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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Has anyone tried with just regular pasta. The stores near where I live only carry the short spiral egg noodles. I want to make this recipe this weekend! Any suggestions would be amazing!
Can you try brown rice noodles? Thai Kitchen brand makes them and they are in most grocery stores. That’s what I did and it turned out great!
I actually have never tried brown rice noodles myself but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work!
Made it with regular fettucine, turned out great! Also added chicken, onions, broccoli, bean sprouts (didn’t have mushrooms, snow peas or spinach)….Thanks @chungah for the awesome recipe, your blog is fab. My family found the sauce too heavy on the soy sauce though, so next time I think I’ll follow the same steps but try a different sauce. No idea what to choose though – nothing beats the simplicity of this one, since it has only a few ingredients and all are staples!
I tried to scroll through to see if anyone asked this question, so its not a repeat. Can you tell me if I can use the frozen stir fry veggies. Do you think it would come out just as good?
Kisha, I actually haven’t tried using frozen stir fry veggies but I don’t see why it would be a problem!
Just made this and it was FAB! I changed a few things to use what I had on hand: used 2 yakisoba noodle packages (minus the flavor packets) and added frozen Asian noodles. Prepared everything per the instructions, above. The sauce was enough for my liking; wasn’t too salty, too spicy or overwhelming. It complimented the dish perfectly! This is most definitely going in the rotation. I may never eat Lo Mein from the carry out EVER again! Thanks, much. I just subscribed and now I’m off to find my next trial recipe!
Noodles were yummy but I would personally only put 1 tablespoon of soy sauce in next time…way too much!
I’m glad you tried this out! And yes, please feel free to reduce soy sauce as needed. Some people like more, and some people like less. I’ve had readers telling me they’ve doubled the soy sauce!
Hi!
For those who cannot eat pasta or egg noodles, I recommend getting a julienne peeler and making voodles or zoodles (veggie noodles or zucchini noodles). You can get a spiral cutter, but I just got a julienne peeler and I like it better. I tried the manual turner spiralizer but it has a lot of waste aka a pyramid shaped leftover. I have to be very careful with it like holding the veg with a fork for safety (I can be a klutz), worth the hassle to get pasta-less noodles. Lastly, don’t over salt your zucchini when helping the moisture to come out.
YUMMY!!!! Just made this and it was delicious! Thanks so much!!!
I’m making this tonight alongside honey garlic chicken! This lo mein looks amazing and I can’t wait to try! Thank you 🙂
I tried this recipe and the pesto chicken sandwich. I really liked both, but I feel like there was something missing with this recipe. I can’t place my finger on it, but it was quick and easy and I will probably make it again sometime soon because I still have all the ingredients on hand lol. Thank you for posting this. 🙂
Teresa, I’m so glad you tried out my recipes! As for the lo mein, you can always add in some protein like chicken or shrimp.
Thank you for giving me a healthier alternative to take out! I will definitely try shrimp in it.
I’m making this tonight; I’m going to add shrimp. I was curious if you had any suggestions if I should marinade the shrimp or what to do with the shrimp before adding. Thanks so much.
It really depends on how you prefer to prepare your shrimp. I personally like to roast it with a little bit of olive oil, salt and pepper.
I made this for dinner tonight. DELICIOUS! I added chicken so that it would be more filling and add protein. My three daughters loved this. I also added onion. The sauce was great for two of my daughters but I added some soy sauce to mine. They want me to make it every week. LOVE this blog!
Delicious recipe! I made it for lunch after rushing home from church and it was so quick to make. The fresh noodles I got from the Asian market were a full pound so I doubled the recipe. I used a little less of some of the more potent ingredients and it was great. I also roasted my broccoli in the over and added on top (bc roasted veggies are my fav :)) thanks for this!
What would you suggest for a spice in this recipe in place of ginger. Want to make it, but don’t have any ginger. 🙁
You can try to omit the ginger completely or substitute another spice but I cannot speak for how much this will change the overall taste/texture of the dish without further recipe testing. It is always best to use the ingredients listed in the recipe to obtain the best results possible.
This looks great. I’ve actually never eaten lo mein before, but I will be trying this out tonight. I was thinking of sauteing some chunks of chicken breast first and then adding them back in with the sauce and noodles at the end. I was just wondering if you could recommend a simple seasoning/marinade to flavor the chicken?
A simple marinade of soy sauce, a little bit of sesame oil and maybe even some red pepper flakes would be suitable for a recipe like this.
Thanks for the quick & helpful reply 🙂 I made this last night and used the chicken marinade you suggested (just a bit of sriracha in place of the red pepper flakes). It turned out great! The Asian grocery near my house did not have lo mein noodles, but they recommended fresh wonton egg noodles instead, which seemed to be a good substitute.
The verdict is in. I doubled the recipe for double the deliciousness. Four people had two large servings each and there is enough leftover to feed at least three more people. I followed the recipe exactly. Does anyone have suggestions as to what else to serve with this? Thanks.
So glad you tried this recipe! And we served this with Mongolian beef and orange chicken.
I served with a spicy orange chicken, the two sauces really complement each other.
I’ve used a similar recipe for years. You can substitute sweet chili sauce for the sriracha or just a pinch of dried red pepper flakes. The best part is it’s so quick & easy I can make it in the morning, come home and reheat at dinnertime & it tastes even better.
Chungah,
Having made another of your delicious recipes, ( broccoli and beef in slow cooker) I am anxious to try this one. I was able to track down the lo mein noodles so tonight is the night. If the meal is half as good as the photography we are in for a delightful dinner.
Made this tonight with shrimp instead of mushrooms (they went bad) and it was so tasty! Can’t wait for the leftovers!
Girlfriend you really know what you are doing. This recipe is delicious. My whole family loved it – not a drop left and it was so easy. We had takeout lomein the other night and this was much much better. Thank you!!
Unbelievable! Thank you for this. I woke up Monday morning and saw this recipe pop up on my tumblr, the photo sold me but the recipe was perfect. Will def become my go to lomein recipe, even bought an extra bag of egg noodles at pavillions 🙂
My friend and I had a hankering for lo mein the other night, so I found this recipe and decided to give it a try. We were not let down! This is truly delicious and simple. I’ve already shared it with a bunch of my vegetarian friends.