Almost-Take-Out Chow Mein

I made vegetable chow mein for dinner tonight. I've never tried to dry the noodles out like they must do at Chinese restaurants, but it worked and it tasted delish! Here's what I did.

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Cook a quantity of egg noodles (I did 3 dried 'nests' of Sharwood's Medium Egg Noodles for two people) as it says to on the package. Drain and tip into a cake dish, pie plate, or casserole dish and spray with some non-stick cooking spray.

2. Cook noodles for 10 minutes. While this is happening, chop up all your vegetables (I used peppers, onions, broccoli, and mushrooms).

3. Take the noodles out of the oven, flip them over - or give them a good mix if you can't easily flip them - and put back in for a further 10 minutes.

4. If you are using meat, cook it in a frying pan, then add your vegetables and cook 3-4 minutes until they are crisp-tender (this is such a contradictory phrase, but you know what I mean).

5. Mix together:
1/2 cup chicken broth (I used half an oxo cube with boiling water)
2 tablespoons soy sauce (reduced salt if you have it)
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp Chinese 5 spice powder
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 1/4 tsp corn flour or corn starch
Whisk until the corn flour/starch is dissolved.
Add this sauce to your vegetables and simmer for two minutes until it has thickened a bit.

6. Serve the vegetables and sauce over your dried-out egg noodles. Sprinkle with green onions and some sesame seeds.

Ta da! Almost as good as your local takeaway (take out, if you're Canadian like me), with less calories, less plastic cartons, and more of the stuff you actually want to eat and enjoy!

I do wish I'd taken a picture, but you know what Chow Mein looks like, I'm sure! This one, unlike my Lentil Meatloaf actually was a hit with my boyfriend too!