Vegetarian Chow Mein With Fried Honey Tofu

Is it Meatless Monday or you just want to get some vegetarian Asian food? This Vegetarian Chow Mein with Fried Honey Tofu is a great way to get your veggie fix in with some great flavors!

We have already made a simple Chow Mein noodle dish in our Chow Mein deep dive series. In that post, we really spent some time talking about the noodles, making fresh noodles, and how the noodles are the star of the Chow Mein. Today, we are going to explore a vegetarian option a bit further and make a great Vegetarian Chow Mein. Additionally, we are going to add some flair to the dish by including some fried and seasoned tofu. Enjoy our Vegetarian Chow Mein With Fried Honey Tofu.

Cooking Everything Separately

Many times, people look at a wok as a way to cook everything at once. Yes, this can make for some fun and quick dishes, when done appropriately. It can also make for dishes that have undercooked or overcooked elements. I like to look at wok cooking a bit differently. I often cook my individual ingredients in the wok and then combine them at the end. This gives me complete control over the doneness of the individual elements.

Vegetables In Our Vegetarian Chow Mein

The star of Chow Mein is the noodle and if you are making your noodles from scratch, you should celebrate them. We are going to include some vegetables in this dish, but not many. I think we are already stretching the limits a bit in terms of turning our simple classic into something much more complicated. For our dish, we are going to use garlic, baby bok choy, sprouts, and green onions as the only vegetables.

Unthickened Sauce

In our other versions of Chow Mein, we thicken the sauce. This really is a personal preference and not always the case with Chow Mein. Since we are going to be including a fried tofu element, I thought it would be better to make this sauce very simply and with no need to thicken it. The noodles in this version will be the simplest, but have the added pop of a highly flavored tofu.

Tofu Fun

A more unique element of this recipe is the fried tofu. Fried tofu is a great way to add different flavors in textures to any Asian dish, but has a particularly good place in a vegetarian’s culinary repertoire. Our goal with this tofu is NOT to make it the star of the dish, but a hard accent that makes this version stand out. So, we are not going to incorporate the tofu in chunks, but more like patties that have been fried in a soy and honey mixture. As a note, the honey pictured below has crystalized a bit if mine looks different than yours. If yours does the same thing, that is ok. Once it is added to the wok, it will incorporate fully.

Also, in between cooking the tofu and the noodles, I took a quick second to clean up my wok. If you have two woks or cooking utensils, that would work as well. As long as I kept the tofu covered and cleaned up my wok quickly, everything works out fine in terms of heat.

Products Used For This Recipe

1. Wustoff Knife Set
2. A Wok
3. Honey

Vegetarian Chow Mein with Fried Honey Tofu

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• Author: Ben Myhre
• Prep Time: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
• Cook Time: 20 Minutes
• Total Time: 1 Hour 50 Minutes
• Yield: 2 Servings 1x
• Category: Vegetarian
• Method: Stir Fry
• Cuisine: Asian

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Description

This Vegetarian Chow Mein with Fried Honey Tofu takes a bit of time and patience but will knock your socks off.

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Noodles

• 156 grams Bread Flour
• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1 eggs
• 78 grams water
• ¼ cup oil For Frying

Vegetables

• 1 tablespoons peanut oil
• 2 green onions
• 1 Cup Bean Sprouts
• 1 Baby Bok Choy, chopped
• 2–3 cloves of garlic, minced

TOFU

• 2 tablespoons Peanut oil or other oil appropriate for high heat
• 1 block extra firm tofu, cut lengthwise into 4ths
• 3 Tablespoons light soy sauce
• 2 Tablespoons thick soy sauce
• 1 Tablespoon honey

Noodle Sauce

• 2 Tablespoons Soy Sauce
• 2 Tablespoons Thick Soy Sauce
• 1 Tablespoon Sesame Oil

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Instructions

Raw Homemade Chinese Noodles (steps 1-11 are the raw noodle recipe from the base Noodle Recipe, prior to frying

1. In large bowl, mix flour and salt
2. In separate bowl, add egg and water to make a total weight of 78g
3. Beat the eggs and water
4. Slowly mix egg/water mixture into flour
5. Once mixed, knead for 5 minutes (do not add water) in the bowl
6. Leave bowl, loosely covered and let sit for 30 Minutes
7. Knead for an additional minute and should be a smooth ball at this point
8. Sprinkle flour onto rolling mat and use rolling pin to roll out dough to 1mm to 2 mm thick. BE PATIENT
9. Cut thinly with knife. In the video, she folds the dough, but I just roll it and cut the individual noodles.
10. Once all noodles are cut, they are ready for a boil
11. Add to Boiling water for 2-3 minutes and then strain.
12. Add 1 Tablespoon peanut oil to wok and heat
13. Add baby bock choy and allow to cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute or until cooked through
14. Add green onion, bean sprouts, and garlic.
15. Stir-fry for another 3o seconds to 1 minute
16. Remove and set aside
17. Add 2 Tablespoons oil to wok and turn to high
18. While heating, cut tofu lengthwise into fourths
19. Add soy sauces, oil, and honey to bowl and mix
20. Once wok is heated add tofu to wok and allow to fri for 2-3 minutes or until bottom is golden brown and then flip – be sure to use a spatula to ensure tofu does not stick
21. Allow tofu to fry for 2-3 more minutes
22. Add sauce and allow to to cook down while flipping tofu so the sauce coats
23. Remove tofu, pour any remaining sauce on top, and set aside in a covered container to keep warm
24. Clean up wok and add ¼ cup oil to wok
25. Heat
26. Once heated, add Noodles and fry for approximately 2 minutes or until noodles are crispy. The goal here is NOT to make them crispy like the ‘from a can’ variation, but noodles that have been fried enough so they are crispy on the outside, but still noodle-like.
27. Once noodles are crispy, add noodle sauce and allow to cook down.
28. Re-add all vegetables to walk and incorporate everything
29. Plate and add tofu on the side.

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