Vegetable Moo Shu is healthy and vegan, but it’s also just plain delicious. We’re pretty confident that anyone will enjoy this dish. Not just vegans and vegetarians.
It’s one of those dishes that makes us happy to eat less meat and more vegetables at a meal.
Note: This recipe was originally published in September 2017. It has since been updated with clearer photos and metric measurements! The recipe remains the same as before—enjoy!
The Complete Moo Shu Experience
This moo shu recipe comes complete with mandarin pancakes. The combination of the chewy texture of the pancakes, the crunchy fresh vegetables, and meaty tofu has become a family favorite.
A great mandarin pancake is key to a good moo shu experience. We perfected it with our Moo Shu Chicken recipe and our Easy Peking Duck. For the best results, remember to reheat the pancakes in a steamer right before serving!
Get the Mandarin Pancakes recipe!
See the full process of making mandarin pancakes (with step-by-step photos) in our Easy Peking Duck recipe.
We intentionally made this vegetable moo shu recipe quick and easy, with more accessible ingredients.
That said, feel free to use dried shiitake mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, and dried lily flowers, which are more traditional ingredients.
We used some of these Chinese ingredients in our Moo Shu Chicken. You’ll also find wood ears in Judy’s more authentic mainland China version of Chinese Moo Shu Pork.
Why Cook the Ingredients Separately
This vegan moo shu comes together quickly once you have separately stir-fried the celery, peppers, five-spiced tofu, mushrooms, and carrots.
This gives an extra richness to the dish, and keeps the dish from getting too wet from cooking all of the different vegetables at once.
This method also helps maintain high heat for cooking with a wok on most average home stovetops.
Ok, on to the recipe!
Vegetable Moo Shu Recipe Instructions
Stir together the light soy sauce, sesame oil, hoisin sauce, fresh ground white pepper, and salt, and set aside.
Heat your wok over high heat with ½ tablespoon oil, and stir-fry the julienned carrots for 90 seconds. Remove and set aside.
Using the same method, with ½ tablespoon oil each, cook the five-spice tofu, celery, red bell pepper, and fresh Shiitake mushrooms separately, and set those aside.
Be careful not to overcook the vegetables. 90 seconds is really all you need, or you’ll have a mushy moo shu filling!
Next, heat the wok over high heat with the remaining tablespoon of oil, and add the minced garlic and leeks.
Stir fry until the leeks are just wilted (about 2 minutes). Then add the carrots, spiced tofu, celery, bell pepper, and mushrooms back to the wok.
Spread the Shaoxing wine around the perimeter of the wok, and add the sauce mixture you prepared earlier. Stir fry everything together for another minute.
Serve immediately with steamed Mandarin pancakes and hoisin sauce on the side!
Vegetable Moo Shu
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce (plus extra for serving)
- ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 ½ tablespoons vegetable oil (divided)
- 1 1/2 cups carrot (julienned, about 1 to 2 small/medium carrots)
- 4 ounces spiced tofu (julienned)
- 1½ cups celery (julienned)
- 1 red bell pepper (thinly sliced)
- 6 fresh Shiitake mushrooms (thinly sliced)
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 leek (julienned, about 3 cups)
- 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine
- Mandarin pancakes (recipe can be found here)
Instructions
- Stir together the light soy sauce, sesame oil, hoisin sauce, white pepper, and salt, and set aside.
- Heat your wok over high heat with ½ tablespoon oil. Stir-fry the julienned carrots for 90 seconds, remove, and set aside. Using the same method, with ½ tablespoon oil each–cook the spiced tofu, celery, red bell pepper, and shiitake mushrooms separately, and set those aside.
- Next, heat the wok over high heat with the remaining tablespoon of oil, and add the minced garlic and leeks.
- Stir fry the vegetables until the leeks are just wilted (about 2 minutes), and add the carrots, five-spiced tofu, celery, bell pepper, and mushrooms back to the wok.
- Spread the Shaoxing wine around the perimeter of the wok, and add the sauce mixture we prepared earlier. Stir-fry everything together for another minute.
- Serve immediately with steamed Mandarin pancakes and hoisin sauce on the side!
wow so yum
every recipe of yours that I’ve tried has been spot on. Pics and videos are so helpful.
and can’t say enough about the ingredient pages explaining every sauce, vegetable, cooking technique, etc. You have been my life saver during quarantine! Thank you from my family to yours !
Hi Theresa, thank you so much for your appreciation. Keep up the great cooking!
This recipe was wonderful! It’s very adaptable. Taste even better the next day. Very easy. Lends its self to any variety of vegetables. Delicious!
Good to hear you liked this veggie moo shu Linda. You have the right idea to vary your own choice of veggies ;-)
Can I substitute shredded cabbage for celery? Would it be the same amount as if using celery?
Hi Stacie, yes, that works. The recipe is pretty forgiving when it comes to the variety of vegetables you can use.
Totally worth the effort. Great vego dinner. Pancakes are very satisfying to make. Sauce on the vegetables at the end of cooking has a lovely balance. Will become a regular for us. Thanks!
Hi Stuart, I also enjoy making and eating these pancakes ;-)
We made this recipe when we were trying to be vegetarian about a month ago. It is a little time consuming for me to make since I am not quite skilled at cutting veggies super thin. Also I have to admit I was a little bit lazy with the DIY and used a flour tortilla instead of mandarin pancakes. Still, Vegetarian Moo Shu is a pretty awesome Chinese vegetarian dish and using a tortilla in my opinion didn’t make it any less tasty! My sister is vegan and I have recommended your website from some lovely vegan Chinese recipes! Thanks for sharing your recipe!
Hi Christine, cooking is definitely a labor of love!
Been eying this recipe for awhile and finally had a chance to make it!! I’m not huge on celery so subbed for baby bok choy and that seemed to work fine. Also used reconstituted mushrooms rather than fresh. Overall, a really good recipe that’s really filling. I wasn’t sure how it was going to be, since I’m not always a big veggie fan, but the variety of vegetables worked really well together, making the dish texturally satisfying and thoroughly tasty.
I had some issues with the mandarin pancakes– they stuck together so I couldn’t peel them apart after cooking. I suspect that I needed to oil them better before rolling them out. They were still really yummy, and surprisingly easy.
This makes a huge amount, so I’ll be eating the leftovers for a couple of days! (And probably will need to try my hand at the pancakes again since I ended up getting only 6 instead of a dozen)
Hi Elise, the pancakes do take some practice, and using enough oil is important. Sometimes they stick together if the dough is too moist, so pay attention to that as well. Happy cooking!
The flavor of these veggies in the sauce was great! I avoided making mandarin pancakes due to fear of taking too long and never doing it before. I definitely need to try it sometime though. I substituted in the “crispy sichuan potato cakes” – you can’t go wrong there, those potatoes are amazing.
Hi Scott, your are so right about the crispy Sichuan potato cakes, but you definitely have to make the mandarin pancakes. They take multiple steps to make the dough, roll them out, and then cook them in the frying pan/wok, but it’s totally worth it!
What is the weight of the 5-spice tofu to be used?
Hi Andrew, Good question! It is about 4 ounces and thanks to your question, I updated the recipe. Happy cooking!
This sounds great. Quick question – Would these pancakes work for chao bing?
Hi Roxanne, these pancakes are a little thin for Chao bing but they should work. I have chao bing on my to-cook list as well. ;-) For those of you reading this comment, chao bing is like a stir fried noodle, except you cut the pancakes into thin strips and serve them as noodles!
Hi,
I’d love to try this – but have a few Q’s for U. To prepare your vegetables, what method/tool do you use to slice/julienne them? If one does not own (and can not purchase a wok) what other kitchen pot (and material) would you recommend? Where do you obtain the rice wine recommended? And finally, how do we prepare 5-spice tofu. I love five-spice powder. do we just allow the tofu to sit in a paste of the spice? Thanks.
Just an observation – it’s refreshing to find a recipe that does not use very much Hoisin sauce. Often times I find the Moo Shu veggies to be too salty. This recipe seems to get it right – tho’ have not prepared it myself!
Hi Savvy Sue, I used a chef’s knife to prepare the vegetables but you can use a mandolin if you have one. If you don’t have a wok, a sauté pan will do just fine. For all of the Chinese ingredients including the Shaoxing wine and the five spice tofu, follow the links in the recipe to get more details on each ingredient and where to buy them. Making the five spiced tofu is quite involved, so I would recommend that you purchase it from an Asian grocery store. Happy cooking!