Cooking a healthy meal for your family on a busy weeknight is possible with this savory and easy Stir-Fried Vegetables (Yasai Itame) recipe. Loaded with plenty of vegetables and your choice of protein, everything comes together in less than 30 minutes! {Vegetarian adaptable}
Many readers have told me that they are interested in quick and easy recipes that can be made in just 30 minutes or less. Today I’m really excited to share this easy and delicious Japanese Stir Fry vegetable dish called Yasai Itame (野菜炒め).
In Japanese, yasai (野菜) means vegetables, and itame (炒め) is a noun form for the verb itameru (炒める), which means stir fry. From the name you might assume it’s a vegetarian dish; however, Yasai Itame usually contains a small amount of thinly sliced pork or sausages.
FYI, I have this recipe categorized as Vegetarian & Vegan as you can easily make this vegetarian/vegan-friendly by omitting the meat and oyster sauce. It’s not by mistake – I just didn’t want my vegetarian/vegan readers to miss this delicious recipe.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
I don’t know the exact history of this simple dish, but Yasai Itame has been around for many years and it is a common home-cooking dish You might see this dish served as Teishoku 定食 (lunch/dinner set) at Japanese diners. Personally, I feel the dish is underrated and I want to share the reasons why the stir fry vegetables should be made and enjoyed more often.
- It’s quick! No time to cook? Throw in some ingredients and it’s ready to serve in 15 minutes. Plus, this is an ideal summer dish as you don’t have to stay in your kitchen for too long.
- It’s nutritious! It’s got vegetables and meat in one dish. And not just one kind of vegetable, but several colorful vegetables.
- It’s easy! Once you learn a few tips on how to stir fry, it becomes a very handy kitchen skill.
- It’s versatile! Don’t worry too much about what goes well together. Stir fry dishes is great for using small bits and pieces of ingredients hidden in the refrigerator. Do you have some shiitake mushrooms? Toss that in.
- It’s super simple, but DELICIOUS! This is a basic Japanese dish that doesn’t require fancy ingredients. If you are new to cooking or don’t cook too often, this is a new repertoire you can count on.
Cooking Tips for Stir-Fry Vegetables (Yasai Itame)
I put together a list of the things I do when I make stir fry dishes. Hope these tips will be helpful if you are new to stir fry dishes.
- Prepare all the ingredients and seasonings before you start cooking. You won’t be able to stop in the middle of the stir-frying process, so don’t try to chop vegetables as you cook.
- Either wash your ingredients ahead of time or remove the moisture before cooking. You don’t want to add moisture to the stir fry dishes otherwise the ingredients get “steamed” and lose their crispiness.
- Cut the ingredients into bite sizes so that they will all cook evenly and faster.
- No wok? Use a big, flat-bottomed fry pan (details in next section).
- Preheat your wok/fry pan before adding the oil and coat well with oil.
- When you add the ingredients, they will reduce the temperature of the wok/fry pan. Make sure not to overcrowd the wok or frying pan with the ingredients. You want to give them enough room to make contact with the heated surface. It’s important to stir fry without losing too much heat while cooking.
- Cook thicker and harder vegetables first as they will take a longer time to cook.
- Keep stirring and tossing so that all the ingredients are evenly cooked.
- Make sure the rest of your meal is ready to serve or on the table already so that you can enjoy the stir fry dish immediately after cooking.
Do We Need a Wok?
If your question was whether stir-fry dishes taste better when cooked in a wok or fry pan, the answer would be easy. The wok would win every time. You just can’t beat the flavor of charred ingredients cooked in a good carbon steel wok on very high heat.
I own this carbon steel wok and love it (see How to Season a Wok post); however, for this recipe, I used this All-Clad PFOA-free non-stick frying pan (12 inches). Many Japanese home cooks also use a frying pan to cook Yasai Itame. This recipe when cooked on a standard stove may not taste the same as a stir fry vegetable dish from a Chinese restaurant. However, please try this great home-cooked recipe because you don’t need “proper” equipment for it to taste delicious.
As long as the pan gives the ingredients enough room to make contact with the heated surface, you can still make great stir-fry dishes at home.
Now that we’ve covered the basics of cooking Yasai Itame, I hope you will have more reasons to incorporate healthy vegetables into your family cooking.
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Stir-Fried Vegetables (Yasai Itame)
Video
Ingredients
- 6.5 oz thinly sliced pork (or your choice of meat, seafood, or mushrooms; skip for vegan/vegetarian)
- 10 snow peas (1 oz, 30 g)
- ¼ onion (3 oz, 90 g)
- ¼ green cabbage (7 oz, 200 g)
- ½ carrot (3 oz, 90 g)
- 1 clove garlic
- 2–3 slices ginger (sliced off a 1-inch, 2.5-cm knob)
- 1 Tbsp neutral oil
- 3.5 oz bean sprouts (2 cups; loosely packed)
For the Seasonings
- 1 tsp oyster sauce (if you‘re vegetarian or allergic to shellfish, use Lee Kum Kee Vegetarian Stir-Fry Sauce)
- 1 tsp soy sauce (for gluten-free, use GF soy sauce)
- ½ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
- 2 tsp toasted sesame oil
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- Cut 6.5 oz thinly sliced pork into smaller, bite-sized pieces. Then, put the meat in a small bowl. Add 1 tsp soy sauce and 1 tsp sake for the marinade to the bowl. Toss with the pork and set aside to marinate.
- Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables. Remove the strings from 10 snow peas. Cut ¼ onion into thin slices.
- Cut ¼ green cabbage into 1-inch (2.5-cm) pieces.
- Cut ½ carrot into slabs 2 inches (5 cm) long, then cut the slabs into matchsticks.
- Crush or mince 1 clove garlic (I use a garlic press). Then, mince the 2–3 slices ginger.
To Stir-Fry
- Heat a large frying pan or wok on medium-high heat. Once it’s hot, add 1 Tbsp neutral oil. Then, add the garlic and ginger and coat in the oil using tongs or a spatula. Once it‘s fragrant, add the meat and stir-fry until it’s about 80% cooked. Alternatively, you can cook the meat until it‘s no longer pink and remove it from the pan, then add your meat back in when all the veggies are cooked. This will keep the meat from overcooking.
- Next, add the onion and stir-fry until almost tender. Then, add the carrot and toss. Tip: If you are going to add other kinds of vegetables that are not in the recipe, start cooking the thicker and tougher vegetables first as they take a longer time to cook.
- Once the carrot starts to get tender, add the cabbage and snow peas. Continue to stir and cook the ingredients.
- Add 3.5 oz bean sprouts and toss again. Next, add 1 tsp oyster sauce and 1 tsp soy sauce and stir well.
- Season with ½ tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste. Finally, drizzle in 2 tsp toasted sesame oil. Toss one last time, then remove the pan from the heat.
To Serve
- Enjoy immediately. This dish is fantastic with rice and miso soup on the side.
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for 3 days or in the freezer for 2 weeks.
Nutrition
Editor’s Note: The post was originally published on July 17, 2015. The post has been republished with updated content on November 14, 2017.
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Your recipe was the inspiration of a delicious noodle dish, as I added some to the pan at the very end and it turned out really well!
Hi Rolanda! I’m so glad to hear that it worked! I agree, this dish is very easy to use in different recipes!
I cooked this tonight and it was AMAZING! Will definitely be making this again!
Hi Em! Aww I’m so happy to hear that. Thank you so much for your kind feedback! 🙂
once everything was chopped, it only took 15 minutes. I used a small meat tenderizer to make the pork even thiner. This recipe will definitely be added to the rotation of week night dinners! 🙂
Hi Stephanie! Yes, it’s quick and delicious, not only that I like that I can use small pieces of vegetables left in the fridge. 😀 Thank you for trying this recipe. I’m so glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
It’s versatile, alright! I like stir fry a lot, can’t go wrong with the ingredients. Moreover, it’s a way to ensure I eat vegetables everyday… ≧∇≦
Hi Tunjung! That’s true! 🙂 I love this dish – all the vegetables shrink to small amount so I feel like I am eating lots of veggies. 🙂
This looks yummy…I’m curious, why the addition of salt??? Couldn’t I just increase Soy sauce rather than adding salt…thanks
Hi Ojailyn! Glad you asked this question because I get the similar questions from other people too. 🙂
Salt enhances the flavor without adding flavor, in this case soy sauce. Sometimes you just need the kick, not the soy sauce flavor. Salt also brings different flavors together, kind of like tying up. So in another word, can soy sauce do the same job, enhancing or tying up the flavors? No, it’s just for flavoring. Plus, let’s say you need saltiness. A pinch of salt may not be equal to whatever amount of soy sauce. So… simply, if you need to enhance the flavor, add salt. 🙂
Good evening, my name is Jackie from Mexico City, I wanted to ask you if the bean sprots can be previously deeped in hot water (dont know the correct name) so that they are tender but crispy before the stir fry process?
Hi Jackie! I think you mean you boil (blanch) bean sprouts in boiling water, right? You don’t have to because that will overcook the bean sprout. It’s nice to have some crunch (but this is also preference). If you buy a big bag of bean sprouts, use for this, and the leftover should be blanched so it’ll stay longer. I have other bean sprout recipes here on my blog in case you want to use it up before they go bad (and they do so fast…). Hope this helps!
Hi! This looks really delicious and I cant wait to try it! However, I am curious as to if it is still good after a day or two in the fridge, as I cook the night before due to me being a student and not having the time to cook everyday
Hi Nico! It’s probably personal preference, but I do not mind eating day-old stir fry veggies. If you love crisp veggies, maybe day-old and reheated stir fry might not be your favorite, but a day or two is good with me, and food is okay. Hope you enjoy this recipe! 🙂
I love the vegetables and the small recipe as I am alone. I don’t like seafood so I have to pick my dishes carefully. I lived in Japan i 1959 and 1960. my husband was in USN. I had first baby there. Was difficult with all the fish smell.. o sorry we could not try some of the dishes there. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Virgin! Japan is surrounded by the ocean so our cuisine is filled with seafood! 😀 In a way, it must have been quite difficult to avoid seafood there. Hope you found some favorite non-seafood dishes while living there! 🙂
Can you add shirataki noodles?
Hi Marie! Sure! 🙂
Cooking this one up for the family tonight and can’t wait. What is the optimal time to marinate the pork and does the cut of pork make a difference?
All the best,
Matt
Hi Matt! Sorry my answer might be too late (time difference…). You don’t really need to marinate for long time – I only marinated this pork while I’m prepping (therefore I didn’t specify exact time). I use thinly sliced pork loin. Hope you enjoy(ed) this recipe!
Turned out good. Thanks 🙂
Wonderful! Thanks so much for your kind words!
Hi Nami! I have a question regarding the wok/pan that you linked to. They both look the same to me! Can you please check the link for the non stick pan you referred to? I LOVE stir fry and all vegetables would be great for a light, summer meal. Thank you!
Hi Donna! Oops, sorry, I probably did’nt copy right. Here’s teh right link: http://amzn.to/1e8LDUK.
Hope you enjoy this quick dish this summer. Thanks so much for reading my post! 🙂
I really liked the tips you included! I always worry about ingredients not cooking evenly, so I’ll use some of your tips next time. When I make stir fry, I usually add a little cornstarch with the marinade for the meat because I find it helps keep the meat more tender during the cooking process.
Hi Kimmi! Adding cornstarch in the marinade is typical in Chinese cooking but it’s not a very common technique in Japanese cooking. We usually put sake, soy sauce, and some other stuff. 🙂 I’m glad to hear you liked my tips. I always wonder if I can call them “tip” but I’m glad I included. Thanks Kimmi!