so quickly and they make an easy but nutritious meal everyone will love.
If you love spicy, savory Chinese inspired dishes like chilli tofu and veg manchurian, this is a recipe right up your alley! Colorful bell peppers, cabbage, broccoli, mushrooms, carrots, and scallions are steeped in an easy sauce that literally explodes with a combination of umami, spicy, sweet, and tangy flavors. Peanuts add a gorgeous crunch.
The kung pao is a spicy dish, and that's part of its charm. Also the spiciness is tamped down and complemented by the sweet and tangy flavors in the sauce.
Table of Contents
Why you will love this kung pao vegetables recipe
- Simple but delicious. This recipe takes under 30 minutes to make (depending on your knife skills) but it is one tasty dish. The ingredients build so much flavor and there is a ton of texture from the vegetables and the peanuts.
- Family-friendly. You can cook up this dish in less time than it takes to order takeout, and you know exactly what went into it. That's the kind of food I love serving my family.
- Loaded with vegetables: I love just how many veggies I can pack into this dish, and you can get creative with it! You can easily change up the veggies: use green beans or corn or eggplant or water chestnuts or cauliflower. If you don't have one veggie or the other leave it out.
- Gluten-free and vegan recipe. Can be nut-free. Check section on tweaks for special diets below.
Ingredients
- Vegetables: onions, carrots, cremini mushrooms, broccoli, bell peppers of any color, purple or green cabbage, celery and scallions or green onions.
- Spices: dried red chili peppers or red pepper flakes, ginger garlic paste, Sriracha or other hot sauce and green chili peppers (optional).
- Cornstarch. This is for the slurry that thickens the sauce.
- Peanuts. Can use cashew nuts. The nuts add great crunch and texture.
- Vegetable stock or mushroom stock
- Rice vinegar. Can use apple cider vinegar.
- Maple syrup. Can use sugar
How to make kung pao vegetables
In a bowl, mix the mushroom stock with soy sauce, maple syrup, sriracha sauce and rice vinegar. Add chopped green chilies to the bowl too, if using.
In another small bowl, make a slurry by mixing cornstarch with ¼ cup water. Mix the cornstarch into the water until no lumps remain.
In a wok heat a tablespoon of sesame oil over high heat. Stir in the broken red chili peppers and the ginger garlic paste and saute for a minute until the ginger and garlic are very aromatic and don't smell raw. Keep stirring the ingredients in the wok so they don't burn.
Add all the vegetables to the wok: bell peppers, broccoli, purple cabbage, mushrooms and carrots. Continue to stir-fry over high heat for 2-3 minutes or until the veggies are beginning to get tender.
Stir in the prepared sauce and mix well. Bring the sauce to a boil, then add the cornstarch slurry to the wok and mix well.
When the sauce returns to a boil it will thicken up and become more translucent. At this time stir in the peanuts and check if you need more salt.
Stir in the scallions. Turn off heat and serve the kung pao vegetables hot or warm.
Top Tip
When making Chinese recipes, it is important to prepare your mise en place: in other words, get all ingredients, including the veggies, the cornstarch slurry and the sauce mixture, ready, prepped and mixed before you start cooking. This is important because Chinese stir-fry recipes are cooked over high heat. If you try to cook and prep simultaneously you could overcook or burn the food.
Tweaks for special diets
- Soy-free: Use no-soy tamari or coconut aminos or another soy sauce substitute.
- Nut-free: The peanuts add lots of texture. If you cannot use them but can use other nuts, use raw cashews. Otherwise add 1 cup frozen edamame or corn.
- Low-carb: If you are low-carb, skip the carrots and use another lower-carb veggie, like green beans. You can replace the maple syrup in the sauce with stevia and use tapioca starch instead of corn starch for the slurry.
Serving suggestions
- Over brown rice or white rice.
- Over a bed of quinoa.
- With avocados. The creamy avocados go nicely with the spicy kung pao vegetables.
Storage instructions
- Refrigerate: Store the kung pao veggies in an airtight container in the fridge for up to four days.
- Freeze: Freeze in a freezer-safe container for up to three months.
- Reheat: Reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop until warmed through.
More vegan Indo-Chinese recipes
Kung Pao Vegetables
Equipment
- Two small bowls
- Wok or large skillet
Ingredients
For sauce
- 1 cup mushroom stock (or vegetable stock)
- ¼ cup soy sauce (or tamari. See section on special diets for substitutions to make this dish soy-free)
- 2 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoon maple syrup (or sugar)
- 1 -2 teaspoon Sriracha (or any hot chili sauce)
- 2-3 green chili peppers (optional, and only if you like a lot of heat)
For cornstarch slurry
- 2 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with ¼ cup water
- ¼ cup water
Other ingredients
- ¼ cup peanuts (toasted lightly on a skillet then coarsely chopped)
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 2-3 red chili peppers (broken into 1-inch pieces)
- 2 heaping teaspoons ginger garlic paste
- 1 red onion (diced)
- 1 carrot (cut in thin discs)
- 10 cremini mushrooms (or button mushrooms. Cut the mushrooms in halves or quarters depending on size).
- 1 small head broccoli (Separated into florets. Peel any larger stems and cut them into discs.)
- 2 bell peppers (any color, diced)
- 2 stalks celery (thinly sliced)
- 1 cup cabbage (purple or green, shredded)
- 4-5 scallions (chopped)
- Salt to taste
Instructions
- In a bowl, mix the mushroom stock with soy sauce, maple syrup, sriracha sauce and rice vinegar. Add chopped green chilies to the bowl too, if using.
- In another small bowl, make a slurry by mixing cornstarch with ¼ cup water. Mix the cornstarch into the water until no lumps remain.
- In a wok heat a tablespoon of sesame oil over high heat. Stir in the broken red chili peppers and the ginger garlic paste and saute for a minute until the ginger and garlic are very aromatic and don't smell raw. Keep stirring the ingredients in the wok so they don't burn.
- Add all the vegetables to the wok: bell peppers, broccoli, purple cabbage, mushrooms and carrots. Continue to stir-fry over high heat for 2-3 minutes or until the veggies are beginning to get tender.
- Stir in the prepared sauce and mix well. Bring the sauce to a boil, then add the cornstarch slurry to the wok and mix well.
- When the sauce returns to a boil it will thicken up and become more translucent. At this time stir in the peanuts and check if you need more salt.
- Stir in the scallions. Turn off heat and serve the kung pao vegetables hot or warm.
Daniel H.
Hi Vaishali, I made the recipe and really loved the selection of vegetables and the flavor of the sauce. However, I did think the volume of sauce was too much, given how much liquid is released from the vegetables during cooking. So I’m going to try the recipe again with one cup of vegetable broth instead of two and see how that works. But again, really nice recipe!
Vaishali
Hi Daniel, thanks for the feedback and so happy you loved the kung pao. You can definitely adjust the quantity of the sauce down to your preference!
Samaira
Hello Vaishali,
We follow your recipes a lot. But, in this particular recipe, you said to cut the carrots small, but they are so quick to cook. Did you mean cut the cattors big size?
Vaishali
Hi, I think carrots take a little longer than other veggies like, say, peppers, or broccoli, so I'd advise cutting them fairly small so they cook at the same time as the other veggies. 🙂
Harj
YUM! I made this for dinner yesterday and it's DELICIOUS! First time I've made Chinese food that I actually want to eat...thanks for the great recipe Vaishali! Also, do you take requests? 🙂 If yes, then I would like to request hot and sour soup please 🙂
Indigo
WOW! ! I was looking for a simple either Pad Thai or Kung Pao recipe for dinner and I am completely blown away by this fabulous recipe!! LOVE IT!!!
Gita
Happy Thanksgiving Vaishali...kung pao looks delicious 🙂
Parita
Vegetable Kung Pao looks so inviting, love the choice of veggies vaishali!
Uma
that's a delicious dish Vaishali! looks so nice.
Cham
My son is great fan of non veg version! I will try this one too tasty!
Zengirl
I love indo-chinese food, this is great! Wishing you and other happy thanksgiving!
We are having small gathering and doing Vegan feast.
Priya
Wow such a delectable dish..love this..
Pavani
Happy Thanksgiving to you too Vaishali. Veggie Kung Pao looks yumm.. Adding seitan or tofu would be a great addition too.
nithya at hungrydesi
I love Kung Pao - this sounds great. The crunchiness of the celery and peanuts is amazing!