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!
Took me awhile to cook this on my crummy electric stove/regular skillet pan, but this was sooooo good. My only edits were a couple pinches of MSG and a few drops of fish sauce. Trying not to eat the entire pan for lunch right now.
Hi RS, happy to hear you are enjoying the vegetable Moo Shu. Hope you made the pancakes too because they are easy to make, chewy, and delicious!
This is such a good recipe. I was short on vegetables, and ended up filling the recipe out with napa cabbage, which was a great addition and added to the bulk. Because time was short, I made some thin crepes for wrappers instead of the proper one. I will be making this again. Brilliant recipe.
Hi Elyn, this is a perfect vegetable fridge clean-up recipe. Nice job cooking!
My local stores don’t carry 5-spice tofu. I have 5-spice powder. If I use it to flavor the vegetable mixture would that work as a substitute, or do you have a recipe for 5-spice tofu?
Hi Lezlie, we have a 5 spice tofu recipe in the works. For now, you can also use plain firm tofu that you have pan-fried with salt and just a pinch of 5 spice powder.
After trying multiple recipes from this website and each one being a hit, I decided to try a vegetarian dish for my little sister. Let me tell you, SHE COULDN’T GET ENOUGH!! From the vibrant colors to refreshing aroma, what’s there not to love?! While I did have a bit of trouble getting the mandarin pancakes thin enough, they still turned out well. I can’t wait to try more recipes and hopefully learn more skills along the way to take to college with me!
Love it Emma! Your little sister is very lucky to have you :)
OH MY GOD I DO NOT EVEN HAVE THE WORDS TO DESCRIBE HOW INCREDIBLE THIS WAS! Seriously though, these were phenomenal. I was unable to find the spiced tofu at my local Asian market but I doubled up on the mushrooms and it was still amazing. Your family is such an incredible asset to the food blogging world— I have learned so much about Chinese cooking from you and I truly appreciate these recipes that teach me something new every time! This might be my favorite Woks of Life recipe yet!
All I can say is Woohoo Alex!
Wonderful recipe—it was so filling and flavorful, and I enjoyed making the Mandarin pancakes! (I grew up making tortillas with my grandma.) My family enjoyed having this for dinner this evening, therefore, it will be added to my compendium of recipes. Thank you for sharing this with us!
You’re welcome Aimee!