Quick Vegan Stir Fry Sauce with Tahini

This versatile vegan stir fry sauce recipe will add tons of flavor to stir fries, grain bowls, and more. It has Asian-inspired flavors including soy sauce, miso, ginger, rice vinegar, and sesame oil. Tahini helps to make the sauce super creamy. Ready to use in 5 minutes!

Try it with my vegan tofu and bok choy stir fry.

As a Registered Dietitian, stir fries are one of my go-to healthy weeknight meals. We have stir fry once a week at my house!

The secret to a fantastic stir fry is a flavor-packed stir fry sauce.

We alternate between this tahini stir fry sauce and my vegan peanut sauce recipe.

This vegan stir fry sauce is really an all-purpose recipe – it tastes amazing drizzled onto just about any vegetable and protein.

Prep this recipe in 5 minutes to use right away or store in the fridge for later in the week. It makes enough sauce for 2-3 big stir fries.

This recipe is vegan, nut free, and dairy free.

Ingredients

Here is everything you need to make this recipe:

• Soy sauce: I use low sodium soy sauce in my cooking and for making sauces. You can also use tamari in place of soy sauce for a gluten-free alternative.
• Rice vinegar: Rice vinegar is a vinegar made from fermented rice. It has a mellow, sweet flavor that imparts a sweet acidity to this stir fry sauce.
• Toasted sesame oil: Toasted sesame oil has a more robust and pronounced flavor than regular sesame oil. For this reason, a little bit mixed sauces adds complexity.
• White miso paste (optional): Miso is a fermented soy product. White miso has the lightest, most mellow flavor when compared to yellow or red miso. I’ve made this stir fry sauce both with and without miso paste, and it tastes great either way. The miso adds a layer of savory complexity that is just delicious.
• Tahini: Tahini is a smooth paste made from ground sesame seeds. It has an earthy flavor that pairs well with the other ingredients in this sauce. The addition of smooth tahini also makes this sauce creamy and thickens it up a bit.
• Maple syrup: This vegan liquid sweetener adds a touch of sweetness to balance out the acidic and salty notes.
• Fresh ginger root: The flavor of fresh ginger is so much more impactful than dried. Grated into this sauce, it is spicy, warm, and zippy.
• Garlic: Fresh garlic grated into this sauce adds a zippy, fresh punch.
• Sriracha: A touch of sriracha adds a bit of heat to this sauce. Feel free to use another hot sauce you have on hand, and add as little or as much as you’d like!
• Corn starch: Corn starch is an excellent thickening agent for sauces. It helps the sauce cling to the stir fry ingredients. You can use potato starch or arrowroot powder instead, or just leave it out as this ingredient does not impact the flavor at all.

If you love flavorful homemade sauces, I have an entire collection of over 30 healthy homemade sauces, dressings, and dips!

Kitchen equipment needed

• Small-medium mixing bowl
• Small whisk or fork
• Measuring cups
• Measuring spoons
• Microplane grater

Step-by-step instructions

This recipe is super simple and easy to make!

Storage

If you don’t use this sauce right away, store it in an airtight container in the fridge. Use within one week. Give the sauce a stir if any separation occurs during storage.

I do not recommend freezing this sauce. The texture will likely change if frozen and defrosted.

Serving suggestions

Of course, this sauce is perfect for stir fries. But it’s super versatile! You can use it as:

• A yummy sauce for grain bowls
• As a marinade
• As a salad dressing for an Asian-inspired salad

How to make a vegetable stir fry

1. Chop vegetables into bite size pieces. You can use any vegetables you want – I love to use broccoli, mushrooms, and snap peas.
2. Heat up a wok, frying pan, or saute pan over medium-high heat.
3. Add about 2 tsp neutral oil with a high smoke point, such as avocado oil.
4. Add vegetables and season with a pinch of salt.
5. Saute the vegetables for 2-5 minutes, mixing frequently, until they are fork tender but still have some crunch.
6. Stir in any leafy greens you might be using until just wilted.
7. Reduce heat to low and pour in the stir fry sauce. Mix so that all the vegetables are evenly coated in the sauce.
8. Remove from heat and serve over rice or noodles and with protein of choice.

Tahini nutrition benefits

Tahini has a similar nutrient profile to nut butters, like peanut butter or almond butter. A one ounce serving of tahini (about two tablespoons) provides:

• 4.8 grams of plant-based protein
• 2.6 grams of dietary fiber (9% of your daily needs)
• 0.346 mg thiamine (29% of your daily needs)
• 0.134 mg riboflavin (10% of your daily needs)
• 1.545 mg niacin (10% of your daily needs)
• 9.75 mcg selenium (18% of your daily needs)
• 120.77 mg calcium (9% of your daily needs)
• 2.54 mg iron (14% of your daily needs)

A one ounce serving of tahini has about 15 grams of fat, but a majority of the fat comes from heart healthy mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Diets that include plenty of healthy fats like the ones in tahini can help reduce the risk of heart disease and reduce inflammation.

Let me know if you love this post by leaving a comment or star rating below, and check out Instagram and Pinterest for more healthy lifestyle inspiration. Thanks for stopping by!

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