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 was a major hit with my family! Only had spaghetti noodles available and used those. Added diced chicken thighs (cooked w/olive oil, garlic, and soy sauce). Doubled the sauce because we like our stuff saucy. Turned out amazing. I hate the taste of the preservatives in bottled sauces. This was sooooooooo much better. Thank you for sharing!
First sound out of my 3 year old’s mouth was “Mmmmmmmm!” Great recipe. I didn’t add sriracha in the sauce and made only the noodles for her and she loved it. I’ll be adding veggies and sriracha for us though! Thanks for posting this recipe.
I’m sorry I forgot to enter the rating!
Always loved lo mein dishes, first place to hit at chinese buffet. I’ve made this dish before but always cheated with store bought stir fry sauce. Your sauce was better. Love your recipe m M M ☺️
5 stats definatly!!
This turned out really well, but I think the sauce had way too strong of a ginger flavor for me. Next time, I’ll be cutting the amount of ginger in half.
Very good. I had to add more sauce. I used less than 8oz of noodles. Ratios seemed slightly off. But was still good!
This recipe turned out amazing and was so easy, I took many peoples advice and tripled the recipe for the sauce and it was perfect, does anyone have a non spicy alternative to the sriracha if I make this for my non-spice loving family members or has anyone tried not even adding it?
This receipt was easy and delicious. Made some chicken thighs with sweet and sour sauce. It was a hit with my family.
Easiest. Best. Most delicious lo mein I’ve ever had! It was so quick to whip up since I had everything I needed at home! My boyfriend and I are vegetarian and are always looking for flavorful dishes and this was a HIT!
Amazing flavor and super easy, totally a go to recipe! Makes you never want the takeout again after making this!
Thank you so much for an easy flavorful recipe. Made it exactly like recipe stated.
Amazing!!! I substituted sesame oil with olive oil. Soooo good. I only had peppers and garlic for the stir fry and it was still fantastic. I used a squeeze tube of ginger instead of grating fresh. Still amazing. I also used regular spaghetti noodles – still amazing!! I didn’t have siracha so I used a few dashes of red pepper.
So good!
Absolutely delicious! My family loved it!! I had red bell pepper, zucchini, mushrooms, and carrots to add to the noodles. It has apparently been years since I have made anything similar because my sesame oil was very outdated and got tossed. So I used light olive oil. And we paired this dish with cubed smoked pork sirloin roast after tossing it in this recipe’s sauce.
You have to quadrupled this recipe to feed 3ppl. The sauce that is
Absolutely delicious. Didn’t have sariacha sauce so added A tap of chopped green chillies, a dash of red chilli flakes and a tap of crushed black pepper. Yummmmm.
Yum! Perfect flavor. I’m avoiding pasta so I used butternut squash noodles. Used the veggies I had on hand and added shrimp, but followed sauce recipe exactly. Totally customizable. Easy, quick, added to faves!
I see quite a few doubled the sauce. An authentic lo mein is not drenched like American Chinese takeout. It’s meant to be light. In my opinion, keep it original 😉
I live in China and we eat our noodles drenched in sauce! We never eat them dry. I suggest quadrupling the sauce, but maybe don’t quadruple the sugar. Super delicious!
Came out so amazing better than fast food restaurants love love love it!
This recipe looks great! But i wonder if it could go without the snow peas and baby spinach? Will it still taste good without them?
This is one of the many Chinese “use up stuff” recipes: the noodles and probably the sauce are constants, other ingredients are pretty much whatever is on hand.
A great recipe. The good thing is that you can customize to your liking. I added scrambled eggs seasoned with salt, sugar, siracha, and a tiny bit if sesame oil. Also cooked a pork chop seasoned in fish sauce, sugar, and some soy sauce. Then sliced thin.
This was a great meal! I did substitute cayenne pepper for the sriracha only because I did not have it. I used equal amounts, which made it spicy, oops! It was very good. I also 2x the sauce.
This recipe is simple and had almost all of the ingredients on hand. Ummmm. Can’t wait to see and try more rescipes from this site.
This recipe sounds so easy and tasty!
Was wondering if I could use olive oil instead of sesame oil?
Really good! Like most people, I quadrupled the sauce, with the only modifications being omitting the sriracha, and then I added 1/2 teaspoon (total, not quadrupled) oyster sauce. I used 12 oz. angel hair pasta and mixed veggies.