Vegan Chop Suey

Our Vegan Chop Suey is the perfect meal when you feel like eating something flavourful, easy to make, and packed full of veggies. This American-Chinese stir fry is made with a delicious sauce that will leave you craving for more.

I love Chinese takeout but in Spain, it tends to be really greasy and unhealthy when we get it from a Chinese Restaurant. Cooking this type of food at home is the best option to satisfy your cravings plus eating something much healthier and even tastier.

Chop suey is a great stir fry as there are no specific rules you need to follow when it comes to choosing your ingredients. You can make a delicious Chop Suey using what you have on hand, adding a protein such as tofu or tempeh, and making an umami-packed Chop Suey stir-fry sauce.

Our Veggie Chop Suey is:

• Vegan
• Asian-style
• Easy to make
• Quick to prepare
• Umami-packed
• Family-friendly
• Main dish

What is Chop Suey

Chop Suey is an American-Chinese dish made with stir-fried vegetables, protein, and a thick flavourful sauce. Normally served on steamed rice or chow mein noodles.

Our recipe for Chop Suey is a vegan version of the classic American-Chinese Chop Suey dish.

For our Vegan Chop Suey Recipe, we use crunchy veggies such as carrot, red pepper, and broccoli, fried tofu and mushrooms for protein, and a stir-fry sauce made with soy sauce (light and dark), plant-based oyster sauce, rice vinegar, maple syrup, and white pepper.

How to cook Veggie Chop Suey

This American Chinese dish is simple to cook, using ingredients that you most likely already have at home and following a few simple steps.

Ingredients for Vegetarian Chop Suey

Garlic and Ginger. All our stir-fries start with garlic and ginger. For this veg Chop Suey, we cut our garlic and ginger into small slices.

Fresh Veggies. For vegetables, we use onion, broccoli, red bell peppers, carrots, and mushrooms. You can add tons of veggies such as green beans, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, snow peas, cabbage, shiitake mushrooms, green bell pepper, baby corn, celery, etc. Add whatever you have in your fridge that needs to be cooked!

Tofu. When it comes to stir-fries, tofu puffs is our favorite protein. For this dish, we use fried tofu to create these tofu puffs. You can coat the tofu with cornflour as we do for our cashew and tofu stir fry or simply fry the tofu as it is as we did for this recipe. Use fresh tofu to get the best results when frying it. An alternative to tofu would be soy curls or tempeh.

Diluted cornflour. To thicken the sauce you can use different ingredients such as cornflour or corn starch, potato flour, or regular flour. We like using cornflour as we always have it in our pantry. It's important to dilute this ingredient in water or vegetable stock before adding it to the stir fry to avoid creating gelatinous lumps. You want a rich think sauce but with no lumps.

Chop Suey Sauce

Our sauce for this recipe is a combination of soy sauce, dark soy sauce, maple syrup, rice vinegar, white pepper, and vegan oyster sauce.

We like combining light and dark soy sauce as you get the saltiness from one and the sweetness and color from the other.

For sweeteners, we use maple syrup but you can use sugar as well.

What can you use if you don't have Vegan Oyster Sauce? This may be a bit difficult to get but if you have an Asian supermarket nearby, they will most likely have a vegetarian oyster sauce made with mushrooms or you can find it online. You can use mushroom powder as well or simply skip this ingredient.

Step-by-Step Recipe

When making a stir fry, the best thing you can do is to prepare all your ingredients before you start cooking. For this vegan Chop Suey, chop all your veggies, fry the tofu, prepare the sauce by combining all the ingredients, finely slice some garlic and ginger, and dilute the cornflour in water.

When all your ingredients are ready to go, it's time to get cooking.

1. Using a wok or large frying pan heat some coconut oil or other vegetable oil and sauté sliced onion for 2-3 minutes.
2. Add finely sliced garlic and ginger and sauté for 2 more minutes.
3. Add the chopped vegetables and fried tofu, stir and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add ½ cup water and keep cooking for 2 more minutes or until the water has evaporated.
4. Pour the sauce into the pan. Stir until all the ingredients are coated.
5. Add the diluted cornflour and keep cooking for 2 more minutes or until the sauce has thickened.
6. Add some sesame oil and serve your veg Chop Suey

Serving suggestion for our Tofu Chop Suey

Chop Suey can be served with steamed rice or noodles. We've tried serving it with rice and noodles and we absolutely loved both ways, so we invite you to serve this stir fry with your favorite side. We love serving some Rice Paper Dumplings on the side, or as a starter to this Chop Suey.

Add some green onions and sesame seeds on top to finish your dish.

The best rice for Chinese Chop Suey is jasmine rice or long-grain rice. For noodles, keep in mind that Chow Mein noodles are not vegan as they contain eggs. You can use rice noodles or Chinese noodles made without eggs. For a vegetarian option, you may want to try the classic Chow Mein noodles.

FAQ and Tips

• Don't overcook the veggies. For a delicious Chop Suey, you want your veggies to still have a bit of a crunch.
• You can keep the leftovers in an air-tight container for 3-4 days.
• If you want to prepare this dish ahead of time, you can leave all your veggies chopped and the rice or noodles cooked. It will save you time when you want to prepare the meal!
• What is the difference between Chop Suey and Chow Mein? Chow Mein is a Chinese dish while Chop Suey is an American-Chinese dish. You can find a recipe for Chow Mein as it's a traditional Chinese dish. For Chop Suey, you will find a wide variety of different recipes as it's different depending on the restaurant or area you order it from. If you want to try making a plant-based Chow Mein, we recommend checking Cupful of Kale Chow Mein Recipe for a lovely Chow Mein.
• Is Chop Suey healthy? Our Chop Suey is quite healthy as it includes a big amount of veggies and plant-based protein. You can serve this meal with brown rice or brown rice noodles to make it even healthier.
• What can you use if you don't have Vegan Oyster Sauce? This may be a bit difficult to get but if you have an Asian supermarket nearby, they will most likely have a vegetarian oyster sauce made with mushrooms or you can find it online. You can use mushroom powder as well or simply skip this ingredient.

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4.82 from 16 votes

Vegan Chop Suey

Vegan Chop Suey is the perfect meal when you feel like eating something flavourful, easy to make, and packed full of veggies. This American-Chinese stir fry is made with a delicious sauce that will leave you craving for more.

Prep Time15 mins

Cook Time10 mins

Total Time25 mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Asian Style

Keyword: Vegan Chop Suey

Servings: 2 people

Calories: 300kcal

Ingredients

Chop Suey Sauce

• 2 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
• ⅛ teaspoon white pepper
• 1 tablespoon vegan oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup

Chop Suey

• 250 g tofu
• ½ white onion
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 thumb-size ginger piece
• 2 carrots
• ½ red pepper
• ½ small broccoli
• 4 button mushrooms
• ½ cup water
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch diluted in water

Instructions

• To prepare the Chop Suey sauce combine the soy sauce, dark soy sauce, rice vinegar, white pepper, vegan oyster sauce, and maple syrup. Whisk until the sauce is homogenous.
• Chop all the veggies, deep fry, or stir fry the tofu, and finely slice the garlic and ginger.
• Using a wok or pan heat some coconut oil or other vegetable oil and sauté the onion for 2-3 minutes.
• Add garlic and ginger and sauté for 2 more minutes.
• Add the chopped vegetables and fried tofu, stir and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add ½ cup water and keep cooking for 2 more minutes or until the water has evaporated.
• Pour the sauce into the pan. Stir until all the ingredients are coated.
• Add the diluted cornflour and keep cooking for 2 more minutes or until the sauce has thickened.
• Add some sesame oil and serve your veg Chop Suey.

Notes

• If you like your chop suey spicy, add some sliced red chili with the garlic and ginger. 
• Serve with steamed rice or your favorite noodles.

Nutrition

Calories: 300kcal | Carbohydrates: 32g | Protein: 16g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g | Monounsaturated Fat: 4g | Sodium: 1224mg | Potassium: 509mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 19g | Vitamin A: 11140IU | Vitamin C: 48mg | Calcium: 210mg | Iron: 3mg

Other Chinese-style recipes you may like

• Tofu Stir Fry with Cashews
• Asian-style Orange Cauliflower
• Ramen Noodle Stir Fry