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This delicious Vegetable Lo Mein Recipe with Tofu is one of our favorite weeknight meals to make. It comes together quickly and makes delicious leftovers!
A few years ago we were in the habit of ordering takeout from our favorite Asian restaurant a little too often. The food was delicious, but I knew we could make delicious and healthy Asian food in our own kitchen. My husband and I made it our goal to recreate some of our favorite stir fry recipes at home.
Now that we’re creating delicious Asian recipes at home, we’re saving money, and enjoying a healthier version of our favorites. We feel good about these healthy changes, and actually prefer our own recipes at home over the restaurant recipes we used to love.
Where’s the Recipe?
Here at My Crazy Good Life we love it when our readers feel successful in the kitchen. Eating healthy is so important, and we work hard to help our readers achieve all of their healthy eating goals.
In each recipe, we include detailed information, helpful tips and tricks, healthy eating plan point information, as well as nutritional information. If you are more experienced in the kitchen and ready for a more simplified version of this recipe, simply scroll to the bottom of the page where you’ll find our easy to print Vegetable Lo Mein Recipe.
Ingredients in Vegetable Lo Mein
- Tofu: We recommend extra firm tofu for this recipe. We’ve found it makes the best crispy tofu which is exactly what we need when we make lo mein.
- Brown Rice Chow Mein Noodles or Ramen Noodles: We prefer using brown rice ramen noodles or chow mein noodles made out of brown rice. It’s a healthier alternative to traditional lo mein noodles.
- Green Cabbage: Cabbage is a superfood that’s packed with vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. If you’re looking for a time saver, you could purchase a bag of pre shredded cabbage from the grocery store.
- Carrots: We love carrots in our vegetable lo mein dish. If you’re looking for a shortcut, you can always buy a bag of matchstick carrots from the grocery store. These are already julienned and the perfect size for a stir fry.
- Broccoli Slaw: We use prepackaged broccoli slaw for this recipe. You get the flavors and crunch of broccoli without the big florets. If you aren’t able to find broccoli slaw at your grocery store, feel free to sub in other vegetables like bok choy or bell peppers.
- Celery: We love the crunch of celery. It’s the perfect addition to our veggie lo mein.
- Snow Peas: Snow peas are thinner than snap peas. We prefer these in our lo mein, but if you aren’t able to find these in your local grocery store, feel free to sub in snap peas.
- Garlic: Fresh garlic, not dried.
- Ginger: Freshly grated ginger is perfect.
- Green Onions: The perfect garnish for a stir fry.
Lo Mein Sauce Ingredients
- Coconut aminos: We prefer to use coconut aminos over regular soy sauce or low sodium soy sauce in this delicious lo mein sauce. We love the flavor of the aminos, and find our dishes much less salty when we use this over soy sauce.
- Fish sauce: You should be able to find fish sauce at your local grocery store in the Asian department, or at your local Asian market.
- Zhong sauce or Sichuan chili sauce or Sambal Oelek Chili Paste: If you haven’t tried Zhong sauce, I highly recommend it! It’s delicious and helps make the perfect stir fry sauce because of the depth of flavor it provides. If you aren’t able to locate Zhong sauce at your local grocery or on Amazon, feel free to track down the Sambal Oelek chili paste.
- Sesame oil: Any delicious stir fry sauce most likely includes sesame oil. We love putting it in our stir fry, and love the complex and nutty flavor it provides for our vegetable lo mein sauce. For this recipe I prefer regular sesame oil, though I do often recommend using toasted/roasted sesame oil in many recipes.
- Vegetable broth: The Vegetable broth helps create the vegetable lo mein sauce. We always buy low sodium broth.
- Cornstarch: Cornstarch in a sauce is used to help thicken up all the sauce ingredients.
How to Make Vegetable Lo Mein
- Drain the tofu and slice into small strips. Air fry or bake at 350º, turning after 5-7 minutes. In the oven, I like to put the tofu on parchment paper while it cooks. Cook until the tofu dries out a bit but not so much that it browns too much. Depending on the size of your air fryer, cook in small batches and set aside as it finishes. Need more details? Head over to me recipe for Crispy Air Fried Tofu.
- Boil water for your noodles, and cook noodles according to package directions. Rinse noodles with cold water when they’re finished cooking, then set them aside.
- Prepare your veggies: Shred the cabbage, peel and julienne the carrots, dice the celery, and trim the edges of the snow peas. Dice the onions and set them aside to use after your meal is finished cooking.
- Now you’re ready to get started!
Step 1: To make the sauce combine all sauce ingredients, including cornstarch, and whisk to combine. Set aside.
Step 2: When the tofu is finished cooking, spray a large pan with nonstick cooking spray and turn the heat to medium-high. Add the garlic, ginger, cabbage, carrots, broccoli slaw, celery, and snow peas to the pan.
Step 3: Cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the cooked noodles and tofu to the pan. Turn the heat down to low-medium and mix everything together carefully. Cook for 3-5 minutes and allow the noodles and tofu to heat up a little.
Step 4: Add the sauce to the pan and mix well. Cover the meal and turn the heat down to low and allow the food to cook on low heat for 5-7 minutes.
Step 8: Remove from heat and add chopped green onions to the top of each portion. Serve warm.
Recipe Tips
- You could use soy sauce or low sodium soy sauce for this recipe, however when we were recipe testing this recipe, we found the result to be much too salty. We recommend swapping out the soy sauce and sticking with coconut aminos.
- If you aren’t able to find ramen noodles or chow mein noodles, feel free to sub in udon noodles, soba noodles, or whole wheat spaghetti noodles. These choices won’t quite be the same, but will do in a pinch. We prefer using the brown rice and millet ramen noodles when possible.
- If you are in a bind, you could use frozen veggies.
- This stir fry is versatile. We love that you can include all the veggies! Feel free to swap in any other lo mein vegetables you have at home such as bell pepper, zucchini, or asparagus – just keep the measurements the same.
- I try to always toss my cubed tofu in cornstarch before cooking it. It’s not necessary, but it really helps the tofu not stick together.
Healthy Eating Plans
21 Day Fix
This 21 Day Fix Vegetable Lo Mein Recipe is packed full of fresh vegetables. It has a lot of teaspoons, though – I’d reduce the coconut aminos and sesame oil where I could and make sure to drink extra water to flush out the sodium from all of the teaspoon ingredients.
Entire recipe: 1 1/2 red containers, 3 yellow containers, 7 1/2 green containers, 36 teaspoons
Per serving: 1/4 red container, 1/2 yellow container, 1 1/4 green containers, 6 teaspoons
Weight Watchers
10 2025 Points | 10 2023 Plan Points – reducing the coconut aminos and sesame oil in this recipe will help you reduce those points.
More Asian Recipes
Vegetable Lo Mein Recipe
Equipment
- Toaster, Oven, or Air Fryer
- Kitchen Knife
- Cutting Board
Ingredients
Lo Mein Ingredients
- 14 oz extra firm tofu drained and lightly air fried with no seasoning or sauce
- 12 oz brown rice chow mein noodles or brown rice ramen
- 1 ½ cups green cabbage shredded
- 2 carrots large, julienne cut
- 1 cup broccoli slaw
- 2 celery stalks diced
- 1 cup snow peas ends cut off
- 2 tsp garlic minced
- 1 tsp fresh ginger minced
- 1 bunch green onions diced
Sauce Ingredients
- ½ cup coconut aminos
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 1 tbsp zhong sauce or sichuan chili sauce or sambal oelek chili paste
- 3 tbsp light sesame oil
- ½ cup vegetable broth
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
Instructions
- Drain the tofu and slice into small strips/cubes. Air fry or bake at 350º, turning after 5-7 minutes. Cook until the tofu dries out a bit but not so much that it browns. 14 oz extra firm tofu
- Boil water for your noodles, and cook noodles according to package directions. Rinse noodles with cold water when they're finished cooking, then set them aside. 12 oz brown rice chow mein noodles
- Shred the cabbage, peel and julienne the carrots, dice the celery, and trim the edges of the snow peas. Dice the onions and set them aside to use after your meal is finished cooking.
- Combine all sauce ingredients into a medium bowl, including cornstarch, and whisk to combine. Set aside. ½ cup coconut aminos 1 tbsp fish sauce 1 tbsp zhong sauce 3 tbsp light sesame oil ½ cup vegetable broth 1 tbsp cornstarch
- When the tofu is finished cooking, spray a large pan with nonstick cooking spray and turn the heat to medium-high. Add the garlic, ginger, cabbage, carrots, broccoli slaw, celery, and snow peas to the pan. 2 tsp garlic 1 tsp fresh ginger 1 ½ cups green cabbage 2 carrots 1 cup broccoli slaw 2 celery stalks 1 cup snow peas
- Cook for 2-3 minutes, then add the cooked noodles and tofu to the pan. Turn the heat down to low-medium and mix everything together carefully. Cook for 3-5 minutes and allow the noodles and tofu to heat up a little.
- Add the sauce to the pan and mix well. Cover the meal and turn the heat down to low and allow the food to cook on low heat for 5-7 minutes.
- Remove from heat and add chopped green onions to the top and serve. 1 bunch green onions
Notes
Nutrition
Make This Recipe?
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This is absolutely delicious! Always looking for a better stir fry type flavor and this one is very good! Thank you. Not too heavy (Soy sauce flavor) and just evenly balanced with ingredients! Loved it