Scallion noodles is a fairly common Chinese dish and something I’ve eaten since I was young. It’s a comfort food for me, especially during COVID times. There are many variations of this recipe, and mine is based on the Shanghainese version (上海蔥油拌麵). What I love about scallion oil is that it keeps for a while and can be stored outside of the fridge. It’s something you can frequently use – add this onto noodles (like for this recipe) or top it off on some sautéed vegetables.
Moreover, scallion oil is super easy to make and can be adjusted to your liking e.g. by adding more soy sauce if it’s not salty enough. Other recipes I’ve seen have the addition of garlic, shallots and oyster sauce. All to say. scallion oil is really versatile and easy to customize so have fun with this!
One key tip when you are frying the scallions – if fried too much, they turn bitter. The best indication is in its color. You want the scallion pieces to be browned but not black.
Scallion Noodles (上海蔥油拌麵)
Ingredients
- 5 scallions, chopped - ~2" long; try to keep the white part separated from the green part
- 1-1" ginger, sliced
- 1 cup neutral oil (e.g. vegetable, grapeseed)
- 1/3 (~3 oz.) cup soy sauce (light)
- 1/4 (~1 oz.) cup soy sauce (dark)
- Dash of sugar
- 1 bunch/serving of flour-based thin noodles
Instructions
For the Scallion Oil (蔥油), pat the scallions dry (this will help with making sure oil doesn't spurt up when you're cooking).
Add the soy sauces with sugar, and set aside.
Pour the neutral oil into a pot and keep at medium-low heat
Fry the white scallion parts with the ginger. Once it starts to come close to being completely brown, take out of the pot and onto a separate plate. Remove ginger pieces.
Fry the green scallion parts until close to being brown. Add the fried white scallion back into the pot. Turn off the heat.
Add soy sauce mixture into the oil. It will bubble and cook. Let the scallion oil cool and store in a jar.
For Scallion Noodles (final assembly), boil water in a separate pot and toss noodles to cook
Once the noodles are done (you can generally tell if it's soft and has a slight bite), take them out of the pot and place into bowl
Add about two tablespoons of scallion oil to noodles and mix. Note: I add the soy sauce part of the oil to get some color onto the noodles.
Top the noodles with some scallions pieces from the scallion oil, and serve
