Chinese ‘Egg-fried’ Noodles… Vegan Style!

As part of their Healthy Smiles campaign, SimplyHealth invited me to take part in a competition to design a recipe using ingredients featured in their Infographic for healthy teeth. As soon as I saw the list, the recipe that sprung to mind was my family’s favourite Chinese stir fry

It features three of the six ingredients listed in the Infographic’s ‘Eat It’ column  – purple cabbage, carrot and ginger. If you drink a glass of water with the meal, then follow it with a cup of green tea, then we’ve got all bar one of the ingredients covered (we’ll forget about the last one, salmon!)

Stir fry vegetables

This stir fry takes 20 minutes or less, so it’s perfect for busy week day nights or as a cheap, tasty (and healthy!) alternative to a weekend takeaway. It has a beautiful, distinctive Chinese flavour thanks to the Five Spice seasoning, which is a blend of star anise, fennel, cloves, cinnamon and black pepper.

Instead of eggs, we much prefer the texture and flavour of scrambled tofu in this stir fry. It’s so easy to make. You simply squeeze the excess water from the tofu (no need to press it), and crumble it into a wok…

Scrambled Tofu Stage 1

… then stir in some soy sauce, garlic, ginger and a touch of turmeric to give it a lovely golden yellow hue.

Scrambled Tofu Stage 2

The stir fry vegetables are then added to the wok, along with a sprinkling of Chinese Five Spice, some cashews and a little vegetable stock.

Chinese Stir Fry

After a couple of minutes, the noodles are stirred in. (We prefer to use wholewheat noodles in this stir fry as they have a chewier texture which works well in Chinese dishes, but do sub with rice or other GF noodles if needed).

We add a final drizzle of soy sauce, then it’s done!

Chinese Stir Fry 2

This meal is so speedy and simple to make. It has to be the perfect Chinese Fast Food!

[print_this]Serves 4
Hands-on time 20 minutes   Cooking time 10 minutes
Ready in 20 minutes

Ingredients
200g / 7 oz wholewheat noodles (or use rice or other GF noodles, if needed)
½ TBSP oil
1 TBSP soy sauce (or tamari for a GF option), divided
1 block of firm tofu (about 400g / 14oz)
2 garlic cloves, minced
thumb-size piece of root ginger, peeled and finely grated
¼ tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp vegetable bouillon powder
1 large bag of mixed stir fry vegetables (about 480g / 17 oz / 6 cups of beansprouts, white cabbage, red cabbage, carrot, broccoli, onion, red pepper)
70g / ½ cup cashews (optional)
½ – ¾ tsp Chinese Five Spice

Method
Prepare a large pan of boiling water. Cook the noodles for 4 minutes, or until al dente. Drain and return them to the pan. Drizzle in ½ TBSP oil and stir through to coat the noodles. Set to one side.

While the noodles are cooking, prepare the stir fry. Drain the tofu and squeeze to remove excess water. Crumble the tofu into a non stick wok or deep sided frying pan (skillet). Drizzle ½ TBSP soy sauce into the pan and stir fry on a medium-high heat for a minute or two. Add the garlic, ginger and turmeric, and stir fry for a couple of minutes. Dissolve the vegetable stock in 4 TBSP of boiling water and add it to the pan along with the vegetables, cashews and Chinese Five Spice. Stir fry for 4 minutes. Add the noodles to the wok along with the remaining ½ TBSP soy sauce. Stir to thoroughly combine. (I add the noodles in small batches rather than in one go as I find it easier to combine them this way). The stir fry’s now ready to serve.

Any leftovers can be stored in the fridge for a day or two. Heat through in a non stick wok or frying pan before serving.

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Products used in this recipe (UK Stockists)
Cauldron Foods Original Tofu, available from the chilled aisle in most major UK supermarkets
Kikkoman Less Salt Soy Sauce, available from most major UK supermarkets
Suma Five Spice Seasoning, available from health food stores and via Amazon (Other Chinese Five Spice blends can be found on the spice aisle in supermarkets).
Blue Dragon Wholewheat Noodles, available from Waitrose, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons

Chopsticks are optional 😉

I would LOVE to be able to use chopsticks. I’ve tried so many times but I’m utterly useless. I’m the one in Chinese restaurants that has to put their hand up and ask for a fork. Shame on me!

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14 thoughts on “Chinese ‘Egg-fried’ Noodles… Vegan Style!

  1. Lovely fast easy noodle dish, right up my street. Great idea to add in the scrambled tofu! I will try that next time as when I try to cube and fry it up in a stir fry, it sticks without lots of oil. I love the Blue Dragon wholewheat noodles too.

    1. The scrambled tofu works really well as an egg replacement. My family actually prefers it! I used to add a little oil to the pan before crumbling in the tofu, but I discovered that the oil isn’t needed. Maybe because the tofu isn’t pressed, there’s sufficient liquid in it to stop it sticking? I just use a drizzle of soy sauce to flavour the tofu before stir frying in the veg. Works a treat 😀

    1. I’ve never been a fan of egg in noodles either… I’ve never liked the taste or texture of egg, but I love scrambled tofu! Lil’ L reckons it’s very similar to egg fried noodles so hopefully your hubbie will approve too. Fingers crossed 😉 xx

    1. Thanks Sandy ♥ Turmeric is the magic ingredient for scrambled tofu isn’t it? Without that beautiful golden colour, tofu looks pretty insipid. A little sprinkling of turmeric makes all the difference 🙂

  2. What a delicious stir-fried noodle dish! I’m glad you’re using a wok, it is a perfect tool for any Asian kitchen – for stir frying and everything else! I’ve made these ‘egg’ tofu before for pad thai and other noodle dishes since egg is a common ingredient in most asian stir-fried noodles. Have you tried black salt for these egg tofu – I love using it for the egg tofu! Ah I hope one day I can teach you how to use chopsticks – I use chopsticks for almost everything, hehe!

    1. I haven’t used black salt before as I’ve never liked the taste of egg, and I’d heard it gives the tofu an ‘eggy’ flavour. I’ve also got a packet of Vegg sitting in the cupboard unopened. I guess I should give it a tr

      I would LOVE you to teach me how to use chopsticks. It’s one of those things that I’ve always wanted to learn how to do. My hubbie makes it look so easy. He tried to teach me but failed miserably (down to my incompetence not his teaching!) You’ll have to give me a masterclass one day 😉

  3. The perfect stir fry!! You had me fooled with that turmeric scrambled tofu- it looks very eggy! But I would enjoy the tofu much more than eggs!! Sounds like a quick, nutritious meal! Yummy! Love that it has all those good-for-your-teeth ingredients.

    1. I love these ‘egg’ fried noodles so much. I must have eaten them 3 or 4 times last week! You should definitely try scrambling tofu into your noodles… it’s so much nicer than egg! If you want to make them even more ‘egg like’, you could add some black salt like Rika suggested. Personally, I’m not a fan of the eggy taste, so I’m happy to stick with soy sauce, turmeric and garlic 😀

  4. I used to adore egg-fried rice in my pre-vegan days – there was one particular takeaway that actually did a fantastic seitan-based meat in Schezwan sauce alongside it… I tried to recreate it once, but with little success, since Chinese cooking is possibly the area I have least experience in xD Maybe time to try again – this recipe looks amazing!

    1. I haven’t tried the scrambled tofu in rice yet but it works a treat with the noodles. I flavour it with soy sauce, garlic, turmeric and Chinese five spice but, if you like the eggy flavour, you could add in some black salt too.
      The seitan dish with Schezwan sauce sounds so delicious! I used to go to Chinese restaurants a lot when I lived in Nottingham. Their mock meat dishes were incredible!

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