Easy Vegetable Lo Mein (with cabbage, broccoli & green beans)

It’s so easy to make vegetable lo mein, a Chinese restaurant favorite, and this homemade version is bursting with flavorful green vegetables. Broccoli, cabbage, green beans, and mushrooms mingle deliciously with noodles in this nearly authentic vegetable lo mein recipe.

Make this with a half of a green cabbage or use prepared coleslaw to make the recipe even more of a snap.  Make sure to see the variations at the end of the recipe.

What kind of noodles to use

I like using Japanese soba noodles for this dish, but you can use udon or even ordinary spaghetti.

Soba noodles incorporate buckwheat flour, which gives them a slightly heartier flavor and that handsome tawny color. Look for soba and udon noodles in the Asian foods aisle of well-stocked supermarkets and natural foods stores.

Make an instant edamame succotash side dish

As shown in the photos, you can make a succotash with an Asian spin combining corn and edamame. No recipe needed — just combine two veggie in more or less equal amounts; drizzle in a little sesame oil and season with salt and pepper.

If you’d like, add a simple crisp salad to the meal. dressed in bottled or homemade sesame-ginger dressing.

Recipe adapted from Plant Power by Nava Atlas. Photos by Hannah Kaminsky, BittersweetBlog.com.

Soba noodles

Explore more …

• Warm Asian-Inspired Noodle Dishes
• Stir-Fried Soba Noodles with Tofu and Green Vegetables
• Vegan cabbage recipes

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Yield: 4 servings

Vegetable Lo Mein

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It’s so easy to make Vegetable Lo Mein, a Chinese restaurant favorite at home.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 8 ounces soba or udon noodles, or spaghetti
• 1 tablespoon safflower or other high-heat vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons dark sesame oil, optional (but highly recommended)
• 1/2 small head green or napa cabbage, cut into long, narrow shreds (or see shortcut in Notes)
• 2 cups small broccoli florets

• 2 cups fresh green beans, trimmed and cut in half (see Notes)
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms, optional
• 3 to 4 scallions, cut into 1-inch-long segments
• Soy sauce, tamari, or teriyaki marinade, to taste
• Freshly ground pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Cook the noodles according to package directions in plenty of rapidly simmering water until al dente, then drain.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil and 1 teaspoon of the sesame oil in a stir-fry pan (or replace one or both with broth). Add the cabbage, broccoli, and green beans. Cover and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Add the mushrooms and scallions and stir-fry over medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until the vegetables are just tender-crisp. Add a small amount of additional broth or water, just enough to keep the pan moist.
4. Add the cooked noodles to the stir-fry pan and toss together. Add the remaining teaspoon of sesame oil, if using, then season with soy sauce and grind in pepper to taste. Serve at once.

Notes

When you’re in a hurry, you can substitute 8 ounces of preshredded coleslaw (preferably with carrots included) for the green or napa cabbage.

Fresh, slender green beans are hard to come by for much of the year, so I give you my full blessing to use frozen organic whole baby green beans, which are consistently excellent — and also save you the time and trouble of trimming the ends.

Variations

• Use whatever you’ve got in the fridge in place of or additional to some of the veggies listed here —romaine lettuce, mung bean sprouts, and/or bok choy in place of cabbage; broccoli rabe or Chinese broccoli instead of regular broccoli — it’s all good!
  
• Turn this into a heartier dish by adding 8 ounces seitan, cut into narrow strips, along with the other ingredients in the first step. 

Here are more recipes for stir-fries and pastas & noodles