Stir-Fry Zucchini Noodles
Feb 25, 2026
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
Stir fry zucchini noodles, or zoodles, are spiralized zucchini tossed with onions, teriyaki sauce, and toasted sesame seeds for a delicious, low-carb version of takeout stir-fry! Make this easy dinner in 20 minutes with only 5 ingredients.
I’m spiralizing zucchini for a low-carb stir fry that tastes just as delicious as my original teriyaki noodles! These stir-fry zucchini noodles with onions are loaded with rich teriyaki flavor. It’s the type of stir fry recipe I love to throw in a pan on a weeknight, since it’s so easy to make in 20 minutes or less.
Zoodles, or zucchini noodles, are an easy alternative to traditional egg noodles in pasta recipes and stir-fries. As you’ll see in my zoodles carbonara and pesto zucchini noodles, the texture here is pretty spot on.
Why The Best Low-Carb Stir-Fry Uses Zucchini Noodles
- Veggie-packed. Replacing pasta with zucchini noodles is a great way to work extra vegetables into a meal.
- Soak up the flavor. Like regular noodles or ramen, zoodles take on the flavor of any ingredients you cook with them. Drenched in teriyaki sauce with sesame seeds, this zucchini stir-fry is so delicious, you won’t even miss the pasta.
- Versatile. Enjoy a bowl of stir-fry zucchini noodles as is, or bulk up the meal by adding a protein like chicken, shrimp, or beef. Serve your zoodles warm over jasmine rice, or eat them cold the next day.
Ingredients You’ll Need to Make This Recipe
- Zucchini – Smaller zucchinis have fewer seeds and a more concentrated flavor, so that’s what I use here. Any size will work, though.
- Onions – I spiralize the onions, too. Due to the spiralizer, this is the first time I worked with onions and didn’t tear up! I recommend yellow onions or white onions as they’re good for sautéeing.
- Soy Sauce – Low-sodium is best. Swap soy sauce for tamari if needed.
- Teriyaki Sauce – This is an umami-packed, sweet-tangy Japanese cooking sauce. Choose your favorite store-bought teriyaki sauce, or you can use the homemade teriyaki sauce from my teriyaki chicken recipe.
- Sesame Seeds – You can use raw or toasted sesame seeds. But them pre-toasted or you can toast the seeds lightly in a dry skillet.
How to Easily Spiralize Zucchini
To make zucchini noodles, you will need a spiralizer, which can be found in stores like Walmart or Target and online. It’s a tool that turns zucchini into long, thin spaghetti-like strands.
- Prep. Wash the zucchini and trim off the ends.
- Spiralize. Pass the zucchini through the spiralizer to create long, spaghetti-like noodles. Refer to the instructions for your specific model as needed.
- Pat the zucchini dry. Use paper towels to absorb the excess moisture from the spiralized zucchini.
If you don’t have a spiralizer, you can use a vegetable peeler to slice the zucchini lengthwise into thin, pappardelle-style strips instead, as I do for my zucchini salad.
Optional Add-Ins
- Add more vegetables, like snap peas, chopped broccoli, or cauliflower, to this stir-fry. You can sautée them alongside the onions.
- Stir in fresh herbs, such as cilantro, basil, or green onions.
- Make it spicy by adding crushed chili flakes or a drizzle of sriracha.
- Add nuts, including cashews or peanuts, for crunch.
What to Serve With This Stir-Fry
- Salad and veggies. For a light meal, I like to serve these stir-fry zucchini noodles with a Japanese kani salad, cucumber salad, or baby bok choy on the side.
- Rice. You can also serve this stir-fry over a bed of white rice or kimchi fried rice. Or, try stuffing the rice into maki rolls or cucumber sushi rolls for a fun twist.
- Protein. I’ll sometimes top the stir-fry zoodles with shrimp, chicken katsu, or miso salmon. You can also thinly slice beef to make a steak stir-fry with zucchini noodles, or keep it vegetarian with tofu.
Pin this now to find it later
Pin It
Stir-Fry Zucchini Noodles
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 yellow onions, spiralized
- 4 small zucchini, spiralized, patted dry with paper towels
- 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons low-sodium teriyaki sauce
- 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
Instructions
- Cook the onions. Heat oil in a wok set over medium heat. Add the spiralized onions and cook for 4 to 5 minutes or until translucent and tender.
- Add zucchini. Stir in the zucchini and continue to cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the remaining ingredients. Add soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, and sesame seeds; mix and continue to cook for 5 minutes or until zucchini is tender.
- Serve. Remove from heat and serve.
Video
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
How to Make Stir Fry With Zucchini Noodles
One thing to keep in mind when cooking zucchini noodles is that they release a lot of water, so it’s best to cook them for a short time and, if needed, drain them before you add the teriyaki stir-fry sauce.
- Sauté the veggies. Add the spiralized onions to a hot wok or a skillet with oil. Sauté for 4-5 minutes over medium heat. Next, add the zucchini and cook for a couple of minutes.
- Add the remaining ingredients. Pour over the soy sauce and teriyaki sauce, and sprinkle in the sesame seeds. Stir and cook for 5 minutes. The zucchini noodles should be tender, but not mushy.
- Serve. Take the pan off the heat, and serve with an extra garnish of sesame seeds and green onions if you’d like.
Storing Leftovers
- Refrigerate. Stir-fry zucchini noodles are best served fresh since they tend to become a bit soggy in the sauce over time. However, you can refrigerate leftovers for 1-2 days in a pinch. Likewise, store any uncooked zucchini noodles airtight in the fridge and cook them within 3 days.
- Reheat. Warm up the zucchini stir-fry gently in a skillet on the stove or in the microwave until it’s hot throughout.
How do you get the zoodles so think and delicious looking and not stringy like mine have come out in the past 🙁
Thank you for the recipe, it’s nice and easy and SO delish! I’ve made this dish for myself several times, I tweak it here and there adding garlic, chicken, mushrooms.. or whatever I have on hand.. I enjoy it so much that I wanted to introduce it to my man .. so to lessen the fear of rejection, this time I added some spaghetti noodles to the recipe.. he ate the whole thing and loved it ! I’m going to make it again and again with less noodles every time.
Looks yummy. Is there any substitute for teriyaki sauce?
Thanks Katerina! I made these Zoodles tonight with my new Pampered Chef Spiralizer (which I love) Hubby is on Weight Watchers and this is our new favorite recipe!
Looks absolutely delicious!! What is the carb count per serving? I know it says low carb, but I’m interested to know what the actually count is. Thanks!
Love,love,love this dish!!! First time eating zoodles and OMG, amazing. I sautéed red peppers and baby Bella mushrooms and used EVOO instead of vegetable oil. Also, my local grocerer had precut zoodles ready to go. However, I will purchase a spiralizer very soon as I will be making this dish more often. As an avid pasta lover, zoodles are my new favorite pasta substitute. Thanks for sharing.
This looks amazing! I have a nice spiralizer but forget to use it. I’m curious what you did when you spiralised the sweet potato. That is next on my list to try.
O.M.G. first of all i did a few things differently! But first let me just say this is the first time i’ve ever tried zoodles and omg you are so right! THEY ARE AMAZING i can’t even tell they are zucchini! So the things i did differently was: i used butter instead of oil i just like the taste better, i diced my onions (i don’t know why guess i’m just a silly goose) i cooked up some diced chicken thigh meat with some butter and a little bit of teryiaki sauce and some seasonings (i used seasoning salt, paprika, onion power and garlic powder) then when my chicken was done that’s when i added the onion and followed the rest of your directions. ALSO I cut down the recipe so it’s suitable for one person which means I had one helping (a pretty good size) and i saved the rest for my lunch for work tomorrow. THANK YOU SO MUCH for such a fabulous recipe. do you have any recipes for chicken lo mein?
So excited to make this!! I would like to add chicken to it….do you have any suggestions or specific instructions on how to do that?? Thanks!!!
Hi Rebekah! I would say to cut up the chicken into cubes and cook it in the wok before cooking the zucchini. Also, you want to remove the chicken from the wok, wipe it down, and then continue on. I hope this helps!
I also like grabbing a rotisserie chicken and shredding it up for the stir fry! so good
I don’t have a wok. Will a big pan work the same?
Hi Gabrielle! Yes, that will work, just make sure to squeeze out all the water from the zucchini before adding it to the pan. I hope you’ll enjoy it! 🙂
Curious as to how you got this to be 116 calories per serving? You state this serves one person, but when I put it in my calorie tracker, it came up as 526 calories, not 116. I got it down to 340 by swapping out the veg oil to EVOO, and using only 1 tablespoon instead of 2. (But EVOO’s not good for a wok, smoke point’s too low.) The only way I got it to amount to 116 calories is by leaving out the oil altogether.
Just curious if I’m missing something.
Hi Shelly! That is supposed to say 4 Servings. I am using a new recipe card on my website, one that is supposed to do the nutritional calculations on its own, but looks like there’s a glitch in the servings suggestion. I’ve been working on getting it fixed, but it’s taking a bit longer. So sorry about the confusion!!
Now THAT makes sense. I *thought* that 4 zucchini was a *lot* for one person to eat! Thanks!