Cabbage Stir Fry
Updated May 17, 2024
This Cabbage Stir Fry recipe with ramen noodles is absolutely delicious! Top with sweet chili sauce for a dinner that will rival your favorite takeout.
This cabbage stir fry is so delicious!
It’s no secret that I have a love for homemade stir fry recipes and this cabbage stir fry is one that I find myself making again and again. I have been making this recipe for years now and to this day I would say it’s in my top 10 of my favorite recipes to make from my blog!
Stir fry is one of our favorite types of dinners to make. This recipe that I am sharing today is just 10 ingredients and so easy to make. Everyone who tries it raves about how good it is!
You can find the full recipe and ingredients in the recipe card at the bottom of this post, but here is what you’ll need to make this recipe.
Ingredients and Notes
- ramen noodles: flavor packets discarded
- thinly sliced green cabbage: or substitute purple cabbage. Try coleslaw mix for a faster alternative.
- fresh ginger: minced
- fresh garlic: minced
- grated carrots: grate them yourself or save time and buy pre shredded carrots in the produce section
- yellow onion: diced
- sesame oil
- stir fry sauce: this homemade 3 ingredient recipe is the best!
- sweet chili sauce, for topping
Can I make this gluten free?
If you are gluten free, you can make this recipe gluten free by using brown rice ramen noodles! The texture is slightly different, but I have used them before and they are still good.
How to make Cabbage Stir Fry
Step 1: Remove the core from a green cabbage and thinly slice the cabbage until you measure 5 cups worth.
The core is tough, so we don’t want to use that part of the cabbage in this recipe. Try to slice it as thinly as possible for best texture.
Recipe Tip
To save time, some readers have noted that they buy bags of coleslaw mix at the store to use for this recipe with great results!
Step 2: Grate the carrots and finely mince the ginger and garlic. These are what give stir fry that next level flavor.
If you have never bought fresh ginger in the store, just look for it in your produce section. It comes in long knobs which look like roots.
To prepare your ginger, just cut off the peeling with a knife, then slice and dice until the ginger is in very small minced pieces.
You can also use the back of a spoon to scrape off the peel, it takes a little bit longer, but often yields more ginger.
Step 3: Peel and dice up a yellow onion. Once all of your vegetables are prepped, it is time to start cooking the stir fry.
Step 4: In a large skillet or jumbo cooker combine the cabbage, ginger, garlic, carrots, onion, and 2 tablespoons of sesame oil.
You do not need a wok to make this recipe, any large skillet type pan will work!
Step 5: Turn the heat to medium high and stir often, until the cabbage is wilted and the onion is soft as pictured below. This will take around 15 – 20 minutes.
Stir every few minutes to make sure the vegetables cook evenly. This will cook the cabbage down until it is nice and soft.
Step 6: When the veggies are close to being done cooking, prepare the ramen noodles. These only take a few minutes to make. Discard the ramen noodle packets, you don’t need those. Cook the ramen noodles according to the package instructions, then drain.
Step 7: Make the 3 ingredient stir fry sauce and shake all the ingredients together. This is the sauce that I use in every stir fry recipe that I make, it is so easy and always tastes amazing! A good sauce is important to any homemade stir fry recipe.
Step 8: Once the ramen noodles are cooked, add them to the cabbage stir fry.
Pour the homemade stir fry sauce over the top. It won’t look like much sauce at first, but the flavor is very strong and will work just right for the amount of ingredients in this recipe.
It is a highly concentrated sauce, so the little bit goes a long way.
Cook the cabbage stir fry for an additional 3 – 5 minutes, stirring well, until the sauce coats the entire stir fry. The cornstarch part of the sauce is what will cause it to thicken and start to coat the ingredients of the stir fry.
Just keep mixing until all of the veggies and noodles are coated.
I find tongs to work best for mixing the noodles evenly into the vegetables. Everything is going to stick together in clumps at first.
From here you can taste and add more soy sauce (if you like a saltier stir fry), or you’re ready to eat!
Grab a bowl and serve up this cabbage stir fry! This makes a very large amount and the leftovers are just as good heated up the next day.
How to serve & store leftovers
Serving: This cabbage stir fry is best served with sweet chili sauce on top. You can also add protein of choice, such as tofu, chicken, beef, or plant-based meat.
Storing: leftover cabbage stir fry can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
More Stir Fry Favorites
Cabbage Stir Fry
Ingredients
- 9 oz ramen noodles, flavor packets discarded
- 5 cups thinly sliced green cabbage
- 1/4 cup minced fresh ginger
- 6 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 cup grated carrots
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
For the sauce
for topping
- sweet chili sauce to taste, for serving
Instructions
- Remove the core from a green cabbage and thinly slice 5 cups worth of cabbage
- Dice the yellow onion and mince the fresh garlic and ginger
- Grate the carrots
- Add the sliced cabbage, ginger, garlic, carrots, onion, and sesame oil to a large skillet or jumbo cooker
- Cook over medium high heat, stirring often, for 15 – 20 minutes, or until cabbage is wilted and onion is softened
- In the last 5 minutes of cook time, prepare the ramen noodles according to package instructions
- Once the cabbage stir fry is done, add in the cooked ramen noodles and homemade stir fry sauce (recipe linked in the recipe ingredients)
- Cook for 3 – 5 minutes until well coated and combined
- Add soy sauce to taste, if desired (I did not add any more)
- Serve stir fry topped with sweet chili sauce
Thanks FOR Sharing!! ♥️This LOOKS YUMMY!!!
My husband and I loved it; We had a good time making it together using the whole head of cabbage and carrots from our CSA, plus pickled ginger, a red onion and fresh garlic. Left out the chili sauce (kids are averse to spices) and it was still so great. We cooked up chicken feta spinach brats in the air fryer to go with it. Very good dinner. We followed the stir fry sauce recipe exactly, and it was so easy with the soy sauce, sesame oil and corn starch. If we make it again, we will probably go easy on the sesame oil during the initial stir fry knowing there will be more oil later.
Using rice noodles does NOT make this recipe gluten free. Sweet chili sauce may have traces of wheat, and soy sauce has wheat. Both are on the no-no list for Celiac patients.
If you read the stir fry sauce, it calls for gluten free soy sauce or tamari. Sweet chili sauce is an optional topping to the stir fry and not required.
@Andrea Moore, use millet pasta capellini for gluten free and lectin free. They are available @ Big Green organice food and cook up really good and tasty. I have used them with this recipe and it was great.
I don’t want to sound super lazy, but can I use a coleslaw mix instead of slicing cabbage? The recipe sounds terrific can’t wait to try it. Btw, the cabbage slicing isn’t necessarily a deal breaker, I just want to know if it’s an option.
I think that sounds like a great idea! let me know how it turns out 🙂
Just a couple of thoughts on fresh ginger… When found in the produce section it looks like roots because it IS a root !! And the very worst way to peel it is with a knife (unless you are Very Good). To have as much ginger left as possible, use the tip of a spoon, preferably a teaspoon, to get in all the crevices, and scrape the skin off. Easy Peazy !!
So good. I used red cabbage and sprinkled with sesame seeds. Omitted the garlic and used frozen cubes of fresh ginger. Such a versatile recipe, as you can put pretty much any vegetable in it. Thanks!
I’ll love to make this sounds delicious, is 5 cups of cabbage one whole cabbage give or take?.
No, it was around half or 2/3 of one for me! Cabbage varies in size so much that that is why I measured it out in cups.
For me it was just a hair over 5 cups. The cabbage was not very big
Can I use ground ginger I don’t have fresh
I ended the other day up with a bunch of cabbage and found this recipe on Pinterest looking for what to do with all my cabbage. I lacked carrots so I used up some veggies that were dearly needing to be eaten and then added some pork chops (those kind that taste like ham- just cut the meat off the bone). It was SO GOOD!! We LOVED it! The only problem was that I just made half the recipe because it seemed like so much cabbage. And with the shrinkage it didn’t make as much as I wanted. It was actually enough, but I wanted more! Seriously, I think I’m going to repeat it tomorrow as I still have tones of cabbage to use up and I still have half the sauce. We loved the sauce you recommended and will be using it for other stir fries as well. My husband, in particular, who rarely responds to what I make, really raved over this. That makes it a winner in my book!
Thank you for the kind and thoughtful comment, Linda! I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe!
I made it. I love this recipe. It is delicious.