Easy Mushroom Stir Fry Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What are the 3 rules of stir frying? ›

The first is to cook your protein and your vegetable separately, and combine them only after both are fully cooked. A second rule of thumb for stir-frying: Choose one vegetable per stir-fry. Finally, always remember to add liquid only after everything is more or less finished cooking.

In addition to soy sauce, some popular stir-fry sauces include Teriyaki Sauce, Asian BBQ Sauce, Mongolian sauce or Korean BBQ Sauce. You may also enjoy Umami Tamari Splash, Sweet Tamari Splash and Citrus Tamari Splash. No matter the sauce you choose, it is sure to add a delicious flavor to your stir-fry.

But strangely enough, the secret to better (and faster) sautéed mushrooms is cooking them in water: Boiling your shrooms before pan-frying actually helps them brown. Just like soaking tofu in boiling salt water, boiling mushrooms “dries them out” a little.

Adding soy sauce too early can burn it. Remember, timing is key. Add soy sauce midway for that perfect cook.

Generally, after getting the wok super-hot and splashing some oil in, you'll throw in your aromatics like ginger, chilies, and garlic just for a few moments, then add meat if you're including any, then vegetables.

Aromatic ingredients like garlic, ginger, green onions, chilies and spices. These ingredients are typically added to the oil first to infuse it with flavor. You won't need much; a few teaspoons to a tablespoon of total aromatic ingredients per person adds a serious amount of flavor.

Cornstarch! In his book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, Mark Bittman recommends mixing 1-2 tablespoons of cornstarch with the same amount of water, and tossing this into the stir fry just when it's almost done. It thickens in seconds, picking up the flavors of everything already in the dish and coating evenly.

Seasoning too early

So this is a process where you should season close to the end. If you do not want your stir-fry to be bland, you can also enhance the flavor by adding wok sauce or utilizing ingredients like fresh chilies, Sriracha sauce, fresh lime juice, garlic, ginger, and lemongrass.

What are the best vegetables for stir fry? ›

We used baby corn spears, mushrooms, red pepper and broccoli in this recipe, but you can use just about any vegetables. Here are other vegetables that will work great in a vegetable stir fry: Onion (red or sweet), green beans, snow peas and asparagus.

While this high moisture content gives mushrooms their spongy texture, it begins seeping out when exposed to heat. And for a cooking method like sautéing, the liquid needs to fully evaporate before the mushrooms get super brown and crispy.

Shiitake mushroom stems, although technically edible, are not good to eat as they're often too tough and fibrous. It's best to remove shiitake stems before cooking the caps, but don't discard them.

A great stir-fry typically consists of four important components: protein, vegetables, aromatics, and sauce. Standard stir-fry starts with one pound of protein and two pounds of vegetables, and a basic stir-fry sauce (recipe below). You can add aromatics or herbs to change the flavor profile of your dish.

Stir-fry onions first, then add hard vegetables such as carrot and broccoli. Quick-cooking vegetables, such as snow peas, leafy greens and bean sprouts, should be added towards the end of cooking. If using vegies that have a combination of both textures, such as gai laan, add the stems first and the leaves later.

Broadly speaking, there are two primary techniques: chao and bao. Both techniques use high heat, but chao adds a liquid and the ingredients are softer, whereas bao stir fries are more crispy because of the Maillard reaction.

The principle behind making a stir fry is to cook your ingredients quickly in a small amount of very hot oil. To keep frying it as fast as possible, it's important to properly prepare all your ingredients. So before you turn up the heat, we recommend you: Marinade any meat, fish or tofu in your choice of sauce.