Objective A rapid method for determination of ethylenethiourea (ETU) residues in vegetables by QuEChERS-ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (QuEChERS-UPLC-MS/MS) was developed. Methods The samples were extracted with acetonitrile containing NH₃H₂O, and cleaned up by GCB adsorbents. The resulting samples were separated on a Shim-pack XR-ODSIII C₁₈ column (2.0 mm×150 mm, 1.6 μm), and detected under positive polarity multiple reactions monitoring (MRM) mode. Results The matrix-matched external standard calibration curves were used for quantitative analysis. The result indicated that the line arities of ETU was in the concentration range of 0.005-1.0 mg/L with correlation coefficients higher than 0.999 1. The average recoveries of ETU in three vegetables samples at three spiked levels of 0.010,0.10 and 0.50 mg/kg were in the ranges of 73.7%-93.3%,and the relative standard deviations (RSDs) were in the range of 0.8%-6.6%, respectively. The limits of detection (LODs) for these three vegetables were in the range of 0.002-0.005 mg/kg,and the limit of quantification (LOQ) of ETU was 0.010 mg/kg which was the lowest spiked concentration. Conclusion The method was simple, accurate, economic and friendly to the environment, and could meet the requirements for rapid determination of ETU residues in vegetables.