Easy Lo Mein
by Chungah
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This easy lo mein comes together in 15 min with the most flavorful sauce and all the vegetables! So much better and healthier than take-out!
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Why you’ll love this easy lo mein
- Quicker than delivery. Believe it or not, this homemade lo mein comes together faster than takeout or delivery. We’re talking 15 minutes, start to finish, perfect for those busy weeknights!
- Healthier than takeout. Making lo mein at home gives you full control over all the ingredients, allowing for lower sodium, controlled heart-healthy oils, more veggies, and better protein choices.
- Flexible recipe. You can customize this dish completely and clean out the fridge with all kinds of leftover vegetables and proteins, making this so economical and budget-friendly for the family.
- Leftovers taste even better. Similar to lasagna, the leftovers taste even better the next day, really allowing all the flavors to meld and marry into the noodles overnight.
What is lo mein?
This is a popular Chinese-American takeout dish typically made with soft egg noodles mixed with protein such as chicken, pork, beef, or shrimp and various vegetables in a savory soy sauce mixture.
How to make easy lo mein
- Make the sauce. Combine the soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, ginger, and Sriracha.
- Cook the noodles. Add the egg noodles to a large pot of boiling water and cook according to package instructions.
- Cook the vegetables. While the noodles are cooking, sauté the garlic, mushrooms, bell pepper, and carrot in a large skillet over medium high heat until crisp-tender, about 3-4 minutes. Then stir in the snow peas and spinach until the spinach has wilted, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add the noodles and sauce. Stir in the cooked egg noodles and sauce, gently tossing until the noodles are evenly coated.
- Serve. Serve warm.
variations and substitutions
- Noodles: Yaki-Soba, dried egg noodles, spaghetti, linguine, or fettuccine
- Protein: chicken, beef, shrimp, pork, or tofu
- Vegetables: broccoli, baby corn, baby bok choy, or cabbage
- Soy sauce: tamari or liquid aminos for a gluten-free substitute
What to serve with easy lo mein
- Vegetable Potstickers
- Easy Hot and Sour Soup
- Chinese Orange Chicken
- Slow Cooker Beef and Broccoli
- PF Chang’s Chicken Lettuce Wraps
Tools For This Recipe
Easy Lo Mein: Frequently Asked Questions
Lo mein noodles are boiled and soft, gently tossed in a savory, thicker sauce whereas chow mein noodles are stir-fried in a wok until crispy and crunchy with little to no sauce.
While fresh egg noodles are ideal for their bouncy, springy texture, Yaki-Soba, dried egg noodles, spaghetti, linguine, or fettuccine can also be used in a pinch.
Always add the hard vegetables (ex. carrots) first as they need more time to cook through, adding in softer, leafy greens (ex. snow peas and spinach) at the very end to avoid overcooking them.
Yes! Lo mein is highly versatile. Add any leftover protein such as shredded rotisserie chicken.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Easy Lo Mein
Video
Ingredients
- 8 ounces lo mein egg noodles
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 cups cremini mushrooms, sliced
- 1 red bell pepper, julienned
- 1 carrot, julienned
- ½ cup snow peas
- 3 cups baby spinach
For the sauce
- 2 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce, or more, to taste
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon Sriracha, or more, to taste
Instructions
- In a large pot of boiling water, cook noodles according to package instructions; drain well.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add garlic, mushrooms, bell pepper and carrot. Cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 3-4 minutes.
- Stir in snow peas and spinach until the spinach has wilted, about 2-3 minutes.
- Stir in egg noodles and sauce, and gently toss to combine.
- Serve immediately.
Equipment
Notes
- Make ahead of time. Cut the vegetables one day in advance, stored in an airtight container in the fridge.
- Use reduced sodium soy sauce. Reduced sodium has less sodium and less salt without compromising flavor.
- Prep the ingredients beforehand. Have the sauce already mixed and vegetables cut and ready to go once you start cooking. This recipe comes together lightning fast!
- Coleslaw mix is the best time-saving hack. To cut down on prep time even further, use bagged coleslaw mix. It’s already pre-shredded cabbage and carrots, cooking very quickly in about 1-2 minutes.
- Hard vegetables get cooked first. Add dense, hard vegetables first (for example, carrots and bell peppers), then add soft, leafy vegetables last (for example, snow peas).
- Avoid overcrowding the pan. Cook the vegetables in batches if needed. An overcrowded pan will steam the veggies instead.
Did you make this recipe?
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This recipe is so easy and quick to make. I’ve tried other recipes and this is my favorite. The only thing I did differently was add white onion and sautéed with the other veggies. Also, I let the veggies sit in the sauce for about 20 minutes and then added all to the wok. FANTASTIC! Thanks for sharing this recipe.
I just made this recipe for lunch and it’s amazing!!! It will be my new go-to recipe for lo mein! Thanks for the great recipe!
I just made this and it is great. I added fried tofu to mine (pan fried) and nixed the spinach since I was out. I also used whole wheat thin spaghetti noodles. My husband loves it and I will make it again, thank you so much!
I made this last night. This recipe was easy and delicious! I doubled the recipe and added chicken too! Thank you so much for sharing!!
Tried this tonight but put asparagus in instead of carrot. Delicious easy meal! Wouldn’t say it beats take-out though.
I made this tonight and it was delish! I also added some broccoli slaw that I had leftover from making eggrolls and it made it a bit heartier as well as some water to the sauce to thin it out a bit.
This was amazing. I’m very picky when it comes to Lo Mein, it has to be perfect, and this recipe was. I used frozen stir fry vegetables and it made it a lot easier. Thank you for this! I will be using it a lot.
Any suggestions for adding lobster? We used to have a restaurant close by that made lobster lo mein and they stopped serving it much to our dismay. I would love to surprise my husband with our own lobster lo mein!
Christal, here is a great lobster lo mein recipe that may be of help! 🙂
This looks great! I’ve eaten lo mein at some restaurant before, but I never made this before. I will try this out soon. Thanks so much for the recipe!
Hey!
I was looking for a Lo Mein recipe and came across your site. I followed your instructions but remixed it and added some beef and turned your recipe into a beef teriyaki dish. Thank you! For this easy recipe.
I’m brand new to cooking, but once I got this dish right (third time was the charm), it truly was delicious. Plus, it helps me get some vegetables into my diet. Thank you for this recipe; I will be adding it to my favorites!
I need to learn how to print this
This is delicious! Just made this for lunch. Definitely plan on making it again!
Hi,
I have been following your blog for some time now… And I absolutely love it… Simple recipes and beautiful pictures…. Today I came for the lo mein recipe… Looks like a wondertul recipe … But the mobile version of your blog is a huge disappointment and a terrible experience… The number of ads that come up while scrolling down are just too much…I understand ads are important for your blog to be financially viable… But this might be working against it… Hope you fix it..
Thank you for your honest feedback. However, these ads make it possible to provide free recipes and nutritional analysis for my readers. I try my very best to exclude any and all invasive-type ads that pop up and/or require you to manually exit them – I cannot stand them personally on other sites so I would never have them on my own blog. Thank you for your understanding.
I made this recipe with some slight variations on the ingredients. I used Somen noodles, (because that was what the Superstore had), baby peas, carrot, mushrooms, bok choy instead of spinach, garlic cloves, chopped green onion. I cooked it in peanut oil. My sauce was stevia, soy sauce, fish sauce, ginger, and sesame oil. I doubled the recipe. It was/is absolutely delicious. I also cooked all my pkg of noodles, and froze them so I can just let them stand and thaw for the next batch. Thanks for the awesome recipe.
Chungah, did you use sriracha sauce or seasoning? I’m so excited to try this!
I used Sriracha sauce. I didn’t even know a seasoning existed!
I was craving lo mein and did not want to go out… It made this recipe (I’ve never made any kind of Asian food at home), and this did the job for my craving! The best part is that I had to make several adjustments because I didn’t have all the ingredients, and it was still awesome. I had the core ingredients mind you.
My sauce only consisted of soy sauce, olive oil, sugar, sesame seeds, and red pepper flakes. Still really tasty. My veggies were chopped broccoli, onion, garlic, carrots, and celery. And the only noodles I had on hand were quinoa spaghetti noodles… Not even regular spaghetti noodles lol! This was probably the biggest adjustment I had to make. Anyhow, despite all this, the recipe provided me with the perfect guide to conquering my craving! I will absolutely use this again and with more of the veggies listed in the recipe!
Hi there! Two quick questions. Do you think it’s okay if I use toasted sesame oil instead of just sesami oil? I happen to have the toasted on hand and would rather not buy another. I tend to follow recipes by the book so just want to make sure this won’t affect the flavor too much.
Also, what is the spice level on this? I see there is sriracha and although I love heat, my friends who I am serving this to do not like spicy. If it’s just a little zing and not making any noses run, I think we’ll be fine.
Thanks!
1. Yes, toasted sesame oil will work just fine.
2. The spice level is not very heavy on this, but as always, please add as needed to suit your taste preferences.
Hope that helps!
This was so yummy! A good way to get rid of remaining veggies in the fridge. I didn’t have snow peas but used cucumber and canned mushrooms instead since I didn’t have any fresh. I also added a little dash of OJ to the sauce just to give it more of a citrus flavor that went really nicely with the other ingredients. I ended up making a little bit more of the sauce because it was so yummy. Great, easy dinner! Thank you!
I loved this! I did add more tamari sauce and less sesame oil, and instead of two spoons white sugar I used one spoon of brown sugar. I made a chicken version of this recipe too, cooking chicken breast sliced into small pieces in the electric wok with olive oil, a little garlic, scallion and the all important fish sauce. Then I added the above veggies and when all cooked I added the sauce and lo mein noodles. Made for a friend and he said it was better than take-out!