Zing-a-ling Veggie Noodle Stir-fry
Billy reacts to onion, garlic, chilli, curry and anything you could reasonably call a spice. This is the stir-fry that came out of asking an AI for flavour without any of them — ginger, rice vinegar and sesame doing the work the garlic usually does. It has been on high rotation at our place ever since.
Serves 4 · Prep 10 minutes · Cook 15 minutes · Vegetarian option below
Ingredients
- 250g fresh sliced ‘superfood’ vegetable mix (wombok, kale, broccoli stalks, red cabbage, carrot)
- 300g boneless, skinless free-range chicken breast, sliced into bite-sized pieces (optional)
- 200g sliced mushrooms
- 450g fresh Hokkien noodles
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ cup chicken or vegetable broth
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons grated ginger
- ¼ cup crushed toasted nuts or sesame seeds, to garnish
Method
- In a small bowl, whisk together the fish sauce, hoisin, soy sauce, Worcestershire, tomato paste, black pepper, broth, rice vinegar and brown sugar. Set aside.
- Heat the olive oil and sesame oil in a large wok or skillet over high heat.
- Add the chicken and stir-fry until lightly browned and cooked through, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate. For a vegetarian version, simply omit the free-range chicken.
- Add the mushrooms to the wok and stir-fry for 2–3 minutes, until they start to brown.
- Add the vegetable mix and grated ginger, and stir-fry for another 2–3 minutes.
- Return the chicken to the wok along with the sauce mixture and the Hokkien noodles.
- Toss everything together for 2–3 minutes, letting the noodles heat through and take up the sauce.
- Garnish with toasted sesame seeds, crushed peanuts or other nuts.
- Serve hot, and enjoy the zing-a-ling flavours.
A note on labels
If you are cooking around the same restrictions we do, check the bottles. Many hoisin and Worcestershire sauces list garlic or onion powder, and some fish sauces include garlic. Swap in a garlic-free hoisin, or leave the Worcestershire out and add an extra teaspoon of rice vinegar.
The prompt behind the recipe
Hello! I am cooking for someone who reacts badly to [onion, garlic, chilli and strong spices]. I would like to make [a stir-fry] that is still genuinely flavourful without them. I have [rice noodles, whatever is in the crisper, ginger, lime, soy sauce] and [30 minutes]. Tell me where the flavour can come from instead, then give me a recipe with ingredients, instructions and a catchy name.
Change the words in brackets and it becomes your recipe, for your kitchen. Works in the free version of ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot or Gemini.
