Easy Lo Mein Recipe (Vegan) (2024)

FAQs

What makes lo mein taste like lo mein? ›

Lo mein sauce

The sauce is what makes this dish so addictive. It's a simple umami filled mix of light and dark soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, sugar, and a hint of ginger. It's super easy to make a batch of lo mein sauce and keep it in the fridge so you can easily make lo mein whenever the craving hits.

Lo mein is a popular Chinese dish that tosses egg noodles, meat, and vegetables in an aromatic and umami-forward sauce. It's not traditionally vegan-friendly but is easy to make vegan with a few simple swaps.

Despite their differences, chow mein and lo mein dishes are both made with Chinese egg noodles, which are wheat flour noodles with egg added. While lo mein requires fresh egg noodles, chow mein can be made with either fresh or dried egg noodles.

There are plenty of noodles that can replace the slippy wheat strands that go into lo mein. Take chop suey noodles, for example, which are made from the same dough comprised of water and wheat flour that's used to make lo mein noodles, just sans the eggs.

Give your lo mein a quick taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking. Add more salt, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, or white pepper according to your preference. Plate your lo mein and serve with homemade chili oil or hot sauce on the side!

The best kind of restaurant-style stir-fried lo mein is subtle in flavor, with plenty of wok hei, the smoky flavor that results from the powerful flame of a restaurant wok burner licking up and over the back of the wok, singeing the oil and noodles.

15 Minute Lo Mein! Made with just soy sauce, sesame oil, a pinch of sugar, ramen noodles or spaghetti noodles, and any veggies or protein you like. SO YUMMY! Hel-lo-lo-mein!

Hoisin is made with sugar, water, soybeans, salt, sweet potato, sesame seeds, cornstarch, garlic, wheat flour, chili pepper and spices.

Yes, you absolutely can substitute noodles for pasta, and vice versa, in a recipe. While it is up to personal preference, note that egg noodle recipes typically suggest cooking the noodles until they are soft and tender, while pasta recipes recommend cooking the pasta al dente (slightly firm).

Yakisoba can be described as the Japanese version of the Chinese stir fried noodles, Lo Mein. They are both stir fried soft noodles, both stir fried with vegetables, and both appear to be soy-sauce-based flavor. They look almost identical but for some reason, Yakisoba tastes quite different from Lo Mein.

What is the difference between Chinese noodles and lo mein noodles? ›

“Lo mein usually uses the fat, chewy noodles, while chow mein uses the thin type of noodles that sometimes contain egg.” Lo mein uses fresh noodles that are boiled for a few minutes, while chow mein uses dried noodles that are parboiled for five to six minutes.

Adding soy sauce to the center of the wok left the noodles with a raw soy sauce flavor, while drizzling it around the hot edges of the wok created smoky flavors reminiscent of grilled meat.

Both start off with the same type of egg noodle.

The biggest difference between chow mein and lo mein lies in the translations of their names: chow mein is fried, and lo mein is tossed. The experience is somewhat different between the two.

Largely this is a matter of personal taste since both dishes can be made to your preference. If you prefer lightly sauced noodles with some crunch and vegetables with some snap, chow mein might be the way to go. If you like a more comforting noodle with richly flavored sauce, lo mein may be the better option.

These noodles have the chewy, slippery texture you love about take out. Next best is dried egg noodles, or vac packed “fresh” egg noodles. But really, you can also totally make Lo Mein with any noodles – thick, thin, fresh, dried, egg or rice – or ramen noodles, or even spaghetti or other long pasta.