Cabbage Stir Fry is easy to make and super tasty as a meal or a side dish!
This easy recipe is packed with all the good stuff! Sweet cabbage and carrots, ramen noodles (optional!), and fresh garlic and ginger are all sautéed together to make a healthy dish that goes from the stovetop to the table in minutes!
A Colorful Cabbage Stir Fry
- Healthy and delicious, cabbage is both inexpensive and tasty!
- This dish takes just minutes to make and tastes great making it perfect for weeknight meals.
- Stir-fries are affordable, filling, and healthy.
- The whole family will love how versatile this dish is, switch up the ingredients for a new entrée every time.
- Save time and use a bag or two of pre-packaged slaw that comes with shredded carrots, and often shredded spinach, brussels sprouts, or kale!
What’s in Cabbage Stir Fry
CABBAGE: Regular cabbage AKA, ‘cannonball’ stays firm while it absorbs the juicy sauce in this recipe. Shredded Napa, purple cabbage, and Savoy will all work in this recipe. Use a mixture of cabbages for a colorful dish! FUN FACT: Cauliflower, brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, kale, and Bok Choy are also members of the cabbage family and can be used as well!
MEAT: Keep the vegetarian vibe going and add tofu, seitan, or some scrambled eggs for a protein boost. Ground beef or pork sausage, shredded chicken, shrimp, and bacon crumbles will definitely make cabbage stir fry a heartier main dish meal!
NOODLES: Ramen is economical, easy to find, and even easier to prepare! Soba, udon, rice noodles, and egg noodles are other options. For a keto dish, use ‘zoodles’ (zucchini), palmini (hearts of palm), or shirataki noodles.
VEGETABLES: Aside from color carrots in this recipe, add a bag of frozen veggies like green beans with peas and pearl onions, broccoli, spinach, cauliflower, baby corn, or water chestnuts. The sky’s the limit!
SAUCE: Homemade sauce can be made as sweet or spicy as you like! Use this homemade teriyaki recipe as a cabbage stir fry sauce, a marinade, or a glaze!
Switch It Up!
The basics are cabbage, fresh seasonings, and a savory sauce with an ‘umami’ flavor profile. After that, add in any meats, veggies, or noodles that you like. This is a great recipe for using up leftover meats and veggies, too!
How to Make Cabbage Stir Fry
This easy to make dish is simplicity itself:
- Whisk the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside (per the recipe below).
- Cook ramen noodles as directed on the package, reserving 1/3 of the cooking water.
- Cook sliced cabbage and carrots with garlic and ginger until tender.
- Add sauce and ramen and cook until bubbly and heated through.
Remove from heat and garnish with sliced green onions and optional sesame seeds.
PRO TIP: Cut green onions diagonally for a restaurant-worthy plate presentation!
Storing Stir Fry
Keep garlic cabbage stir fry in a covered container in the refrigerator for about 4 days. Serve cold or reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop. Cooked cabbage freezes beautifully for up to 4 weeks!
Better Than Take-out
- Easy Mongolian Beef – almost famous
- Chicken Udon Stir Fry – perfect weeknight meal
- Kung Pao Shrimp – so flavorful with a kick
- Pork Stir Fry – loaded with veggies
- Beef and Broccoli – a reader favorite
Did you make this Cabbage Stir Fry? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Garlic Cabbage Stir Fry
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 teaspoons ginger minced
- 3 green onions
- 4 cups shredded cabbage or slaw mix
- 1 carrot grated or julienned
- 1 package ramen noodles seasoning packet discarded
Sauce
- 3 tablespoons hoisin sauce or teriyaki sauce, plus additional for serving
- 1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 ½ teaspoons rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- ½ teaspoon sriracha or sambal oelek
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
Instructions
- Thinly slice the green onions separating the white and green parts. Mix the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
- In a small pot boil ramen noodles according to package directions. Reserve ⅓ cup of the cooking water. Drain and set aside.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, ginger and the whites of the green onions. Cook just until fragrant.
- Add the cabbage and carrots and cook until slightly tender, about 3-5 minutes.
- Add the sauce, noodles, and 2 tablespoons of the reserved cooking water or more as needed. Stir while cooking until the cabbage is tender.
- Remove from heat and garnish with the remaining green onion and sesame seeds. Drizzle with additional hoisin or teriyaki sauce if desired.
Notes
- If using bottled teriyaki sauce, ensure it's one that is thick (like bbq sauce).
- For a low carb dish, skip the ramen noodles and add additional cabbage.
- Cabbage can be replaced with coleslaw mix, it will cook faster than cabbage.
- Cooked chicken or shrimp can be added.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dinner, Entree
Cuisine American, Asian© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
I really enjoyed this recipe and will definitely make it again. I had some leftover pork chops which I cut up and added. It was great! Shrimp, chicken, or beef leftovers chopped up and mixed in would also be good, I’m sure. Thank you for sharing!
Sounds delicious, Tia Jen! Thank you for sharing.
Another great SWP recipe! I followed the recipe exactly and added veggies as suggested. Based on the compliments I got, I have a feeling I’ll be making this quite frequently. Thanks!
So happy to hear that, Bunny!
This is my favorite recipe. Whenever I feel like Chinese I make it for myself. So clean and delicious tasting. Only change…I use angel hair pasta for the noodles. Another great Holly recipe!
I made this recipe and very much enjoyed it. I did add some finally sliced celery. Yummy. And it was easy to make, quick.
Thank you Holly for your website and your recipes!!! I love cooking websites that are centered around budgeting and buying practical-every day ingredients. Makes me truly happy. I wish to be a full-time cook one day and lead in-person, or on the road cooking classes. Cooking is a life skill that absolutely everyone needs to know- no excuses! My mother cooked for me every single day of my childhood life, and now as a 29 year old living on my own..I realize that that was a blessing. Thank you for your content. This page has a really pretty layout too.
The only comment I would make in this recipe is to omit the brown sugar and maybe put 2 tablespoons of hoisin sauce instead of 3. Or perhaps keep the brown sugar, and try 2 tablespoons of hoisin. I will play around with that.
I am passionate about nutrition and diet, because of it’s central importance in preventative health, and am studying to be a health coach, so I don’t say this to be a downer- I love sweet things and I also love what our bodies do for us! I think the recipe is perfectly tasty with just a little less sugar.
I will be re-making this to see how I like the reduced sugar approach.
Again, thank you Holly.
I added ground pork to this (cooked in a separate pan and added at the end) and thought I would need to dress it up with additional soy, or Hoisin, but the sweetness of the rice wine and the pep of the ginger were in perfect balance with the salty aspects. I love this website for searching how to use leftover ingredients in my fridge from other meals. I had a half a cabbage…and voila! I have made her Hungarian Goulash as well and will make the chicken parm over spagetti squash with the other half of one I have in the freezer. Great website! Look forward to using it all the time!
I am so glad you’ve been enjoying the recipes Lewpie!
Fast, Easy, & Delicious! Thank you for a stress free dinner on a busy Tuesday night!
I am so glad you enjoyed this recipe Kennedy!
I had fun with this recipe! I made the sauce as written and it was delicious. But since I had a drawerful of CSA veggies needing to be used, I took your suggestion and adjusted for I had: fresh white onion instead of green onions, sliced green garlic, and green beans & kohlrabi in addition to the cabbage and carrot. (Great excuse to pull out the spiralizer.) I didn’t have any ramen but did have rice noodles and they worked perfectly. Finally, added some scrambled eggs for protein. Yum. Thanks!
Yum Yum Yum! That sounds so good, Michelle!
Hello, how many grams is your packet of ramen? I’m in the UK and in most supermarkets 1 packet serves 1 person (80-100g including weight of seasoning packet inside).
Hi Debbie, our packets of ramen are about the same size (80-100g). Any of those packets should work well for this recipe.
Super yum. Add some chopped peanuts on top !!!
I was trying to find a way to use up a head of cabbage and this was very tasty! Going in the rotation for sure. I added tofu which worked really well with the sauce.
I made this yesterday. It was absolutely awesome! I didn’t need to make any modifications beyond the ones suggested in the blog. I can’t wait to make this again and again on rotation for my lunch. It was delicious and very filling!
We love this!!! I added cubed zucchini and water chestnuts too. I’ll definitely make this again!
This was absolutely delicious! A little hot for me, but I’ll just cut down the next time. I will sooooo be making this again. Looks like it would be easy to add shrimp, chicken, etc. also. Thanks!
So glad you loved it Spike, this is great with shrimp or chicken!
You didn’t say anything about when to add the noodles…
They are added in step 5. Sorry for the confusion.
Hello I can’t wait to try your recipes thanks for sharing
Angel Hugs
Hope you love it as much as we do!
I am going to make this (with some kind of fish) for Friday–it looks delish, Holly. Thanks!
We hope you love it, Therese!