I love this spicy sriracha stir fry with cauliflower. This delicious and easy plant-based meal is a weeknight staple in our house. The sriracha stir-fry sauce is made with only four simple ingredients, and it keeps well to reheat for a simple vegan meal-prep lunch.

I love this spicy sriracha cauliflower stir fry recipe so much. We make it often in our house since it’s simple, doesn’t require a lot of ingredients, and is super flavorful. Soy sauce, garlic, sriracha, and lime—yum!

The whole meal comes together in the time it takes to cook the jasmine rice (about 20 minutes!) that goes with it, making it easy to add into your weeknight dinner rotation, or your Sunday meal prep routine.

So you might be thinking…cauliflower? Yep, cauliflower. I love cooking with cauliflower because if you season it right, it’ll take on any flavor. It’s also a hearty vegetable that will keep some bite to it even after stir-frying and reheating it for meal prep.

While I titled this recipe a stir fry, it would certainly not be considered a traditional stir-fry recipe. The stir-frying technique originated in China, and utilizes a wok (a round-bottomed pan). The wok would capture the heat efficiently cooking the vegetables and meat, chopped and sliced small, in a bit of oil over high heat in minutes. You would not find cauliflower in traditional stir fry recipes as it takes a bit longer to cook, but I used cauliflower in this recipe since it’s the star vegetable and I wanted to use something hearty.

This recipe is simply a quick way to pan fry cauliflower in a yummy soy sauce based sauce that comes together in the cooking process, and I hope you enjoy it.

easy stir fry ingredients:

You’ll find the full ingredient list below—but here’s what to expect in this plant-based recipe…

Cauliflower
Soy Sauce
Sriracha
Lime
Garlic
Avocado oil (or other neutral oil)

For serving:

Rice
Snow peas
Cilantro for garnish
Avocado to balance the heat

how to make this simple stir fry with cauliflower:

Since I tend to be a fairly leisurely vegetable chopper, I first start by chopping up the head of cauliflower. You’re going to want to chop the florets pretty small. Since we aren’t steaming or roasting the cauliflower, all the cooking needs to happen in about 10-15 minutes over the stove top. The smaller your cauliflower, the quicker this will go. That said, don’t make them teeny tiny. Vegetables shrink up a bit when cooked and we still want the florets to have some bite to them.

I like to serve my stir fried cauliflower over jasmine rice, so once I’ve finished chopping up the cauliflower florets, I start preparing the rice. I choose a rice that only needs about 15 minutes to cook so that it is ready at about the same time as the rest of the meal. If the grain you’ve chosen takes much longer to prepare, then I’d recommend starting your grain first and timing the rest of the dish accordingly!

Now it’s time to get cooking. In a large pan, heat 1-2 tablespoons of avocado oil over medium heat. Toss in your small cauliflower florets and add salt to taste. If you don’t have avocado oil, you can use any neutral oil you prefer—meaning an oil that doesn’t have a distinct flavor. I wouldn’t use olive oil in this dish. I’ve used refined coconut oil many times, and it comes out great.

Stir fry the cauliflower for about 8-10 minutes over medium to medium high heat. The cauliflower should brown and crisp up a bit, but make sure not to burn the cauliflower.

Once your cauliflower has started to become more tender (but still has crunch!), add in the juice of 2 limes. Depending on the size of your limes, and how juicy they are, start with 1 or 1 and a half limes. You can always add more later.

Then, add in 2 cloves of garlic and stir. Make sure not to burn your garlic. If you need to turn the heat down a bit at this point, you can.

Next, add in 2-3 tablespoons of soy sauce. If you were worried your cauliflower wasn’t cooked through enough, adding in the sauce ingredients will speed this up.

Give everything a stir, then add in the sriracha to taste. I usually start with about a tablespoon, and then taste the dish to see if it needs more.

The amount of soy sauce and sriracha you use will be up to both your own personal taste preference, and since the size of cauliflower heads can vary.

If you are serving this immediately, then I like to plate mine over a serving of fluffy jasmine rice. I add an extra squeeze of lime and dash of sriracha, then garnish with chopped cilantro leaves and diced avocado. The avocado is a cool match to the heat in this stir fry.

simple vegan meal prep

I love that this meal makes a great quick weeknight dinner, but it also keeps and reheats well as a meal prep option.

Prep everything as directed, and store the rice and cauliflower together. I like to also pack raw snow peas with the cooked rice and cauliflower as it’ll steam right up in the microwave when reheating.

I keep the avocado and cilantro separate, and add it after I’ve microwaved my meal prepped lunch.

I hope you love this recipe as much as I do! It’s a desk-lunch I look forward to enjoying in the middle of a busy day, and I hope you add it into your plant-based lunch rotation.

Be sure to follow along for more plant-based goodness on Pinterest and Instagram.

Spicy Sriracha Cauliflower Stir Fry

15-20 MINUTES TO MAKE (PLUS CHOPPING THE CAULIFLOWER)

SERVES 2-3.

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower
2 tablespoons of avocado oil, or other neutral oil.
Juice of 2 limes, plus more for serving.
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of sriracha, more to taste
salt to taste

for serving:

Jasmine rice
Snow peas
Avocado
Cilantro

Instructions:

Chop your head of cauliflower into small bite-sized florets. These should be chopped small so they can cook in about 10 minutes over the stove, but not too tiny where they’ll use their bite.
If serving with jasmine rice, begin preparing your rice according to package instructions after you’ve chopped your cauliflower, and before you begin stir frying it.
My jasmine rice takes about 15 minutes to prepare. If your rice choice takes longer, you’ll want to start with this step and time your dish accordingly so everything is ready at the same time.
Heat about a tablespoon of your neutral oil in a large pan over medium heat.’
Add your chopped cauliflower florets to the pan, and stir fry the cauliflower for about 8-10 minutes over medium to medium high heat. The cauliflower should brown and crisp up a bit, but make sure not to burn the cauliflower.
Once your cauliflower has started to become more tender (but still has crunch!), add in the juice of 2 limes. Depending on the size of your limes, and how juicy they are, start with 1 or 1 and a half limes. You can always add more later.
add in 2 cloves of garlic and stir. Make sure not to burn your garlic. If you need to turn the heat down a bit at this point, you can.
Add in 2-3 tablespoons of soy sauce, and stir.
If you were worried your cauliflower wasn’t cooked through enough, adding in the sauce ingredients will speed this up.
Add in the sriracha to taste. I start with about a tablespoon, and then taste the dish to see if it needs more.
The amount of soy sauce and sriracha you use will be up to both your own personal taste preference, and the size of cauliflower head you’re using.
Taste test your dish to see if it needs a little bit more of any of your sauce ingredients (lime, soy sauce, sriracha).

SERVING RECOMMENDATION - IF ENJOYING IMMEDIATELY:

Plate cauliflower stir fry over a serving of fluffy jasmine rice.
Add an extra squeeze of lime and dash of sriracha, then garnish with chopped cilantro leaves and diced avocado.

meal prep RECOMMENDATION - IF ENJOYING later:

Prep everything as directed, and store the rice and cauliflower together. I like to also pack raw snow peas with the cooked rice and cauliflower (see photos) as they’ll steam right up in the microwave when reheating.
Keep the avocado, cilantro, and extra lime wedge separate, and add those after microwaving the hot ingredients together—rice, cauliflower, raw snow peas.

NOTES:

Rice cook times vary: I prepare this dish with jasmine rice that takes about 15 minutes to cook. If you are serving your stir fry with another rice or grain or ingredient that takes longer to make, please rework the timing of the recipe steps accordingly. You may need to begin cooking your rice earlier on in your process depending on cook times.