Sometimes you just need things ASAP—that is, as SIMPLE as possible. ;) That’s when I pull out recipes like these Simple Mushroom Broccoli Stir Fry Noodles. The sauce is incredible simple, but hits all the bases (sweet, salty, spicy, tangy) and thanks to frozen broccoli florets and pre-sliced mushrooms, the vegetables required NO CHOPPING. Yay! This is the perfect weeknight dinner, if there ever was one.
Customize your Broccoli Stir Fry Noodles
This is basically a vegetarian version of my Stir Fry Beef Noodles, with a little more sesame oil to bring up the base notes in the absence of beef, and a little cornstarch to add body to the sauce. If you’re not into broccoli and mushrooms, you could do a variety of other vegetables in their place, including snow peas, red bell pepper, baby spinach, or carrots.
And lastly, while you could probably use just about any noodle for this dish, I really like the wide rice noodles that I used below. They soak up the sauce nicely and aren’t too heavy despite their wide shape.
Just want plain spicy noodle goodness with no extras? Check out my Spicy Dragon Noodles.
Simple Mushroom Broccoli Stir Fry Noodles
Servings 4Ingredients
STIR FRY SAUCE
- 1/4 cup soy sauce ($0.40)
- 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil* ($0.33)
- 1 Tbsp chili garlic sauce* ($0.21)
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.02)
- 1 Tbsp water $0.00 ($0.00)
- 1 tsp cornstarch
STIR FRY
- 7 oz wide rice noodles ($1.50)
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.04)
- 8 oz sliced white mushrooms ($2.49)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced ($0.16)
- 1/2 lb frozen broccoli florets ($0.85)
- 2 green onions, sliced ($0.20)
Instructions
- Prepare the sauce first, so it’s ready to go when needed. In a small bowl stir together the soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, chili garlic sauce, brown sugar, water, and cornstarch until the cornstarch is dissolved. Set the sauce aside.
- Cook the noodles according to the package directions, then drain in a colander. The wide rice noodles I used needed to be boiled for about 7-8 minutes.
- While the noodles are cooking, heat a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add the cooking oil, sliced mushrooms, and minced garlic. Sauté until the mushrooms release all their moisture and begin to brown on the edges.
- Add the frozen broccoli florets (no need to thaw) and sauté for just a couple minutes more, or until they are no longer frozen but still bright green (they may still be cold, but they will heat through in the next steps. It’s important not to over cook the broccoli).
- Finally, add the cooked and drained noodles and the prepared sauce. Stir and cook, still over medium heat, for 1-2 minutes more or until everything is cooked through and the sauce has thickened and no longer pools on the bottom of the skillet. Top with sliced green onions and serve.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
Nutrition
Video
How to Make Mushroom and Broccoli Stir Fry – Step by Step Photos
Prepare the simple stir fry sauce before you begin to cook so that it’s ready to go when you need it. In a small bowl stir together 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1 Tbsp toasted sesame oil, 1 Tbsp chili garlic sauce, 1 Tbsp brown sugar, 1 Tbsp water, and 1 tsp cornstarch.
Two ingredients that I often get questions about are chili garlic sauce and toasted sesame oil. This chili garlic sauce is made by the same company that makes the famous green top sriracha, so you’ll find it in most stores that sell sriracha. It’s a chunky mix of spicy red pepper, garlic, and vinegar. So, in one ingredient it gives spicy, garlic, and tangy vinegar to the sauce. It’s also super inexpensive.
Toasted sesame oil is a very potent nutty oil that adds a LOT to sauces. Don’t skip this one. It usually comes in smaller bottles and doesn’t always say “toasted”. You can tell when it’s toasted by the color, though. Regular sesame oil is a light straw color, just like vegetable or canola oil. Toasted sesame oil is a deeper brown color.
Cook 7oz. noodles according to the package directions. I prefer these wide rice noodles for this stir fry. To cook these noodles, bring a pot of water to a boil, then add the noodles, and boil for 7-8 minutes or just until tender. Drain the noodles in a colander.
While the noodles are cooking, you can begin the rest of the stir fry. Heat a large skillet over medium. Once hot, add 1 Tbsp cooking oil and swirl to coat the surface of the skillet. Add 8oz. sliced white mushrooms and two cloves of minced garlic. Sauté until the mushrooms have released all their moisture and begin to brown (the will seem dry at first, but then release a bunch of moisture that will collect in the skillet. After that the moisture will evaporate and the mushrooms will begin to brown.)
Next add 1/2 lb. frozen broccoli florets to the skillet. Sauté them for just a couple minutes more, or until they are no longer frozen but still bright green. It’s okay if they’re still a bit cold, just make sure they’re not totally frozen at this point.
Finally, add the cooked and drained noodles and the prepared sauce. Continue to stir and cook over medium until everything is coated in sauce and the sauce has thickened and is no longer pooling on the bottom of the skillet.
Top with a couple sliced green onions and serve! So easy and so good. That’s how I like dinner.
I messed up and cooked the noodles too much at the beginning, so they got mushy in the stir fry. I boiled them for 7 minutes (high heat, rolling boil) but I will watch them more carefully next time. Or maybe I’ll use fettuccine instead of rice noodles. The dish was still delicious, though! I like things spicy so I added an extra tbsp of the chili garlic sauce. Yum!
Thank you for explaining the toasted sesame oil…that helped tremendously. I’m making this tonight & can’t wait to try it. I think it will be a new staple in my meal planning, or lack there of.
My husband and I made this last night and it was delicious! We added snow peas, red bell peppers, and shrimp. We both thought that some chopped peanuts would be good sprinkled on top for some crunch. Thanks for another great recipe!
Made this last night. I have been a huge fan of your approach and recipes. This is one of the best. So incredibly easy and fast. Even appreciated by my mushroom hating son, who overloaded on the broccoli which left more mushrooms for us. Thank you. Love getting the ready access to reasonable, healthy, economical meals with a Louisiana/Southwest Flair.
Made this tonight. Used less sugar, added some canned baby corn, and used a yellow onion instead of the green onion. I skipped the toasted sesame oil and I could tell! It didn’t taste as good as it could have!
Made this tonight. Used carrots instead of mushrooms, and added some shrimp. It was delicious and easy and I will definitely make it again!
That sounds delicious. I LOVE shrimp!!! :-)
Super delicious!!! I added a sliced red bell pepper for some extra veggies/colour. Thanks for another amazing recipe.
Hey, recently found your website and am really enjoying the flavorful, low cost recipe ideas.
Tried this for dinner today. Used criminis cut in large chunks rather than slices. It turned out really good. Leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
Thanks again and keep the cooking ideas coming!
Oh, this looks great! I might try it with soba noodles.
This was the perfect dinner recipe for last night. It came together super fast and was delicious! I used regular onions instead of green and criminis instead of white mushroons because that was what I had on hand. Both my boyfriend and I loved it and I will make it again soon!
This looks great! I am trying to cut down on soy and sodium. Do you ever use coconut aminos instead of soy sauce or have any other suggestions?
I haven’t, but several people have mentioned in comments that they use coconut aminos as a soy sauce sub. I just don’t know if it’s a 1:1 ratio or not.
I find liquid aminos to be a little bit more potent than soy sauce, myself, but I think they do a better job at bringing out the other flavors of the dish.
Where do you determine the pricing? It is very off. I love the recipe however.
These are the prices I pay from my receipts. Prices will vary from region to region, store to store, and even day to day. To see a cost comparison of total weekly grocery bills versus the itemized quantity used pricing that I do for individual recipes, check out some of my Weekly Recaps from my SNAP Challenge. They show both ways of pricing.
So many calories :(
Not sure what you are talking about. Using an online calculator, I got each serving was under 200 calories. That seems low, so I think some of the figures might have been off, but even if a serving was double that, it is quite reasonable for a meal.
??? I entered it in My Fitness Pal and it comes out to 330-350 calories per serving depending on pasta used. Pretty reasonable for a meal I think.
Fantastic and so simple, now I wish I had broccoli to actually make it tonight.
Will save this for later :)
Green beans, brussels sprouts, or asparagus would be just as good!
Yummmy! Thai food is one of my favorites. My family will go crazy for this one.