Vegetable Chow Mein is one of my all time favourites and it’s the kinda recipe that you go for when you’ve got next to nothing left in your fridge but you still want a meal rather than odd bits.
You can totally customise this and throw in whatever veggies you’ve got in your fridge. I’ve made this exact recipe with peppers and carrots before and it tasted great then too! This time round all I had were chestnut mushrooms and pak-choi so don’t worry about free-styling this one!
The key to this recipe is really the stir-fry sauce for which you need 6 ingredients: light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, Chinese rice vinegar, cornstarch, white pepper and the all important MSG. Now you’re probably wondering whether both light and dark soy cause are essential to this recipe, and the answer is absolutely. Well not really, BUT the reason for using dark soy sauce is that it gives the noodles that incredible golden colour and the light soy sauce is used to season. So if you can, use both!
In terms of MSG, please don’t be frightened of it, there are a lot of articles out there which are based on no real evidence and the only purpose of them is to scare people! It’s use is safe, by no means is it good for you but neither is half the stuff we consume so yolo. My life motto is: everything in moderation, including moderation itself.
VEGETABLE CHOW MEIN TIP: to make this recipe vegan, just omit the oyster sauce and instead add in shiitake and/or oyster mushrooms to mimic the umami flavour from the oyster sauce.
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Video Tutorial
Vegetable Chow Mein
Ingredients
- 4 nests of noodles
- 1 whole bulb of garlic chopped finely
- 3 baby pak choi
- 4 large chestnut mushrooms sliced finely
- 4 tbsp sesame seed oil
Stir-fry sauce
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 3 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 2 tbsp light soy sauce
- ½ tbsp Chinese rice vinegar
- 2½ tsp cornstarch
- 2 tsp white pepper
- 1 tsp MSG
- 4 tbsp water
- 4 spring onions green portion cut into thick pieces and the rest chopped finely
Instructions
- Cook your noodles according to the packet instructions and once cooked transfer into cold water so that they don't stick to eachother.
- Whisk together all your ingredients for the stir-fry sauce in a separate bowl and set aside for later.
- Begin by frying off the chopped spring onion (only the white portion) in a large wok on a medium high heat for 2-3 minutes.
- Add your chestnut mushrooms and fry for a further 3-4 minutes on the same heat, moving the mushrooms constantly.
- Add in the baby pak choi, ¾ of your chopped garlic and continue to stir-fry whilst constantly agitating the pan for 3-4 minutes.
- Add in your cooked noodles, bean sprouts, spring onion, stir-fry sauce and remainder of your garlic. Toss or stir for another 3-4 minutes. Be caureful not to break the noodles! As soon as the noodles are coated evenly in the sauce and heated all the way through, enjoy fresh from the pan!
