Easy gluten free chow mein ‘noodles’ with prawns and broccoli, made with gluten free spaghetti instead of egg noodles.
Honestly I’ve tried a bunch of alternatives over the years from different types of rice and sweet potato noodles to those horrid protein egg noodles made from fish (I can’t remember the name, but I’m sure you know the ones if you ever had the misfortune to try them… lol) and none of it works! To be honest with all the choice we have these days, I’m surprised there are no gluten free egg noodles on the market yet (PLEASE can a company out there sort this out for us? lol), but it is what it is so for the time being, spaghetti is still by far the best alternative out there in my opinion. It may not be 100% authentic, but it’s pretty close (as long as you cook it the right way).
P.S.: you could, of course, make your own egg noodles from scratch. I’ve done it a few times (here’s the recipe, for those interested), but it’s not exactly convenient now is it.
And here’s my gluten free chow mein recipe:
- 2 portions of spaghetti (I used gluten free Barilla)
- 1 cup prawns (or more / to taste)
- 1-2 cups broccoli
- 1 small onion
- 4-5 spring onions
- 1 heaped Tbsp garlic (finely chopped)
- 1 heaped Tbsp ginger (finely chopped)
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 1 Tbsp cooking oil (I used chilli infused olive oil)
- 2 Tbsp dark soy sauce (I used Datu Puti)
- 3 Tbsp shaohsing wine
- 1-2 tsp honey (or sugar)
- Sesame oil (to garnish)
- Black pepper
- Chilli flakes (to taste)
- 1 Tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp fish sauce
Directions
- Cook the broccoli: cut the broccoli into small florets and boil in a large pan of salted water until fully cooked (but not too soft). Drain with a slotted spoon and set aside. Don’t discard the water as we can cook the pasta in it next. It saves time and adds an extra touch of flavour to the ‘noodles’.
- Cook the spaghetti: make sure the water reaches boiling point, then add the spaghetti and cook on high heat until the pasta is cooked (follow the instruction on your pasta packaging). For this Barilla spaghetti, it takes about 11-12 minutes. Make sure you taste the pasta from time to time to prevent it from overcooking; it should be soft but still have a certain firmness to it (al dente). Drain and set aside. You can place a sheet of kitchen towel over the colander or bowl to keep the moisture in and prevent the pasta from drying out.
- Slice the onion and spring onions and finely chop the garlic and ginger.
- In a non-stick frying pan or wok, heat up the butter and cooking oil on medium/low heat and pan fry the prawns until fully cooked.
- Add onion and pan fry for a couple of minutes until soft, then add the garlic and ginger and fry for another minute.
- Add the cooked spaghetti along with the spring onions, soy sauce, shaohsing wine, honey and black pepper and pan fry from a few minutes, tossing the noodles around gently either using chopsticks, tongs or two forks.
- Serve with a drizzle of sesame oil on top.
Kimi x
