Name: Vegan Instant Ramen Stir Fry
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 10 min
Cuisine: Korean
Ingredients: 2 bags of vegan instant ramen (I used Soon Veggie Noodle Soup Ramen, Nongshim brand); 1 green bell pepper, deseeded and sliced into long strips; 1/2 large onion, sliced into long strips; (Optional) crispy baked tofu pieces

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Vegan Instant Ramen Stir Fry – No need to spend money on takeout noodles when you can make your own in a flash! You only need 3 ingredients and 10 minutes.

What is instant ramen stir fry?

As the name suggests, the recipe in this post is my adaptation of using a prepackaged instant ramen noodles to make an easy stir fry noodles.

Ok... so I wasn't sure if this really counted as a "recipe" since I am using instant ramen as one of the ingredients. But I really love this vegan ramen (Soon Veggie Noodle Soup, from Nongshim) and I really love how easy this "recipe" is that I just had to share!

For the record, this is not a sponsored post nor did I receive any products for free– I've bought this ramen so many times while I was a graduate student and I still indulge in it from time to time. I just want everyone else to know that this vegan ramen is amazing and it's honestly so yummy as a vegetable stir fry.

This recipe is extremely budget friendly (<$2 per serving in its most basic form), can be made in under 10 minutes and requires just 3 main ingredients. But you are of course welcome to add additional vegetables or even some crispy baked tofu if you have access to an oven!

What do you need to make this instant ramen stir fry?

For this recipe, you only need the following 3 ingredients:

Vegan instant ramen (I used Soon Veggie Noodle Soup Ramen , Nongshim brand)
Green bell pepper
Red onion

I also decided to add some crispy baked tofu for protein, but this recipe is still delicious without it!

How do you make this instant ramen stir fry?

Deseed the bell pepper and cut into thin strips lengthwise. Do the same with the red onion.
Mix the soup powder with a little water until the powder is all dissolved.
Bring some water to a boil in a large flat pan. Add the instant noodles and the vegetable flakes (optional) and cook for 1 minute, while using tongs to separate out the noodles.
Drain the water and set the cooked noodles aside in a bowl.
In the same pan, add a little cooking oil (optional) and sauté the bell pepper and onion for about 3 minutes on medium heat until they start to soften. Add half of the soup base mixture.
Toss in the cooked noodles into the pan and mix until soup mixture is well incorporated into the noodles. You can add more soup base mixture to taste (to adjust saltiness level).

Tips and tricks...

Don't overcook the noodles. You should aim to turn off the heat after cooking the noodles for 1 minute. This is because the noodles will continue to cook while they are set aside (due to the inherent heat). Avoid soggy noodles by undercooking the noodles early. You will be able to cook them more when you are stir-frying them with the vegetables.
Customize how much soup base mix you put in. Because this instant ramen is designed to be consumed in a soup form, you may find that the noodles are too salty if you use all of the soup base powder. Customize the salt level (and the spice level) by adding half of the soup base mix first and adding more as you see fit.
Add some crispy baked tofu. Although this recipe is good as is, it tastes even better with the addition of some protein. If you have extra 30 minutes to spare and an access to an oven, I highly recommend you check out my crispy baked tofu recipe here!
Add additional vegetables. The green bell pepper and red onion combination is my go to for this stir fry recipe. But you can add any spare vegetables you have on hand to make this stir fry more nutritious! Some examples would be sliced carrots, cabbage, garlic, or yellow onion.

This vegan instant ramen stir fry is...

Made with just 3 ingredients
Made in under 10 minutes
Highly customizable and budget friendly (broke students, hello?)
A cheat recipe for those lazy days when you are craving some takeout stir fry!

Frequently asked questions

Can I use other kinds of instant ramen? Yes. I like Soon Ramen for its mildly spicy flavor but you can use any kind of vegan ramen. However, even though the ingredients might imply that the product is vegan, some ingredients are derived from animal sources. So I would recommend that you double check for an explicit vegan label before purchase.
Can I make this healthier? Because we discard the water the ramen was cooked in, we remove most of the oil from the noodles. If you want to make this dish have even less oil, just use a little vegetable stock or water instead of oil to sauté the veggies!

If your question isn't answered here, be sure to check out the comments section below. You might find the answer to your question down there. Otherwise, please leave a comment on this post so I can get back to you ASAP!

As always, thanks for reading!

Best,