Vegetable Chow Mein Recipe - Dish Ditty (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between vegetable chow mein and vegetable lo mein? ›

The sauce: Chow mein is more of a dry noodle dish with an extremely light and delicate sauce — if any sauce at all. Lo mein is a saucy noodle dish that depends on a rich sauce for much of its flavor. The texture: Chow mein noodles tend to be crunchier than lo mein noodles due to the way they are cooked.

The sauce is what gives chow mein all of its seasoning and addictive flavors. It's a mix of oyster sauce, sweet soy sauce, toasted sesame oil and freshly ground black pepper. It's full of sweet and savory umami and seriously SO good.

Chow mein vs chop suey are both popular Chinese dishes that are often confused with each other. Chow mein is a stir-fried noodle dish that typically includes vegetables and meat, while chop suey is a dish made up of meat, vegetables, and sometimes noodles that are cooked in a thick sauce.

Crispy chow mein is usually topped with a thick brown sauce, while steamed chow mein is mixed with soy sauce before being served. There is a regional difference in the US between the East and West Coast use of the term "chow mein". On the East Coast, "chow mein" is always the crispy kind.

The BEST Chow Mein Sauce:

Combine soy sauce, light sesame oil, oyster sauce, granulated sugar, cornstarch, and chicken broth to make the signature sweet and savory sauce that makes chow mein taste authentic.

Largely this is a matter of personal taste since both dishes can be made to your preference. If you prefer lightly sauced noodles with some crunch and vegetables with some snap, chow mein might be the way to go. If you like a more comforting noodle with richly flavored sauce, lo mein may be the better option.

At my local Chinese, they call this Crispy Chow Mein Noodles. It's a Hong Kong / Cantonese style dish, and there are a lot of variations but the core of it is a bed of deep fried crunchy noodles topped with a saucy stir fry.

Spaghettis won't turn soggy or sticky too easily, and they can hold the sauce on its surface very well. Therefore spaghetti is a perfect substitution of chow mein to make Chinese style stir fry noodles.

Chow Mein vs Lo Mein

For chow mein, we half-cook the noodles, put them into the wok to stir fry them with other ingredients, then add the sauce. For lo mein, we boil the noodles until fully cooked, stir fry the other ingredients with sauce, then toss the noodles in the sauce.

Home ⁄ Chicago Chow Mein or Chop Suey

CHOW MEIN: Finely Cut Vegetables in a Dark Sauce, Mushrooms, Water Chestnuts & Pea Pods w. Noodles. ChOP SUEY: Large sliuced of vegetable in dark sauce, Mushroom, water chestnuts & pea pods.

What is the difference between chow mein and Hong Kong style chow mein? ›

The main difference is that noodles labeled "Hong Kong" or "pan-fried noodles" are par-cooked in boiling water, which makes them ready to stir-fry. Use this variety for dry stir-fried noodle dishes, like this stir-fried chow mein with four vegetables and whenever you want the noodles to be slightly (or very) crispy.

With chow mein, you cook noodles and add them to your wok of other ingredients, cooking everything together in one pan. However, with a chop suey recipe, you will cook the noodles or rice and other ingredients separately before combining them in a bowl, serving up the noodles or rice with the sauce served over the top.

You can use various types of noodles for chow mein, and as long as you stir fry them in some oil, you're good to go! We prefer Yakisoba because it consistently provides the right texture, but you can also cook dry lo mein noodles, drain them well, and then stir fry them in oil.

Lo mein sauce

It's a simple umami filled mix of light and dark soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, sugar, and a hint of ginger. It's super easy to make a batch of lo mein sauce and keep it in the fridge so you can easily make lo mein whenever the craving hits.

From a nutritional standpoint, lo mein is better than chow mein, hands down. "Lo mein would be considered more nutritious because the noodles are not fried and there is less oil used in the cooking," Jaelin says. "Lo mein has less than half the calories and fat found in chow mein.

Out of which carbohydrates comprise 183 calories, proteins account for 31 calories and remaining calories come from fat which is 40 calories. One serving of Vegetable Chow Mein provides about 13 percent of the total daily calorie requirement of a standard adult diet of 2,000 calories.

Mein gon (面干 miàn-gān), informally referred to as crunchy noodles or crunchy chow mein, are a type of noodle-shaped cracker (or dried biscuit) used in American Chinese cuisine.