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.
- Using a wok or large frying pan heat some coconut oil or other vegetable oil and sauté sliced onion for 2-3 minutes.
- Add finely sliced 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

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.
Vegan Chop Suey
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
If you tried our recipe, please leave a comment or tag us on Instagram. We are always happy to see your creations! |
Joy says
Thank you for sharing your recipe
Laura says
Thank you Joy!
Megan says
Love chop suey and this recipe is the bomb! So easy and delicious! Thanks for sharing.
Sophia says
I had a bunch of vegetables I needed to use so I decided to try this recipe. It was so good and quite simple. I'll definitely make again. Thanks!
Allyssa says
All time favorite! Thanks a lot for this recipe, super quick and easy to make! Felt super healthy as well! Loved it!
Jessica says
This chop suey was everything I hoped for and more! I love that it's loaded with veggies. The sauce was amazing and there was plenty of it, which is a must for me! I can't wait to dig into the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
veenaazmanov says
Definitely a One Pot yummy meal. Veggies tossed in this flavorful sauce sounds delicious.
Raksha Kamat says
Such a healthy and flavourful Vegan Chop Suey. Love the fact that I can even make it with rice noodles. Will give it a try soon.
Amy Casey says
I am always on the lookout for new vegan recipes for my personal chef clients and this one will be perfect. I love all the vegetables in it.
Sharon says
This vegan chop suey is the perfect meal for meatless Mondays. So easy to make and has lots of flavors.
Laura says
Thanks Sharon!
Claire says
The sauce was incredible! And I loved that there was so many veggies in this dish. My partner and I really enjoyed it. he said I could definitely make it again.
Laura says
thank you Claire!
Amy says
I’m always looking for easy vegetarian meals. This was delicious and super flavorful. My whole family loved it!
Renee Littaua says
Simple and delicious! So much better than the chop suey I had growing up (all cabbage and celery).
Laura says
Thank you Renee
Amanda says
Came out tasty! My bf thought it was much closer to takeout than when I only use soyaki. I subbed dark soy with trader joe's soyaki and used a frozen ginger cube instead of fresh. Would make again!
Laura says
Thank you Amanda, happy you both enjoyed!
Romy says
Thank you! I tried it right away. It's really tasty, super easy and fast to prepare. Will do it again.
Laura says
thank you Romy! Glad you liked the recipe 🙂
Jacqueline Nichols says
Thank you so much for this fabulous recipe! My 23 year old daughter actually likes it! She is not fuss as such, but food has to be good, and she took the leftovers with her when she went to the local library to get some uni work done. I did not have the ginger or mushrooms but will have those ready for next time.
Laura says
Thank You Jacqueline! Really glad your daughter enjoyed the recipe 🙂