Vegetable chow fun
The Cantonese takeout classic: wide rice noodles seared in a smoking-hot pan with soy, onion, bok choy and crunchy bean sprouts until glossy and a little smoky.
- 25 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 2
- About $2.92 a serving
- 540 calories
- Vegan
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 2 servings.
- 6 oz rice noodles
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- ½ yellow onion, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 stalks green onions, cut into 2-inch pieces, whites and greens kept apart
- 2 baby bok choy, sliced
- 2 cups bean sprouts
From your pantry
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- ¼ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 540 calories, 12 g protein, 87 g carbs and 17 g fat, and costs about $2.92 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No green onions? Chives work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Soak the noodles in very hot tap water 10 minutes, until bendy. .
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.
Timer: 10 min
Dolly’s tip: They should bend but still feel firm, like undercooked spaghetti. They finish cooking in the pan, so don’t soak them soft.Stir the soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil and 1 tablespoon water together.
Heat the oil in a large over high heat until it . Add the onion and 1 minute, then the garlic and green onion whites for 30 seconds.
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.
Shimmering oil. Oil shimmers when it’s hot enough to cook: its surface looks rippled and wavy, like heat over a road. That’s your cue to add the food, just before the oil would start to smoke.
How you’ll know: The oil looks wavy and runs thin like water when you tilt the pan, with no smoke yet.
Stir-fry. Stir-frying means cooking small pieces fast over high heat in a little oil, stirring almost constantly. It moves quickly, so have everything chopped and ready before the pan gets hot.
How you’ll know: It sizzles loudly the whole time, and the vegetables turn bright and tender-crisp in minutes.
High heatTimer: 1 min 30 sec
Add the bok choy and 2 minutes, until the stems are .
Stir-fry. Stir-frying means cooking small pieces fast over high heat in a little oil, stirring almost constantly. It moves quickly, so have everything chopped and ready before the pan gets hot.
How you’ll know: It sizzles loudly the whole time, and the vegetables turn bright and tender-crisp in minutes.
Tender-crisp. Tender-crisp means vegetables cooked until just tender but still with a little snap. They keep their bright color and crunch instead of going soft and dull.
How you’ll know: A fork goes in with slight resistance, and the color is bright, not olive or gray.
High heatTimer: 2 min
Add the noodles and sauce, let them sit 30 seconds, then gently. Repeat for about 2 minutes, until the noodles are evenly and in spots.
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.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Char. Charring means cooking over very high heat until some spots turn black. Those dark spots add a smoky, slightly bitter flavor that balances sweet or rich food.
How you’ll know: You see black spots and blisters in places, while most of the surface keeps its own color.
High heatTimer: 2 min
Dolly’s tip: Very high heat and not too much stirring gives the smoky flavor Cantonese cooks call wok hei.in the bean sprouts and green onion tops for 30 seconds, so the sprouts stay crunchy. with the pepper and serve.
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.
Season. Seasoning means adding salt, pepper or spices to bring out a food’s flavor. A little at a few stages tastes better than a lot all at the end.
How you’ll know: When you taste it, it tastes bright and like itself, not flat and not salty.
High heat
Food safety: If you’re pregnant, or cooking for small children or older people, cook the bean sprouts until steaming hot or leave them out. Raw and lightly cooked sprouts carry a small risk that rinsing doesn’t remove.
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.
