Scallion oil noodles

葱油拌面

Shanghai weeknight noodles — spring onion fried in oil until sweet, tossed with soy. Almost nothing, if you do it right.

Recipe by I Want Some Food · Reviewed by the editorial kitchen. Native name preserved: 葱油拌面.

0 people cooked this in the public kitchen yet. Kitchen-tested by I Want Some Food. Not a purchased rating.

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Measurement system
Prep
10 min
Cook
15 min
Total
25 min
Difficulty
Easy
Spice
No chilli
Cost
Cheap nightUnder $8 USD · indicative, not a store price
Source photograph of Scallion oil noodles. Not official I Want Some Food pixel artwork.
Photo: HanWei's EXP from (optional) via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0. Source

About

Cong you ban mian is wheat noodles tossed with oil that has fried a pile of spring onion until it is brown and jammy, plus soy. The onion oil is the recipe. If you burn it, start the oil again. This is not a stir-fry with vegetables piled on.

Ingredients

Scaling multiplies the written quantities. Baking still prefers a scale.

Steps

  1. Step 1

    Fry spring onion in oil over medium-low until deeply gold and sweet, 8–10 minutes. Do not blacken.

    10 min
  2. Step 2

    Boil noodles. Toss with the oil, the onions, soy and sugar.

    6 min

Adapt this recipe

The canonical recipe stays intact. Personal versions are labelled. Serving changes are maths, not AI.

Adaptations · 0 / 15 used. Resets 24 August.

Substitutions

  • Wheat noodles Spaghetti

    Emergency. Still onion oil.

Tips

  • A splash of the noodle water loosens the toss.
  • Light and dark soy together is the Shanghai colour if you have both.

History & culture

Shanghai and Jiangnan home lunch. Also the bowl you make when the fridge is empty.

Oil-and-onion noodles are Jiangnan everyday food that the internet turned into a 'hack'. It was already a dish.

Traditional

Provenance: Editorial adaptation. Original editorial adaptation for I Want Some Food. Not copied from another recipe site. Official recipe photography is pending. Photograph: HanWei's EXP from (optional) via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shanghai%20oil%20noodle.jpg

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