Recipes Discovered

Lo Mein Recipe

Seth and I enjoy getting Chinese take-out once in awhile, but sometimes it just seems to greasy and mysterious, it’s not worth eating. After craving some good Lo Mein though and not find any at our local Chinese restaurant, I figured I would try to make my own.

Since Lo Mein is essentially a stir fried noodle dish, I made sure I had all of my ingredients ready to go in the skillet. I mixed together hoisin sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, chili flakes, and water in a small dish and set it aside. Then I cut up snow peas, a red bell pepper, mushrooms, scallions, and garlic and separated them on a large plate. For the noodles, I used Soba noodles, which are made from buckwheat. They taste good, but I don’t think I would recommend using them because they fell apart when I mixed them into the dish. I cooked and drained the noodles and then I heated my skillet over medium high heat. >> I used canola oil but any light oil will work. Don’t use olive oil though because it doesn’t get hot enough for the stir fry. When the pan was hot, I added the snow peas, pepper, mushrooms, scallions, and bean sprouts and stir fried for about a minute. Then I added the garlic and used a Microplane grater (a great gadget to have) to grate the ginger into the pan. I let it cook for another couple minutes before adding the cooked noodles and the sauce. After I mixed everything together, I removed the pan from the stove and let it sit for a minute to allow the noodles to absorb some of the sauce.

I served the Lo Mein with slices of leftover steak to add some protein to the dish, but it can definitely be served on it’s own. It has great flavor and a variety of different textures and colors. The Soba noodles didn’t hold up well, but they still tasted great. The dish was a little on the spicy side, which I can only account to the chili flakes, but that can easily be adjusted. Overall, it was a simple dish to make and had the Chinese flavor I was craving without all the grease.