Remember that head of purple cabbage from week one of the SNAP Challenge? Well, to my surprise, it still hadn’t gone rotten. Sure, it was a little discolored on the open/cut surface, but I just sliced a thin 1/4 inch off the front, peeled off a couple outer leaves, and it was as good as new! Not wanting to let my precious vegetable to go to waste, I made that purple cabbage into a colorful, delicious, and super easy Vegetable Stir Fry with Noodles.
I bought a couple extra vegetables to add to the stir fry (carrots, green bell peppers, green onion, and cilantro) and used an onion that I already had on hand. In interest of making this stir fry as simple as possible, I made the most basic of basic sauces (just like the sauce on the famous Dragon Noodles) with just soy sauce, brown sugar, sriracha, and some corn starch for thickness. Cook everything up in a super hot skillet and you have an amazingly fast veggie-full meal.
If you’re not into ramen noodles (I know someone is about to leave me a comment about how ramen is the devil), you can spoon the sauced up stir fry vegetables over a bowl of warm rice. That would be just as awesome and just as cheap (maybe even more so)!
I wasn’t expecting this stir fry to hold well in the refrigerator all week, but I have to admit, I kind of like the refrigerated leftovers. The colors definitely aren’t as vibrant after a day or so and everything turns kind of violet from the purple cabbage, but the sauce gets all thick, the vegetables soften a bit more, and it almost tastes kind of rich. If you’re really put off by soft noodles, you may not like the leftovers as much, but I’ve totally been digging them!
For the entire month of September, I’ll be participating in the SNAP Challenge and attempting to eat on $4.50 per day. Read more here.
SNAP Challenge: Vegetable Stir Fry with Noodles
Servings 6 about 1.25 cups eachIngredients
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil ($0.04)
- 1/2 head purple cabbage ($0.91)
- 2 green bell peppers ($1.00)
- 2 carrots ($0.27)
- 1 yellow onion ($0.42)
- 2 -3 oz bricks ramen noodles ($0.54)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce ($0.40)
- 3 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.05)
- 2 Tbsp Sriracha or less ($0.18)
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch ($0.04)
- 3 green onions, sliced ($0.33)
- handful cilantro (optional) ($0.28)
Instructions
- Remove the core and any wilted outer leaves from the cabbage, then cut it into very fine strips. Cut the onion and green bell pepper into thin strips as well. Use a large holed cheese grater to shred the carrots.
- In a small bowl prepare the sauce by stirring together the soy sauce, brown sugar, sriracha, and corn starch.
- Begin to cook the noodles according to the package directions (boil for 3 minutes, or until tender). Drain the cooked noodles in a colander.
- Heat the vegetable oil over medium high heat in a large skillet until it is hot and shimmering. Add the vegetables and sauté for only a few minutes, or until the vegetables just begin to soften. Pour the prepared sauce into the skillet and continue to sauté for one to two minutes more, or until the sauce has thickened and coated all of the vegetables. Turn off the heat.
- Add the cooked and drained noodles to the stir fried vegetables and toss to combine. Top with sliced green onions and a handful of fresh cilantro, if desired.
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Nutrition
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How to Make Vegetable Stir Fry Noodles – Step by Step Photos
Begin by preparing your vegetables. The cooking process is fast, so you need to have it all prepped ahead of time and ready to go. I used 1/2 head of purple cabbage, 2 green bell peppers, 2 carrots, and one yellow onion.
Cut the cabbage, onion, and bell pepper all into thin strips and use a large holed cheese grater to shred the carrot.
Prepare the sauce ahead of time, too, so it’s ready to pour in when you need it. In a small bowl stir together 1/4 cup soy sauce, 3 Tbsp brown sugar, 1 Tbsp cornstarch, and about 2 Tbsp sriracha (less if you’re not that into hot stuff, but you want at least some because it provides the acidic vinegar element to balance the sauce).
Cook two 3-oz. bricks of ramen noodles according to the package directions (boil for three minutes), then drain in a colander. I broke the bricks in half so that the noodle strings wouldn’t be quite so long. Long noodles are really hard to stir in and combine with chunky ingredients, like the vegetables. Shorter strands combine easier.
Heat two tablespoons of vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil and skillet are very hot (the oil should look shimmery or wavy on the surface, but not smoking), add the vegetables and sauté for a few minutes, or JUST until they begin to soften. They’ll continue to cook a little more in the next couple of steps, so you don’t want to over cook at this point.
Pour the sauce over the vegetables and sauté for one to two minutes more, or just until the sauce has thickened and coated all of the vegetables.
Finally, stir in the cooked ramen until it is well combined with the vegetables and coated in the sauce.
Top the stir fry with sliced green onions and a handful of cilantro (if desired). Enjoy!
Colorful, delicious, easy, and INEXPENSIVE. :D
Hooray for cabbage! It’s the vegetable the keeps on giving. I have to admit I make lunches that look very much like this (ok, with rice instead of ramen usually) even though I am not doing any sort of budget challenge. Delicious!
What would you suggest as a replacement for the sirracha in the sauce? I don’t think the spiciness of the sirracha would go over with the 15 mo old and the 4 year old. Maybe some crushed red pepper flakes?
Trying this with leftovers in the fridge!
Well, the sriracha also serves as a source of acid to balance the salt and the sugar in the sauce. You might experiment with adding less (maybe 1 Tbsp) to see if that is tolerable for them. That might be better than red pepper flakes. :)
Maybe some sort of vinegar (white, cider, balsamic, wine) could be subbed for the hot sauce? To supply the acid.
Yes, in most Asian sauces rice vinegar is used as the balance. :) You might want to add a little garlic, too, because sriracha has that as well.
Looks like a delicious dish, but there is no protein. Are you taking essential nutrients into account when you plan your meals?
Fun fact, sometimes when you’re poor, and the price of protein in your area spikes, you can’t afford protein. Sometimes, when you’re poor, your brain is so filled with stress about all the precariously balanced financial things that could go horribly, horribly wrong if even one expectation fails, that you do not have the fortitude and intellectual energy you need for “taking essential nutrients into account when you plan your meals”.
Sometimes when you’re poor the objective is “eat something every day or so, even if you feel ill from not eating” — eating nutritious, balanced meals a regular intervals is like three tiers up on the hierarchy of needs at that point.
I find this dish really exciting, because it takes a cheap, tasty, high-fat (which is important when you’re trying to get adequate calories) filler and adds loads of fresh veggies, while still coming out at under $0.75/serving. That’s fantastic.
Scrambling an egg or two before adding the sauce would be an inexpensive protein source.
I’m really just trying to make do with what I have. :) I’m not of the opinion that every meal needs a dedicated protein source. Vegetables and pasta do contain some protein, so it’s not completely void. My other meals throughout the day contain meat, peanut butter, and eggs, so I think my daily content is okay even if this one dish is on the low side.
Can you buy sriracha in the store? I think I might try this over quinoa for some protein. It probably wouldn’t be under $4.50, but still yummy!
Yep, it’s so popular now that you can get it in most grocery stores (stores that are big enough to have at least a small Asian or ethnic food section).
I used to be a ramen snob because of the ingredients in the seasoning packet. Lately I’ve heard about chefs using the noodles in clever ways. Today I’m having a tropical party and I’m going to make Hawaiian coleslaw with crushed raw ramen.
I love reading about your SNAP challenge creativity!
Ramen noodles….great memories! And delicious too. When I was in college we did not know you could add veggies…..just spice! We didn’t “do” healthy back then….the good old days.
Any ideas on what to use instead of noodles or rice if you’re going low-carb?
I guess you could just eat the sauced vegetables? You could even try browning some ground turkey and mixing that into the sauced vegetables. Ooh, that actually sounds really good all coated in that sauce!
I haven’t personally tried it, but I’ve heard really good things about cauliflower “rice”. Just made from cauliflower and probably chopped supper finely in a food processor is my guess but people swear it’s an awesome sub for rice.
I can vouch for the cauliflower fried rice recipes. The key is to blot the cauliflower with paper towels once its gone through the food processor to make it less watered down. The recipe I use has sesame oil, which is awesome in these type of recipes (granted, probably a little too expensive for the SNAP challenge unless you already had it).
How about a couple of eggs beaten together and thrown in at the end?
I’m late to the party here, but shirataki noodles are low carb and work very well in this dish!
This looks and sounds wonderful – and what a great way to have a veg centered dish with lots of flavor and not too spendy!
I like rita’s idea of zucchini noodles also.
That looks delicious!
Cabbage will keep for at least a month or more. Just as you did, slice off the discolored part and proceed with preparation.
That looks SO good, and I would LOVE to make this recipe!! :-)
I just started at university again after a 10 year break…without my full time job, it’s back to the wonderful world of ramen and trying to figure out how to adjust a palette that’s had years of fresh veggies, nice cheeses, meats, etc without regard to cost…to this. I think finding this site as you were doing this challenge was fortuitous and I’ve been looking forward to and enjoying your posts, thank you!
I have basically all of this in my fridge/pantry right now. Thanks for giving me one of tomorrow’s batch-cook recipes!
I can’t believe how pretty this is!
Ramen noodles…PERFECT. I love a good homemade stir fry, and I always want rice with it, but for some reason cooking rice kind of intimidates me. This looks delicious :)
If it’s in your budget now or in the future, consider a rice cooker. I thought my boyfriend was insane for spending the money on one (this was when we were living off my student loans), but the rice that comes out of it is approximately 7000% more delicious than stuff I used to cook on the stovetop or in the microwave. If rice makes a regular appearance in your meals, it’s worth it!
Sounds good… maybe something to put on my Christmas list! (I’m a broke college student living off a hand-me-down crockpot, haha.)
Mmm yum. I may try this with zucchini noodles!
I’ve noticed you use a lot of sugar in your recipes. I mean I love it, but I can’t have sugar and health guidelines say you should keep it much much lower than I see in some is your breakfast recipes.
And in this one, where is your protein? It isn’t very balanced.
There is protein in vegetables – I’ve been a vegetarian for 24 years & you would be surprised at how much protien is in veggies. As far as the sugar, I am in a similar boat with salt, I can’t have it. So I just leave it out of the recipes I try. You can do the same with sugar. Leaving out the extra salt or sugar in a dish like this with so many amazing flavors isn’t going to ruin it :)
There are also sugar substitues, although I find them to be sweeter than sugar. But you can try those as well??