Veggie Lo-Mein

Maybe I am a food snob/just plain spoiled, but upon moving to Hawaii, I haven't been able to find a solid Chinese/Japanese take out restaurant so I had to come up with a recipe to satisfy my noodle cravings. This is what I came up with. It's picky husband approved and it's quick and easy =)

Grocery List:

Low sodium soy sauce

Sesame Oil

Frozen and semi thawed stir fry veggies (use whatever combo you like and if you have fresh veggies use em!)

Precooked Asian noodles (most grocery stores have them in the Asian or International isle, but feel free to use pasta)

Garlic- two whole. peeled cloves and about two cloves minced

Light olive oil or canola oil

S and P

The Low Down:

I take the extra few minutes and infuse some oil with garlic (if you like ginger, infuse the oil with a few peeled hunks of it). That way my veggies have an extra boost of flavor.

 1. Over low heat, let two peeled garlic gloves flavor a few tablespoons of oil (Don’t mince it, it’s hard to remove it that way!).

Side note- If you think you put too much oil in the pan, like I always do, before you add in your veggies pour some oil into another container and reserve it, or after you add your noodles to the veggies pour some onto the noodles, that’s what I usually do.  

Okay, back to business. Once you can smell the garlic, remove the cloves and discard them (about 5-7 minutes). Their work here is done.

Now that your oil is infused, crank up the heat and add in your semi thawed veggies. Stir fry them until they are just about cooked BUT NOT MUSHY and season them with a lil S and P. Go easy on the S because you are going to add in soy sauce. Right before you add in your pasta/noodles, add in one, chopped garlic clove and let that cook for another minute or so, being careful not to let it burn. Burned garlic=yucky!

Add in the noodles (try and separate them as you add them to the pan because they are usually clumped together) and combine with the veggies. Add in a couple glugs of soy sauce (this is really to taste) another chopped garlic clove and let everything marry for a few minutes. Turn off the heat and add a drizzle (a lil goes a long way here) of sesame oil and stir to combine.

Enjoy!