Scallion Oil Noodles (葱油拌面)- stove top and microwave version
Last year I went on a three week trip to Asia (China, Japan and Vietnam). While it was hectic, I was so delighted to be able to eat all the food I couldn’t find in Canada. During this time, I made a trip to Shanghai and had some scallion oil noodles for less than 5 bucks! I found this place in a residential area which we know is where the best foods are located. It was filling but not sickly rich and so flavourful.
While Shanghai is diverse, there is cuisine known as Shanghainese cuisine. Some well known foods are soup dumpling, crabs, duck blood soup, fried pork buns and of course scallion oil noodles. I didn’t have a lot of time but I got to try soup dumplings or xiaolongbao and scallion noodles.
Since I came back to Canada, I’m excited to cook some of the food I’ve had there. I’m starting off with scallion oil noodles. It’s really easy. I can make the sauce and store it for up to a month. This means I can have it whenever I want even if I’m short on time.
Scallion Oil Noodles Ingredients
Scallion oil noodles’ key ingredient is the scallion noodle sauce. It’s the star of the show. The ingredients you need is very simple. I used vegetable oil or canola oil. You need to use an oil with a high smoke point because you are frying the scallions in it and extract the flavour of the scallion. The other part of the scallion oil is a sauce you make that will be boiled with the oil after you fry up the scallions. The sauce is very simple and it includes soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar. I’m also making one you can do in the microwave so if you don’t want to cook on stove top, you can try the microwave version!
Stove top version:
- 4-5 scallions, cut into 1-1.5 inch pieces (If scallion is really thick, use 4, if it is small, use about 5)
- 1/3 cup of vegetable oil
Scallion sauce:
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 2 tbsp sugar
Other ingredients
- Wheat noodles
- 1-2 egg (you can fry and put it on the noodles)
Microwave version
Scallion sauce
- 3-4 scallion greens (omit the whites!)
- 1/3 cup of vegetable oil or canola oil (avoid olive oil)
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 2 tbsp sugar
Other ingredients
- Wheat noodles
- Fried egg
How to make it
Stove top version:
- Wash and cut the scallion into 1½ inches. You can leave some greens to cut as toppings.
- In a pot, add oil and scallion whites, turn the heat up to medium.
- Cook the scallion whites until it’s golden brown. Take out the scallion whites, turn the heat to low or off
- Cook the scallion greens in the oil. Cook until the scallion greens are brown and dry. Scoop out the greens into a bowl.
- Let the oil cool down for about 2-3 minutes with heat off.
- Add soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar into the oil and put the heat back to medium low.
- Once it starts boiling, keep boiling for about 20s.
- Turn off the heat and add the scallions back in. The scallion oil is done.
- Boil some water, cook your favourite wheat noodles.
- Fry up an egg (optional)
- Mix scallion oil (2-3tbsp) with the noodles and top with eggs. You can also toss in some preserved radishes for some extra crunch and flavour.
Microwave version:
- Put the scallion green (omit the whites) into a microwave safe bowl
- Pour the oil into the bowl.
- Cover and microwave for 3-3 1/2 minutes (do it 1 minute at a time and look to make sure you haven’t over cooked the scallions). The scallions should be dry and slightly brown.
- Wait 1-2 minutes to cool down, add in soy sauce, dark soy sauce and sugar. Mix
- The sauce is ready!
Assembling your noodles
- Boil your noodles to desired doneness
- Place noodles into bowl, add the sauces
- Fry an egg, place on top. Top off with some freshly cut scallions as well.
Pro-tip
Stove top version
- ALWAYS keep the heat to medium low as it is easy to burn the scallions
- Don’t walk away from the oil when cooking the scallions. When the heat is low, it may not seem like the scallions are being cooked, however the scallion can cooked quickly in matter of moments. If you don’t pay attention, it will burn!
- If the oil temperature is too high, turn off the heat and let it sit for 1-2 minutes. Then fry the scallions with no heat and slowly turn the heat back on.
- Before adding the sauce, turn off the heat and let the oil cool for about 2-3 minutes before pouring in the sauce. This way it won’t splatter once the sauce goes in (there is a lot of water content in sauce so it can cause the oil to splatter).
- If making a larger batch, store it in an airtight jar and store in fridge for up to 1 month.
- Use wheat noodles (not spaghetti). You can find these noodles usually in Asian supermarket.
- You can store the scallion oil up to a month in the fridge. If eating the scallion oil noodles later, pour the sauce directly onto the hot noodles and mix. This will help to cool the noodles down and also prevent clumping due to the oil content.
Microwave version
- I would recommend you heating 1 minute at a time since every microwave is different, it’s easy to burn the scallions.
- Check the scallions to make sure they are crispy but not burnt.
- The outside of the bowl may feel slightly oily, just wipe it down with a paper towel.
- You can store the scallion oil sauce to be used later on.
Scallion oil noodles
Ingredients
Stove top version
- 5 scallion
- ¼ cup neutral oil
- ⅓ cup soy sauce
- 2 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 2 tsp sugar
- Wheat noodles (depends on how much noodles you like to eat)
- 1-2 fried egg
Microwave version
- 3-4 scallion greens omit the whites!
- 1/3 cup of vegetable oil or canola oil avoid olive oil
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 2 tbsp sugar
- Wheat noodles
- 1-2 fried eggs
Instructions
Stove top version
- Wash and cut the scallion into 1½ inches. You can leave some greens to cut as toppings.
- In a pot, add oil and scallion whites, turn the heat up to medium.
- Cook the scallion whites until it's golden brown. Take out the scallion whites, turn the heat to low or off
- Cook the scallion greens in the oil. Cook until the scallion greens are brown and dry. Scoop out the greens into a bowl.
- Let the oil cool down a bit.
- Add soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar into the oil and put the heat back to medium low.
- Once it starts boiling, keep boiling for about 20s.
- Turn off the heat and add the scallions back in. The scallion oil is done.
- Boil some water, cook your favourite wheat noodles.
- Fry up an egg (optional)
- Mix scallion oil (2-3tbsp) with the noodles and top with eggs. You can also toss in some preserved radishes for some extra crunch and flavour.
Microwave version
- Put the scallion green into a microwave safe bowl
- Pour the oil into the bowl.
- Cover and microwave for 3-3 1/2 minutes (do it 1 minute at a time and look to make sure you haven’t over cooked the scallions). The scallions should be dried and with
- Wait 1-2 minutes to cool down, add in soy sauce, dark soy sauce and sugar. Mix
- The sauce is ready!
- Boil your noodles to desired doneness
- Place noodles into bowl, add the sauces
- Fry an egg, place on top. Top off with some freshly cut scallions as well.
