This simple vegetarian dish made with scallions, oil, two soy sauces, sugar and noodles is pure comfort food in Shanghai homes. Recipe below.
CHINESE FOOD IS ALWAYS SURPRISING US, always teaching us something new. There are so many regional cuisines, so many cooking techniques, so many secrets. Recently, ordering takeout from a new-to-us restaurant featuring Shanghai dishes, we came across scallion oil noodles— cōng yóu bàn miàn.
It is a simple dish made from a few humble ingredients—scallions, oil, two soy sauces, sugar and noodles. If it were Italian, it would be called cucina povera, “poor cooking.” In the kitchens of rural Italy—or working class anywhere—cooks learn to take what they have and make it something delicious and satisfying. Of course, Shanghai is the opposite of rural Italy, a bustling Chinese port municipality (its name means “on the sea”). It is home to more than 26 million people—and to this comforting dish.
Scallions—green onions, spring onions—are at the heart of this dish. They are fried low and slow, caramelizing and mellowing them, making the oil fragrant and flavorful (hence the name). And they are wonderfully crispy scattered on top of the noodles.
Scallion oil noodles can be a hearty vegetarian lunch or a robust side dish at dinner, which is how we had it. One cook mentioned frying a little ground pork with more chopped scallions separately, then adding it to the finished dish to give it some protein as a main course. However you serve it, it will delight you. And as a bonus, leftovers microwave just fine, although the crispy onions on top lose their crunch.
We mentioned how cooking Chinese food often teaches us something. Our pantry and fridge have an impressive number of Chinese ingredients, but I’d never heard of dark soy sauce (Marion, who has done far more Chinese cooking than I have, did know it, but never had occasion to add it to our pantry). According to the Spruce Eats food website, it is “aged longer than light soy sauce and is often mixed with molasses or caramel and a bit of cornstarch.” This thickens it and gives it a slightly sweeter, less salty flavor—there’s plenty of salt, but the sweetness masks it. Dark soy sauce is often used for giving dishes a nice caramel color as well as flavoring them.
Shanghai Scallion Oil Noodles
Ingredients
- 6 to 8 scallions (see Kitchen Notes)
- 1/3 cup grapeseed oil or other neutral oil
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce (we used reduced-sodium)
- 3 tablespoons dark soy sauce
- 3 teaspoons sugar
- 12 ounces Chinese white noodles (see Kitchen Notes for substitutes)
- salt, if needed
Instructions
- Cut scallions crosswise into thirds. Julienne the sections lengthwise, keeping white/pale green parts separate from the dark green parts.
- Put oil and white/pale green portions of the scallions in a cold wok or deep skillet. Set heat to medium-low and toss scallions to coat with oil. When scallions begin to sizzle, add dark green portions and cook, stirring frequently, letting scallions become a nice, golden brown. Cook for about 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer scallions to a paper towel-lined plate and reserve. They will seem limp while cooking, but as they rest on the paper toweling, they will crisp up.
- Meanwhile, cook the noodles according to package directions. (If your noodles aren’t going to be ready in the 2 minutes it takes to finish the oil, just turn off the heat under the oil pan until 2 or so minutes before the noodles are done.)
- With the oil pan on low, add both soy sauces and sugar to the oil, stirring to combine. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. It will bubble up, and that is fine.
- Drain noodles and rinse under running water. Add noodles to pan, along with some of the scallions. Toss to completely coat noodles with the scallion oil. Taste and adjust with salt, if needed (you probably won’t need to).
- Transfer noodles to a serving bowl or individual bowls. Top with remaining scallions. Serve.
Kitchen Notes
Liz's Crockery Corner. The sleek white bowl featured in the noodle photo is a useful find from World Market. The ceramic bowl shard shown here is something Marion dug up in our backyard while doing some spring gardening. We know nothing of its provenance. But the ruler shown for scale came from some flea market or vintage shop around St. Louis. It is a promotional ruler for a long-gone shoe store on South Broadway. Among its claims to fame was that the store sold Peters Weatherbird children's shoes, a brand featuring the beloved Weatherbird character that used to give the weather forecast and commentary on daily events in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Peters Shoe Company sold the brand from 1901 until 1932, when the company was acquired by the Brown Shoe Company, which continued to sell Weatherbird shoes into the 1950s.
I haven’t heard of this dish! Neat idea — there just aren’t that many recipes where scallions have a starring role. The flavors in this sound exquisite. Thanks!
In Canada, anyway, and I suspect all extant corner store Chinese food shops. the 2 soy sauces are sold as Mushroom and Superior. Cheap as chips and delish!
I haven’t heard of dark soy sauce either but I definitely want to try it now.
As with most of your recipes, I enjoy the background information or “story” that you provide along with the recipe.
Always fascinating and always delicious.
Thank you, Terry.
Thanks, John. It really is delicious. Hope you try it.
Tia, we love “cheap as chips!” And as it turns out, mushroom soy sauce is yet another variety. It is often substituted for dark soy sauce and adds more umami.
Thanks, Dani! We do love to tell stories here.
I had tried making a different version of these noodles in the past, and was underwhelmed.
Last night I ran to the kitchen & made your version. They were delicious! Thank you.
Also, thanks for reminding me about Weatherbird. As a child, I imagined he was the Cardinals’ old, frumpy relative who always was talking about the weather… as old frumpy relatives do 😉 I had no idea he had something to do with shoes!
Eeka, we’re so glad you liked it! And regarding the Weatherbird, somehow as a kid, I didn’t realize it was a bird. I thought it was a frog—you know, a Weatherfrog. Makes as much sense as a bird, right? And he didn’t really have anything to do with shoes (though he wore them in the cartoons of him); but I was surprised that the Post-Dispatch started licensing him (or whatever they called it back then) the same year he was created, 1901!
Made it, and it is really really good. Thanks! Finely diced ginger and/or garlic, sauted to crunch, are a nice sprinkle on top, as are a handful of those ubiquitous crunchy noodles that I feel are probably not very good for a person.
I used big wormy white noodles that just need reheating.