1. Chinese Tomato and Egg Stir-Fry
15 min · Beginner · Home-Style (家常菜)
Naturally vegetarian and possibly the easiest dish here — sweet-savory tomatoes and soft scrambled egg over rice in about 15 minutes.
9 Vegetarian Chinese Recipes
By The Chowmi Test Kitchen · Updated June 5, 2026
Chinese cooking is one of the most naturally vegetarian-friendly cuisines there is — built on tofu, eggs, mushrooms, and a huge range of vegetables, with sauces that bring real depth without any meat. These meat-free Chinese recipes aren't sad substitutes; they're dishes people genuinely crave. A few were born vegetarian (tomato and egg, garlic-sauce eggplant, steamed egg); others are classics we've adapted with one easy swap — mushrooms for the pork, vegetable stock for chicken — noted on each. Two things to watch when you cook vegetarian Chinese: use vegetable stock anywhere a recipe calls for chicken stock, and swap oyster sauce for a mushroom-based version. Everything below is written for a US kitchen, with substitutes for any hard-to-find ingredient.
2. Chinese Eggplant with Garlic Sauce
30 min · Beginner · Sichuan
Silky eggplant in a bold garlic sauce — a naturally meat-free dish hearty enough to be the main event over rice.
3. Cantonese Steamed Egg
17 min · Beginner · Cantonese
A gentle, silky savory custard; just use vegetable stock (or water) in place of chicken stock to keep it vegetarian.
4. Egg Fried Rice
15 min · Beginner · Home-Style (家常菜)
Vegetarian as written, and a blank canvas — load it with peas, carrots, corn, or extra egg and skip any meat.
5. Mapo Tofu
30 min · Beginner · Sichuan
Every bit as good meat-free: swap the ground pork for finely chopped mushrooms, use vegetable stock, and check your doubanjiang has no added meat (most don't).
6. Sichuan Dry-Fried Green Beans
25 min · Beginner · Sichuan
Blistered, savory, garlicky green beans — make them without the traditional pinch of pork and they're a fully vegetarian standout.
7. Hot and Sour Soup
30 min · Beginner · Home-Style (家常菜)
Use vegetable stock, plenty of tofu and mushrooms, and skip the pork — the bold sweet-sour-peppery broth carries the whole bowl.
8. Soy Sauce Chow Mein
15 min · Beginner · Cantonese
Springy pan-fried noodles that are vegetarian once you leave out the oyster sauce (or use a mushroom 'oyster' sauce). Pile in the bean sprouts.
9. Dan Dan Noodles
30 min · Intermediate · Sichuan
Swap the pork topping for browned, seasoned mushrooms and you keep all the nutty, tingly, saucy magic — a vegetarian bowl that eats like the original.
Easy Chinese dinner FAQ
What Chinese dishes are naturally vegetarian?
Plenty are — tomato and egg stir-fry, garlic-sauce eggplant, steamed egg custard, and most tofu and vegetable stir-fries are vegetarian as written. Many other classics, like mapo tofu and dan dan noodles, become vegetarian with a single swap (mushrooms for the meat). The cuisine leans heavily on tofu, eggs, mushrooms and vegetables, so meat-free options are everywhere.
How do I make a Chinese recipe vegetarian?
Three swaps cover almost everything: use finely chopped mushrooms (shiitake or king oyster) in place of ground or sliced meat, use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock, and replace oyster sauce or fish sauce with a vegetarian mushroom-based 'oyster' sauce. The seasoning backbone — soy, vinegar, chili, aromatics — stays exactly the same.
Is oyster sauce vegetarian?
No — traditional oyster sauce is made from oyster extract, so it isn't vegetarian. Use a vegetarian mushroom 'oyster' sauce, which is widely available and tastes very close. Most soy sauces and many chili-bean pastes (doubanjiang) are plant-based, but it's always worth a quick label check.
Are these recipes vegan or just vegetarian?
Several use egg (tomato and egg, steamed egg, and the egg noodles in chow mein), so they're vegetarian rather than vegan. The tofu and vegetable dishes — mapo tofu, eggplant in garlic sauce, green beans — can be made fully vegan by using vegetable stock and checking that sauces like doubanjiang and chili oil contain no animal products.
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