Quick and easy vegetable lo mein

Tender noodles, crunchy vegetables and a delicious sesame flavoured sauce make this quick and easy vegetable lo mein one of the tastiest Chinese dishes around. Serve it plain as a side dish, or add your favourite protein for a complete meal-in-a bowl!

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What is ‘Vegetable Lo Mein’?

Vegetable Lo Mein is a Chinese dish, consisting of vegetables and soft noodles, cooked in a mildly spicy, sweet and sticky sauce. The vegetables are lightly steamed to retain their crispness, while the sticky sauce coats everything with a delicious combination of Asian flavours.

Lo Mein can be served plain as a side dish, or you can add your own choice of protein (normally chicken or prawns) and turn it into a complete meal.

It’s often confused with Chow Mein, which is a similar dish. The difference is, with Lo Mein the noodles are soft and tender, whereas with Chow Mein the noodles are deep fried and crispy.

Why I love Vegetable Lo Mein

I love making this dish because:

• you can use any vegetables that you have in your fridge at the time. I’ve used carrots, cabbage, celery, onions, mushrooms and beansprouts, but you can you whatever you have. Broccoli, sugar snaps, sliced red and yellow peppers – anything goes;
• it’s so healthy – the vegetables are steamed in their own juices before the sauce is added, locking in all the vitamins;
• vegetable lo mein is so quick and easy to prepare – once you’ve prepared the vegetables the dish can be cooked and ready to eat in about 10 minutes;
• it’s low on calories – one serving of vegetable lo mein has only 487 calories, so it’s great for dieters.

Ingredients

**Get the complete list of ingredients and full instructions for making vegetable lo mein on the printable recipe card at the end of this post**

The ingredients you will need are:

• Vegetables – you will need approximately 1.5 cups of vegetables per person. You can use any combination of vegetables that you like. For this recipe, I have used cabbage, carrots, onions, celery, mushrooms and beansprouts. If you prefer you can substitute any of these with whatever you have in your fridge – broccoli, pak choi, red and yellow peppers, sugar snap peas, green beans.
• Noodles – you can use any Chinese noodles (either wet or dry). If you can’t find these in your local supermarket you can substitute these with spaghetti (I won’t tell anyone if you don’t). You could also use instant Ramen noodles.
• Garlic – use fresh cloves or crushed garlic from a jar.
• Ginger – once again, you can use fresh ginger or crushed ginger from a jar.
• Oyster sauce – I love the umami flavour that oyster sauce brings to this dish.
• Soy sauce – for saltiness
• Brown sugar – for sweetness
• Shaoxing wine or dry sherry – this should be available in the Asian aisle at your supermarket. You can substitute it with dry sherry.
• Sesame oil – adds a nutty taste. Sesame oil is very strong – you won’t need much.
• Dried chilli flakes or cayenne pepper – for a touch of heat (optional)

How to make vegetable lo mein

Preparation

The preparation is the most important part. Once that is out of the way, you can cook this dish in minutes.

• Peel and chop the vegetables. Cut the celery into 1cm dice. Shred the cabbage and slice the onions and mushrooms finely. Cut the carrots into julienne strips. Rinse the beansprouts under cold water, pat dry with paper towel and place in a bowl.
• Ginger and garlic – if using fresh, peel the garlic and ginger. Crush the garlic and grate the ginger or chop very finely.
• Mix the sauce. Combine the oyster sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, shaoxing wine and sesame oil in a small bowl. Mix to dissolve the sugar and set aside.
• Cook the noodles. Put the noodles in a pan of boiling salted water and allow to boil for about 7 minutes (or according to the instructions on the packet) until softened. Drain into a colander and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process. Leave the noodles in the colander to drain completely.
• If using instant Ramen noodles, discard the spice packet and place the noodles in a bowl. Cover with boiling water and allow to stand for 2 minutes until softened. Drain and set aside.
• If using wet (pre-cooked) noodles, there is nothing to do other than open the packet 🙂 .

Cook the vegetable lo mein

• Stir-fry the onions, garlic, ginger, chilli (if using), celery, carrots and cabbage very quickly in hot oil, just to coat them.
• Then turn the heat down to a low simmer, cover with a lid and allow the vegetables to steam in their own juices until they are soft but not mushy (image 3 above). This should take about 5 minutes. The moisture from the vegetables turns to steam which hits the lid of the pan and drips back down onto the vegetables, thus keeping them moist.
• Add the beansprouts and mushrooms, replace the lid and steam for another 3 minutes (image 4 above).
• Taste the vegetables to see whether they are cooked to your liking. If you feel they need a little longer, just replace the lid and steam for a minute or two more.

The vegetables should not be dry, there should be quite a bit of moisture from the steaming process. However, keep your eye on the vegetables while they are steaming. If they look as though they are drying out, add a few tablespoons of water.

• Now add the prepared sauce and stir through, then add the cooked noodles to the vegetables and toss to coat with the sauce and combine.
• At this point I like to test for seasoning. I have deliberately not added salt to the list of ingredients, as I find soy sauce normally adds sufficient saltiness. If you feel the dish needs a little salt, now is the time to add it. And as always, add a little at a time – remember, you can put it in, but you can’t take it out!
• Stir over the heat for a minute or two, just to warm the noodles through.
• Transfer to a serving dish and serve immediately.

Can I add protein?

Of course, you can. Prawns and chicken go exceptionally well with this dish, but you could also add sliced beef, or even pork.

Allow approximately 90g or 3 ounces of protein per person

Your protein should be cooked as part of the preparation steps, so all you have to do is stir it through the completed lo mein dish at the same time that you add the cooked noodles.

Prawns

You can use fresh or frozen prawns. Just make sure they are shelled and deveined first.

Fry the prawns in butter until they turn pink – approximately 4 minutes. Set aside until you are ready to add them to the dish.

Chicken, pork or beef

Cut the meat into bite sized strips.

For the chicken, you can use skinless breast fillets, or skinless, boneless thighs.

If you are using beef, get a good quality steak that cooks quickly. Don’t use meat that needs a long cooking time. The same goes for the pork. I would use pork tenderloin or leg steaks.

Coat the meat in a mixture of cornflour/cornstarch and soy sauce and leave to stand for about 10 minutes. You should use 1 tablespoon of cornflour for each 3 tablespoons of soy sauce. The exact quantities will depend on the amount of meat you are cooking. You will need enough cornflour/soy mixture to coat all the pieces of the meat.

Heat a little oil in a frying pan or wok and stirfry until the strips of meat are nicely bowned and cooked through.

Remove the meat from the pan and set it aside until you are ready to add it to the lo mein.

Can I freeze vegetable lo mein?

Technically, you can freeze lo mein for up to 6 months (4 months if you have added protein).

Practically I wouldn’t bother. This dish is so quick to prepare you can have it on the table in minutes.

Plus, if you freeze and reheat the lo mein the vegetables will lose a lot of their crispness and texture.

Additional resources

Don’t forget to check out my handy Cookery Conversion Calculator if you want to convert any of your recipe measurements from grams to cups, ounces, tablespoons or millilitres and vice versa. You can also use the calculator for converting oven temperatures between Fahrenheit, Celsius and Gas marks.

If you live at a high altitude you may find you need to adjust your baking recipes to compensate for this. You can read all about it in this post on baking at high altitudes.

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