Easy Shrimp Lo Mein Recipe - on the table in 30 minutes! (2024)

FAQs

What makes lo mein taste so good? ›

The defining feature of any lo mein dish is the sauce, so make sure you take the time to get it right. Using dark soy sauce will give the lo mein color and a bolder taste while adding light soy sauce will give the dish some extra saltiness and flavor without staining the noodles darker.

Here are some tips to make your Lo Mein cooking life a breeze, even if you're a first timer: Be prepared! As with all stir fries and noodles, have everything chopped and ready to toss straight in because once you start cooking, it moves FAST! You'll be done 5 – 6 minutes.

“Lo” means to mix or stir. Mein, of course, means noodles. American Chinese lo mein is a stir fry noodle dish: thick noodles mixed with a soy sauce based sauce and toppings like beef, pork, chicken, or vegetables.

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! This 15-minute wonder is absolutely my new go-to for a quick Asian noodle stir fry.

Cornstarch! In his book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, Mark Bittman recommends mixing 1-2 tablespoons of cornstarch with the same amount of water, and tossing this into the stir fry just when it's almost done. It thickens in seconds, picking up the flavors of everything already in the dish and coating evenly.

Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is a flavor enhancer that has been widely used for roughly 100 years ( 1 ). In addition to being naturally present in certain foods, it's a common food additive in Chinese recipes, canned vegetables and soups, and other processed goods.

Chinese food and soups contain monosodium glutamate (MSG) as the main addictive ingredient. A sensitive individual may suffer from headache, giddiness, sweating, abdominal pain, and urticaria within a few hours of consumption of MSG.

Worst: Lo Mein

This mound of noodles has about half the carbohydrates you need all day. The noodles are made from white flour, which raises your blood sugar faster than fiber-rich whole grains. Plus, they're cooked with oil and soy sauce, so you get extra fat and sodium. Can't pass it up?

“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. Then there's the difference in cooking method.

What gives lo mein its smoky flavor? ›

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.

Carbon steel woks are known to impart a smoky, caramelized taste, but any wok works fine as long as the frying technique is right. To give your chow mein a smoky flavor, drizzle soy sauce around the edges of the wok as you fry the chow mein, making sure the surface is a little oily so the sauce won't burn.