A humble dish from Shanghai, spring onion oil noodles (aka scallion oil noodles) are simple to make but seriously delectable. It can be served as breakfast, lunch, dinner, or as a side dish for parties.
Originating in Shanghai, scallion oil noodles (aka spring onion oil noodles, 葱油拌面) is a humble dish with great flavour. In appearance, it’s as simple as can be: boiled noodles coated with a thin, brownish sauce and topped with fried spring onion. However, it can effortlessly excite your taste buds, a true example to prove the concept “Less is more”.
Extract the best aroma of spring onion
As its name suggests, spring onion oil is the key ingredient for this Shanghai dish. Fresh spring onion is simmered over low heat in the oil to extract all the aroma.
My mum is not a big fan of any vegetable from the onion family. She doesn’t fancy the strong “onion smell” as it can linger in your mouth for quite a while and makes your breath unpleasant to others (as with garlic). However, she adores spring onion oil noodles! The simmering process “kills” the pungent flavour but keeps (or enhances) the delightful fragrance of spring onion.
Why not make the oil in bulk?
I’ve written a post on how to make spring onion oil in bulk. It’s a very handy condiment to have for those who love spring onion oil noodles. Whenever I’m lazy or in a hurry, this Shanghai dish always comes to the rescue. It takes only a few minutes to complete and it always tastes wonderful. Of course, you can cook a small amount of spring onion oil for immediate use instead.
Don’t skip dark soy sauce
Another star ingredient for spring onion oil noodles is soy sauce (As you may know, Shanghainese love soy sauce in their dishes). It’s worth noting that both light soy sauce and dark soy sauce are called for in the recipe (Read my post “Soy sauce: light or dark” to learn their differences).
Less common than the light version, dark soy sauce provides a sweet taste to the dish. But more importantly, its thicker consistency makes coating the noodles easier and it gives the dish an appetizing brown look. Using dark soy sauce is truly worth the effort in order to get a more authentic result.
Noodle choices
Thin, round wheat-flour noodles are traditionally used for this dish. The simple and quick choice would be shop-bought, dried noodles of this kind.
Add them to boiling water. Take out when they’re fully cooked but still have a bouncy texture. Drain and rinse them under running water for a few seconds to remove the surface starch.
Although not “authentic”, other types of noodles would work for this dish too (e.g. rice noodles, soba noodles, and even spaghetti). If you love making noodles from scratch, why not try these recipes:
How to serve
Sometimes I have this dish with a fried egg as a quick breakfast. For lunch or dinner, I like to top it with some fried pork mince and a salad or some blanched vegetable.
I have also cooked it as a side dish for multi-course dinner parties (served in a small rice bowl for each diner). It takes very little time to prepare, thus won’t overburden the busy party host.
Other noodle dishes to try
Shanghai spring onion oil noodles (葱油拌面)
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoon cooking oil
- 5 stalk spring onion - cut into long sections
- 2 tablespoon light soy sauce
- 2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 2 teaspoon sugar
- 400 g dried thin, round noodles - or homemade ramen noodles
Instructions
- Pour oil in a wok. Add spring onion. Leave to simmer over a medium low heat until it starts to brown. Take the onion out and set aside (see note).
- Add soy sauce and sugar to the oil. Cook until the sauce starts to bubble. Turn off the heat.
- Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook noodles following the instructions on the package. Drain then briefly rinse under running water.
- Place noodles in the wok. Stir well to evenly coat the noodles with the sauce.
- Portion out the noodles into 4 serving bowls. Top with fried spring onion.
NOTES
NUTRITION
NUTRITION DISCLOSURE: Nutritional information on this website is provided as a courtesy to readers. It should be considered estimates. Please use your own brand nutritional values or your preferred nutrition calculator to double check against our estimates.
I made the spring onion oil and cooked the noodles all in one hit for dinner and the meal was enjoyed by the family. I added some protein in the form of diced chicken fillets which I’d stir fried and had marinated in oyster sauce, chicken marinade, sriracha sauce and tapioca flour. The crispy shallots from the spring onion oil added the final touch to the dish.
Lovely to hear how you served this dish. Sounds great!
Hi Wei, when I stir fry, I usually use vegetable oil, but since this recipe calls for medium-low heat, I used extra virgin olive oil (can’t help it, I’m Greek). The result was amazing. Very simple and easy to make on the fly when you don’t have time. As you say; “Less is more”, and with two little side dishes of protein and vegetable and you have a truly balanced meal.
Thanks again for another delicious inspiration!
So so so so good…. we get these for takeout and I wanted to recreate them at home. Nailed it!! Thank you for this recipe 😀
My pleasure Karen! Very happy to know you’ve enjoyed it!
Hi Wei
I would like to know whether to have this dish is served cold or hot?
Hi Yog! This dish is always served hot.
Can’t wait to try this! Will make it for dinner tonight but I don’t have any other noodles but spaghettini noodles 😔 and those in a ramen packages LOL.
Right now I got no choice but to try it with spaghettini and next time I will try to find different noodles. I hope it’ll turn out OK lol. Fingers crossed.
I’ve made the dish with spaghetti too. Hope you’ll enjoy it!
I tried it last night using 150g dried Spaghettini and was yummy but I wonder if I need to thickened up the sauce more because when I added the drained Spaghetti it became a bit on the watery side 🤔. I guess that’s normal?..
Also any recommendations of what kind (name) of noodles is suitable for this? Would really appreciate your help because I have been searching online and keeps showing me egg noodles kind.
One last question, what protein you eat this with?
Since spaghetti has a smoother surface than Chinese noodles (less starchy after cooking), the sauce tends to slide off more easily. Egg noodles are not traditionally used for this recipe (they are Cantonese rather than Shanghainess). Thin, plain noodles made of just water and wheat flour (sometimes with a little salt) are a good choice. You could pair it with any protein. There isn’t a set combination. Have a look at my Soy Sauce Chicken. I think they would make a great meal.
These are my absolute favorite noodles! I learned to make them when I was living in Spain but my neighbor didn’t have a recipe so I would just wing it! Thanks for this because now I have measurements and no longer have to guess
Very happy to know that you like my recipe. Have a great time in your kitchen!
I stumbled across this recipe a few months ago, and by this point it’s become a weekly staple in my household. Hard to find dark soy sauce around here, but it’s worth it. Thanks for sharing this!
It’s my great pleasure to share! Very happy to know you enjoy this dish. Happy cooking!
So good and so easy. Thank you!
Thank you Jodi for trying out my recipe!
These noodles were fantastic! Two years ago I had similar noodles on a back street in Qibao outside Shanghai and I’ve been searching for the recipe ever since. This wasn’t quite those noodles but they were very close! My kids loved them too. Do you recommend noodles with or without egg?
Thanks Ras! The traditional Shanghai version calls for noodles without egg. You may use egg noodles too (I assume you mean the cantonese style egg noodles). The flavour will be a little different.
Wow! This was the hit of our CNY dinner this year! Thank you for a fabulous recipe and new family favorite!
Oh That’s wonderful Karen! So happy to know my recipe has made your family’s CNY dinner a little yummier!
Wow, in Italy we have a dish that’s very close to it! It’s made with garlic instead of spring onion, and it’s delicious! It’s called aglio olio e peperoncino, that means (pasta with) garlic, (olive) oil and chili pepper. https://www.delallo.com/recipes/spaghetti-all-aglio-olio-e-peperoncino/
Interesting! I would love a dish like that. Will give it a try!
Good taste but I personally found 4 tablespoons of soy sauce (2 of each) made it a little salty for my taste. Might try like 1 1/2 of each next time.
Thank you John for trying out my recipe! Please feel free to adjust based on your own taste.