This vegan recipe for an oil-free sesame tofu and green beans is a delicious and healthy weeknight meal. A simple Asian sesame marinade does double-duty as a sauce for the stir-fry. This colorful, plant-based meal will soon become one of your favorites.
What are the Basic Ingredients for Asian Stir-fry Sauce?
A healthy, plant-based stir-fry is the perfect recipe for making a quick and satisfying dinner. Most of the flavor for stir-fry comes from the sauce. While it’s easy to buy a store-bought sauce, many of these are loaded with salt, sugar, and are ultra-processed. Plus, it can be quite expensive buying a big jar when you only need a small amount.
Instead, it’s simple and easy to make your own Asian stir-fry sauce. A balanced and delicious sauce has a few fundamental flavors:
- Salt: This usually provides all of the salt for the dish. Asian chefs rarely use table salt or kosher salt. Rather, they opt for soy sauce, tamari, or miso paste.
- Umami: This “yummy” flavor is often described as a deep, delicious and savory flavor. In Asian cooking, you find this in fermented foods like soy sauce, tamari, and miso paste. You can see the link between salt and umami…these ingredients do double-duty for both salt and umami
- Acid: A good stir-fry sauce has a little “zing” of brightness from acid. This usually comes from vinegar (like unseasoned rice vinegar or black vinegar) but can also come from lime.
- Spice: Spicy heat helps make a stir-fry sauce pop. This can came from crushed red pepper flakes, fresh ginger, dried red chilies, or fresh chilies (like Fresno and Thai bird chilies)
- Sweet: A little bit of sweet helps balance the spice and salt of a good sauce. Coconut sugar, brown sugar, palm sugar, and even Chinese sugar (which looks like brown sugar) are all used in Asian recipes.
Other optional ingredients in a stir-fry sauce:
- Toasted Sesame Oil: This optional ingredient is sometimes used for depth of flavor and an extra toasted flavor. As the name suggests, though, it is 100% oil and 100% fat. A little goes a long way (often 1 teaspoon is plenty), but you can omit of a 100% oil-free plant-based sauce
- Thickener: A thickener is often added to sauces to provide a more unctuous mouthfeel. Cornstarch, tapioca starch, arrowroot, and even potato starch are all plant-based thickeners used in sauces. Always follow the recipe for how much to add — a little goes a long way.
3 Tips on How to Cook Vegetables for the Best Plant-Based Stir-Fry
The goal when cooking vegetables for the best plant-based stir-fry is to keep them crisp and tender. You want them to still have some crunch on the outside but also be tender on the inside. You can achieve this by following these 3 simple tips
- Choosing a wide pan or wok: This gives you lot of room to move around the vegetables. The more room, the less likely they are to steam and get mushy
- Cut everything the same size: When prepping vegetables for a vegan stir-fry, you want all of them to be about the same width. Slice onions, carrots, bell peppers, all about the same width (about 1/4-inch thick)
- Move quickly: It helps to have all of your veggies chopped before you start cooking because once things are going in the pan, it moves quickly. You might only cook carrots for 3-4 minutes before adding green beans — so make sure those beans are trimmed and ready to go!
How to make a Plant-Based Oil-Free Stir-Fry
Following all of the above guidance, it’s clear to see why stir-fry is a quick, healthy and delicious plant-based vegan meal. The last step for optimal health is ditching the oil that is often used in cooking the vegetables. This is easy! Simply swap the oil for water. This is called a Steam-Fry or Steam-Saute. Instead of 2-4 tablespoons of oils used in a typical stir-fry, you can create an oil-free, plant-based stir-fry by using 2-4 tablespoons of water. You’ll save the calories and save some money 😉
Chef’ Katie’s Plant-Based, Oil-Free Tips for Vegan Sesame Tofu Green Beans Stir-Fry
Serving Suggestions: You can enjoy this stir-fry on its own. However, I like serving it with brown rice, black rice, or steamed quinoa
Swapping out the Veggies: You can mix and match with other vegetables for this stir-fry. This is a great recipe for cleaning out the fridge or trying new vegetables. Swap out the green beans for asparagus, broccoli, or cauliflower. Instead of carrots and peppers you can use bok choy or onions.
Oil-Free Mission: I’m on a mission to get rid of empty calories, and oil is the most calorie-dense food. For this recipe, roasted almond butter adds rich, nutty flavor, while also bringing healthy fiber and key nutrients. You can substitute with other roasted nut or seed butter. For a less calorie-dense option, swap out the almond butter for 1 cup of chickpeas.
Soy-Free: If you’re avoiding soy, use Coconut Aminos instead of the tamari. Replace the tofu with frozen green peas, canned black beans, or cooked chickpeas.
Tamari vs. Soy Sauce: Tamari is similar to soy sauce, but it is gluten-free. If gluten isn’t a concern for you, you can use them interchangeably in recipes.
Vegan Sesame Tofu Green Bean Stir-Fry
If you love this, you’ll also love: Oil-Free Almond Butter Green Bean Pad Thai, Super Veggie Oil-Free Fried Rice, Cold Peanut Noodle Salad, and Deliciously Spicy Vegan Tahini Noodles
- Medium
- Servings: 4
- Ready In: 30 minutes
- Yield: about 8 cups stir-fry
Oil-Free Vegan Sesame Tofu Green Bean Stir-Fry
Ingredients
For the Marinated Tofu and Stir-Fry Sauce
- 2 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
- 1/2 cup water 4 ounces
- 1 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar
- 1 tbsp coconut sugar or brown sugar
- 1/2 tbsp arrowroot starch or cornstarch
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
- 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger minced
- 1 pound extra firm tofu drained and cut into bite-sized pieces
For the Stir-Fry Veggies
- 2 carrots sliced in half moons,1/4-inch thick
- 1 onion diced 1/4-inch
- 1 red bell pepper sliced 1/4-inch thick
- 1 pound green beans trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1/4 cup roasted cashews roughly chopped
Instructions
To Make the Marinated Tofu and Stir-Fry Sauce
- Combine all ingredients for the stir-fry sauce (tamari through ginger) in a small bowl. Add the tofu. Toss well. Set aside while preparing veggies
To cook the Stir-Fry
- Be sure all of your veggies are chopped and ready to go before starting to cook.
- Heat 4 tablespoons of water in a wide saute-pan or wok over medium-high heat.
- Add the carrots and onions. Saute, stirring often, until the carrots start to soften, about 5 minutes.
- Add the bell pepper and green beans. Cook until green beans are slightly tender, 5-7 minutes, stirring often.
- Add the marinated tofu and all of the sauce to the pan. Reduce heat to medium-low and let simmer until green beans are crisp-tender. You don't want any green beans raw on the inside…taste to check.
- After 2-4 minutes, the sauce should thicken. Taste to adjust seasoning or to adjust cooking time until vegetables are done to your likeness.
- Garnish with chopped cashews to serve
Nutrition Facts
| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Servings 4.0 | |
| Amount Per Serving | |
| calories 305 | |
| % Daily Value * | |
| Total Fat 14 g | 21 % |
| Saturated Fat 2 g | 11 % |
| Monounsaturated Fat 2 g | |
| Polyunsaturated Fat 4 g | |
| Trans Fat 0 g | |
| Cholesterol 0 mg | 0 % |
| Sodium 1018 mg | 42 % |
| Potassium 528 mg | 15 % |
| Total Carbohydrate 30 g | 10 % |
| Dietary Fiber 9 g | 37 % |
| Sugars 12 g | |
| Protein 18 g | 37 % |
| Vitamin A | 359 % |
| Vitamin C | 79 % |
| Calcium | 15 % |
| Iron | 29 % |
| * The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA. | |
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