Quick and Tasty Lo Mein: A Simple Recipe for a Flavorful Feast

Photo byAsma S

The easiest lo mein you will ever make in 15 minutes from start to finish. It is so much quicker, tastier, and healthier than take-out!

During my time working a day job, I had a supervisor who was incredibly fond of the lo mein from the eatery next door. She would request it for me to order it at least three times a week, and I would become thrilled because she would frequently bring a plate for me to enjoy together.

How To Make This Lo Mein

1. Shake Up Your Sauce

Soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, sugar, garlic. Simple ingredients that make for a perfectly salty/sweet lo mein sauce!

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2. Chop Your Veggies and Cook Your Noodles

My favorite veggies for Lo Mein are mushrooms, carrots, bell peppers, and bok choy, but you can really use just about any veggie you’d like. Broccoli and cabbage are good ones, too!

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Toss It All Together

Your noodles are cooked, your veggies are chopped, and your sauce is ready to go. Now, you just need to sauté it all together in a hot wok or skillet and you’ve got easy, delicious Lo Mein – at home!

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What Goes In Lo Mein Sauce

You need a quality soy sauce, and I strongly suggest trying the 2-types-of-soy-sauce method. It's not a complex technique, but rather a small detail that significantly impacts the outcome. It's more probable that your pantry contains light or low sodium soy sauce, but be cautious: dark soy sauce is packed with umami flavor, elevating the taste of this Lo Mein "sauce" to a new level.

Because the quality of soy sauce is important here (I mean, it’s one of literally THREE ingredients that will make the sauce for your stir fried noodles), I did not use soy sauce packets from leftover takeout.

I used this light soy sauce // dark soy sauce combo (affiliate links).

Shake that up in a jar with a quick hit of sesame oil and a pinch of sugar. annnnd DONE.

Ingredients

Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 clove of garlic, grated (optional)

Lo Mein:

• 4–6 ounces uncooked ramen noodles
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 3 green onions, chopped (separate green parts from white parts – you’ll use both separately)
• 2–3 cups julienne cut or chopped vegetables like carrots, red peppers, cabbage, bok choy, mushrooms, or broccoli
• 1–2 tablespoons mirin

Instructions

1. Sauce: Shake all the sauce ingredients together in a jar.
2. Noodles: Cook the noodles according to package directions. Drain and set aside.
3. Lo Mein: Warm the sesame oil in a big wok or skillet. Place the green onions (the white parts) and veggies into the sizzling pan. Cook until the vegetables are so soft you can easily pierce them with a fork, approximately 5 minutes. Pour in the mirin to help dissolve the browned pieces at the bottom of the pan. Mix in the cooked noodles and about half of the sauce, stirring well in the hot pan to blend. Add more sauce as necessary (I usually judge the sauce quantity by the color of the noodles – aim for a medium brown shade, not too light, not too dark). Serve garnished with the leftover green onions!

Notes

If you want to add a protein, stir fry it first, before the vegetables, then remove from heat while you cook the vegetables. Add back into the pan at the end with the noodles.