My family enjoys takeout-style food, but it can get pricey to order out frequently. That’s where Aldi comes in. The discount grocer sells a variety of takeout-inspired frozen entrees such as stir fries and chicken dishes along with sides such as egg rolls. We go through a lot of Aldi’s orange chicken and General Tso’s chicken in our house, and recently I decided to try some of Aldi’s stir fry kits that have much less added sugar in the sauces along with plenty of healthy veggies.
The Fusia Asian Inspirations Teriyaki Stir Fry and Asian Stir Fry kits each cost $2.94 for a 32-ounce bag at the time of publication.
These are exclusive to Aldi and are Regular Buys, which means they’re in Aldi stores year round.
Both feature a blend of vegetables including carrots, broccoli, baby corn, sugar snap peas, mushrooms, and red bell peppers, along with a bag of sauce to add. The teriyaki stir fry meal also includes noodles, although there’s not a lot of them.
The kits have a “heart healthy” emblem that states: “While many factors affect heart disease, diets low in saturated fat and cholesterol may reduce risk of this disease.” Neither of these stir fries has any saturated fat or cholesterol.
Preparation is very easy. These can be heated on the stove top or in the microwave.
To heat on the stove top (the preferred method), in a large pan or wok heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Add vegetables, cover, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the thawed sauce packet to the pan or wok, and cook uncovered for 5 more minutes, stirring occasionally until vegetables are cooked. Stir and serve.
To heat in the microwave, pour the vegetables into a 2-quart microwave dish. Cover and microwave on high for 4 minutes. Add thawed sauce to the vegetables and cover. Cook on high 3 minutes or until vegetables are cooked. Stir and serve.
I prepared both of these meals in a skillet on the stove, and they needed a few extra minutes to get hot enough. I ended up cooking the vegetables for a total of about 15 minutes instead of 10 minutes like the stove top directions say.
The teriyaki stir fry, ready to serve, with added chicken.
Because these don’t have any meat, I also sautéed about two cups of diced chicken tenderloins in oil, salt, and pepper in a separate skillet and added those to make them a full meal.
The Asian stir fry, ready to serve, with chicken added for a protein boost.
I thought these were pretty good for frozen vegetables. They don’t have the same tender-crisp texture as fresh veggies, and there were more broccoli stems and fewer broccoli florets than most people would probably prefer, but they’re not bad. While you could easily put together your own stir fry with fresh vegetables, this has the benefit of convenience, with precut veggies you can simply pull out of the freezer when you need them.
Keep reading for more information about each stir fry.
Fusia Asian Inspirations Teriyaki Stir Fry
This is the more full-featured of the stir fry options because it has a small amount of noodles while the other one has only vegetables. It was my favorite of the two because it was more flavorful and I love noodles, but it also has double the number of calories per serving, probably because of the noodles. At 90 calories per 1-cup serving, though, it hardly feels like an unhealthy indulgence. As mentioned above, I added some chicken to this to give it a protein, and I worried that it might be short on sauce because of my addition, but it was fine.
Ingredients are: broccoli, carrots, sugar snap peas, baby cut corn, red bell peppers, mushrooms, pasta (water, durum semolina [wheat], niacin, ferrous sulfate [iron], thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, and folic acid), and sauce (water, soy sauce [water, soybeans, wheat, salt], sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, rice vinegar, corn starch, sake [water, rice, salt], dried beef stock, yeast extract, spices, and natural flavor).
The package states this is a product of the U.S., Mexico, Canada, China, Vietnam, and Spain.
Fusia Asian Inspirations Teriyaki Stir Fry nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
If you’re watching out for allergens, this has wheat and soy.
As mentioned above, one 1-cup (113-gram) serving has 90 calories, along with no fat or cholesterol, 330 mg of sodium (14% DV), 18 grams of total carbohydrates (7% DV), 2 grams of dietary fiber (7% DV), 6 grams of total sugars, 4 grams of added sugars (8% DV), and 3 grams of protein.
Fusia Asian Inspirations Asian Stir Fry
This kit contains only vegetables and sauce, and no noodles, so if you’re looking for a lower-carb option, this is it. No one in my family liked this meal as much. The “Asian sauce” wasn’t as flavorful and didn’t seem to go as far compared to the teriyaki sauce in the other meal. As a result, this just tastes like a lot of plain-ish veggies (heavier on the carrots) with little else. If you buy this, it might benefit from some doctoring. I added some diced chicken tenderloins that were cooked in oil, salt, and pepper, but this whole kit could use additional seasonings such as garlic, ginger, or salt, or you might want to add some more soy sauce or some extra sauce from a bottle to perk it up.
Ingredients are: broccoli, carrots, baby cut corn, mushrooms, red bell peppers, sugar snap peas, and oriental sauce (water, soy sauce [water, soybeans, wheat, and salt], sherry wine, sugar, distilled vinegar, corn starch, garlic powder, soybean oil, salt, onion powder, xanthan gum, and natural flavor).
Fusia Asian Inspirations Asian Stir Fry nutrition information and ingredients. (Click to enlarge.)
The package states this is a product of the U.S., Mexico, Canada, China, and Vietnam.
If you’re watching out for allergens, this has wheat and soybeans.
One 1-cup (113-gram) serving has 45 calories, no fat or cholesterol, 280 mg of sodium (12% DV), 9 grams of total carbohydrates (3% DV), 2 grams of dietary fiber (8% DV), 5 grams of total sugars, 2 grams of added sugars (4% DV), and 2 grams of protein.
The Verdict:
Fusia Asian Inspirations Teriyaki Stir Fry and Asian Stir Fry kits contain frozen veggies and sauce (and the teriyaki kit also has a few noodles) to make a complete meal. They heat quickly on the stove top or in the microwave and have plenty of crisp-tender veggies. We’re more partial to the teriyaki stir fry and didn’t care as much for the Asian stir fry.
I added chicken and rice. Really good and fast. Used Maggi Seasoning at the table. I used an electric Wok.
The ingredients list broccoli first and carrots second, the package we got was 70% carrots, 6 tiny broccoli pieces, 3 whole snap peas 5 half corn ears and some peppers and maybe onions. For me the package was over priced for the small variety. Carrots are much cheaper.
Mine was mostly all carrots also.
The Asian Stir Fry was mostly broccoli and carrots. I counted 2 tiny pieces of mushrooms, 2 or the tiny carrots, and one water chestnut. Won’t be buying this again.
Best buy yet and all in one bag. Low calorie and low sodium, and very tasty. Now that I’m hooked, difficult to find. But I’ll keep trying. Definitely worth it.