Frozen Vegetable Stir-Fry
on Mar 23, 2020, Updated Feb 20, 2026
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Making a vegetable stir-fry with frozen veggies is a quick and easy way to get dinner on the table in 15 minutes. I have a few easy-to-follow rules that simplify prep, and the vegetables to turn out their best mixed in the brown rice. This recipe takes advantage of the convenience of frozen vegetables, which come in handy especially when there isn’t much good produce in season.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
There are so many great frozen vegetable blends at the grocery. As someone who defaults to fresh veggies, those freezer cases are a gold mine for vegetarian recipes. From peppers to edamame to broccoli to cauliflower, use your favorites.
You can reduce food waste. When I prep vegetables for a recipe, I don’t always end up needing all of them. I will cut and/or chop what’s left and put them in the freezer. This is much better than just letting them sit in the fridge and go bad. These leftover vegetable odds and ends are perfect in weeknight stir-fries.
The homemade stir-fry sauce is all pantry ingredients that you just whisk together in a bowl. These are things that I keep in my pantry for Asian recipes like noodle veggie stir-fries and nutty dressings for crunchy cabbage salads.
The Ingredients
This is what you need:
- Frozen vegetables: I look for veggie medleys with peppers, onions, green beans, carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, broccoli and/or cauliflower. If I have a bag of frozen edamame, peas or corn, I throw in one or all of them.
- Day-old rice: I like brown rice because I think it has more flavor and texture, but you can use white rice. Just make sure that you cook it the night before. Let it cool and then store it in the fridge.
- Homemade stir-fry sauce: It has a base of low-sodium soy sauce plus sesame oil, rice vinegar, red pepper flakes and a pinch of salt and pepper.
- Ginger, garlic & scallions are the aromatic ingredients. They give this veggie fried rice all-important flavor. The moment they hit the hot pan, you will be able to smell them.
My Rules for Making Stir-Fries
With stir-fries there are a few rules that I follow no matter what:
- Don’t thaw the vegetables. They should go into the skillet or wok straight from the freezer.
- Make sure all your ingredients are ready before your start. Stir-fry doesn’t take long to cook, so you won’t have time to prep as you go.
- Stir-fry in a very hot skillet or wok. This is true with all stir-fries, but it’s even more important when you are using frozen vegetables.
- Cook your rice the day before and store it in the fridge. This allows the rice time to dry out a bit. Freshly cooked rice will turn out mushy.
- Consider your veggie combo. Because of their size/thickness or general water content, especially after being frozen, I find that edamame, corn and carrots keep most of their bite filled by cauliflower and broccoli. Bell peppers, zucchini and yellow squash turn out softer. A variety of vegetables will give your more interesting texture.
How To Make This Frozen Vegetable Stir-Fry
1. Make the sauce. In a small bowl, stir the soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.
2. Sauté the vegetables. Let the oil warm up until it’s shimmering, so you know it’s hot. Then start with the cauliflower and broccoli florets. After a couple minutes, add the rest of the veggies and cook them until they’re tender and the stems are crisp, about 3-4 minutes. Some of the vegetables should also brown on the edges.
3. Transfer the veggies to a lined plate. This will help absorb some moisture, and you can wait to combine them with the rice.
4. Sauté the aromatics: the white parts of the scallions, minced garlic and ginger. It will only take 30 seconds or so for them to get fragrant.
5. Add in the rice and sauce. Stir them together allowing a few minutes for the liquid to bubble and for the rice to absorb most of it.
6. Fold in the stir-fry veggies and scallions greens.
Serving
If I have the ingredients and plan ahead, I like making a fresh and crunchy salad to go with this stir-fry dinner. A couple of my go-tos are this crisp cabbage salad with peanut ginger dressing and this shredded brussels sprout cabbage salad.
Frozen Vegetable Stir-Fry
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Pinch of kosher salt
- Pinch of black pepper
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 cups assorted frozen vegetables
- 2 scallions, thinly sliced, white and green parts separated
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- 2 cups cooked white or brown rice
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Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together the soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper.
- Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a large skillet or wok over high heat. Once the oil is hot and shimmering, sauté the vegetables. Start with the cauliflower and broccoli florets. After 2 minutes, add the rest of the veggies and continue cooking until they are just tender, about 3-4 minutes. Transfer the vegetables to paper towel-lined plate.
- Sauté the white parts of the scallions, garlic and ginger until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Stir in the rice. Then pour in the stir-fry sauce letting it bubble and simmer. Continue stirring until the rice has absorbed most of the liquid, about 3 minutes.
- Fold in the vegetables and the green parts of the scallions.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Great tips. A solid recipe!
Thanks…wonderful info and methods.
My husband and I adore this recipe. We’ve now made it countless times, and our obsession with it never ceases!
This was so tasty! I’m not a fan of cooking and I love how easy this recipe was to follow! Definitely looking forward to making it again.
Thanks for making a recipe that is easy enough for basic cooks like me – the frozen vegetables allowed me to be successful! Delicious!