Scallion oil noodles
Green onions fried slowly until crisp and golden, then their fragrant oil turns into a glossy soy sauce for noodles, the Shanghai classic with five ingredients.
- 30 min total
- 25 min hands-on
- A little more hands-on
- Serves 2
- About $2.03 a serving
- 730 calories
- Vegetarian
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 1 bunch green onions, the whole bunch, about 7
- 8 oz lo mein noodles, one package
From your pantry
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
- 3 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp sugar
Each serving has about 730 calories, 19 g protein, 92 g carbs and 32 g fat, and costs about $2.03 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No green onions? Chives work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the green onions, them dry, and cut them into 3-inch pieces, keeping the white and green parts in separate piles.
Trim. Trimming means cutting off the parts you don’t eat, like stem ends, tough bits or thick fat. It keeps chewy or bitter bits out of the finished dish.
How you’ll know: What’s left is the good part, with no dry ends, woody stems or thick white fat.
Pat dry. Patting dry means pressing paper towels onto food to soak up the moisture on its surface. Wet food steams instead of browning, so this is how you get a good sear and crisp skin.
How you’ll know: The surface feels tacky, not wet, and the last paper towel comes away barely damp.
Dolly’s tip: Dry onions matter. Water makes the oil spit.Bring a large pot of water over high heat.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Put the oil and the white parts in a large over medium-low heat and cook 5 minutes, until they start to shrink.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Low heatTimer: 5 min
Add the green parts and cook 8 to 10 minutes more, stirring now and then, until everything is dark and crisp. Lift the onions out onto a plate.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Low heatTimer: 9 min
Dolly’s tip: Watch the last few minutes closely. Dark golden is perfect, and black tastes burnt.Take the pan off the heat, let it cool 1 minute, then carefully stir in the soy sauce and sugar. Return it to low heat for 1 minute, until it bubbles and turns glossy.
Low heatTimer: 2 min
Dolly’s tip: The soy sauce sputters when it hits the oil, so pour it in at arm’s length.Cook the noodles in the water as the package says, then .
Boil. Boiling means heating a liquid until big bubbles rise and break all over the surface. It’s the fastest way to cook pasta, potatoes and eggs, because it’s as hot as water gets.
How you’ll know: Bubbles are breaking across the whole surface, not just at the edges, and steam is rising.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
High heatTimer: 4 min
the noodles in the scallion sauce until coated and pile the crispy onions on top.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
