Mee goreng which translates as fried noodles is a very popular dish in Indonesia, Malaysia & Singapore. Thought to be derived from Chow Mein, it is believed to have been brought over by Chinese immigrants.
There are hundreds of different variations of Mee Goreng. It is sold from stalls as street food as well as in high-end restaurants. Some versions contain prawns, chicken or beef. This recipe came from Ami’s Vegetarian Delicacies who lives in Malaysia. I changed the egg noodles to soba noodles to keep it vegan & gluten-free and used cashews instead of peanuts but apart from that it is fairly similar to her original recipe.
Malaysian Mee Goreng Recipe
serves 2-3, vegan, gluten-free. Adapted from Amis Vegetarian Delicacies
- 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 150 gr mushrooms , cleaned & thinly sliced
- a handful of cashew nuts (I used salted)
- 150 gr chinese cabbage, shredded
- 1 carrot, shaved into ribbons with a peeler
- 1 stick celery, diagonally sliced
- 1 tbsp chilli bean paste
- 200 gr soba noodles (or egg noodles)
- 2 or 3 spring onions, sliced diagonally (save some of the green parts for garnish)
- 1 spring garlic, finely sliced
For the sauce
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp minced ginger
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 spring onion, finely sliced
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce or kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce (vegetarian)
- 1 tbsp curry paste (I used Massaman curry paste)
- 1 tbsp sambal oelek (Indonesian chilli sauce)
To Garnish
- a handful of fresh coriander/chives (optional)
- a few slices of spring onion (green parts)
- a handful of cashew nuts (I used salted)
- a handful of crispy fried onions (bought in a bag/tub)
Heat the olive and sesame oils in a large frying pan or wok over a medium heat. Add the mushrooms and cashew nuts and cook for about 5 minutes until the mushrooms are browned. Tip this into a bowl and set aside.
In the same pan add a bit more of the oils, when hot , stir in the cabbage, carrot, celery and chilli bean paste and stir fry for 3-4 minutes. Tip this into the bowl with the mushrooms and mix well.
Meanwhile cook the noodles in boiling salted water according to the instructions on the packet, drain them in a colander, rinse under the cold tap to stop them cooking and set aside.
For the sauce heat the sesame oil in the same frying pan over a medium heat and stir fry the spring onion, garlic and ginger for 2 minutes but don’t let it burn. Then add the rest of the sauce ingredients and stir everything together for a minute.
Reduce the heat slightly, stir in the noodles and cooked vegetables and mix everything to coat in the sauce and heat through. Serve immediately garnished with more cashews, spring onions, crispy onions and fresh coriander/chives.
This is also equally delicious served cold/room temperature the next day as a salad. This gives the flavours time to develop and mingle together.
Enjoy!
Things That Made Me Smile Today……
A field of lilac flowers….
Bright orange/coral rose, amazing…..
You’ve trained me well. I was reading the recipe and thinking how good it looked, then I realized I hadn’t seen flowers yet! Glad they’re in there too!
I know! I took some pictures of chive flowers for the garnish but they didn’t come out very well, well spotted!! 😀
I will certainly be making this one. Beautiful flowers!
I love all of your ethnic cooking, makes me want to branch out a bit and try some different recipes! Gorgeous photos as always. Love the concept of fried noodles.
Lovely dinner and gorgeous flowers
These noodles look delicious! I love trying different Asian Noodle dishes – thanks for sharing!
This dish looks fantastic! I love those noodles and I love all the flavors. Your photos are beautiful too!
Oh Mee Goreng – how I miss you! This is comfort food for me – I usually had prawn mee goreng every weekend when I lived in Singapore with extra blachan (fermented prawn paste) and lime squeezed over. Admittedly not the most apetizing if you are a vegetarian…but oh so good! Thanks for this post – I am going to try and recreate it 🙂 love the flowers too (although I am all about the food!)
Hi Natali,
Mee Goreng looks delicious. Btw I’ve not used egg noodles in my recipe. I like ur idea of using soba noodles and throwing in fried onion for garnishing. I like my one, as well as your’s looks amazing.
YUM! This looks fantastic. I’ve been looking for some summery-dishes as the temp goes up in the following months. I like that this can be served cold. This will definitely get into the rotation — thanks for sharing!
What a wonderful dish! What a wonderful pictures! I love it, but I never tried to make it.. I saved the recipe and hope I will remember to try it sometime 🙂
Your recipes always look so amazing and this makes me wish I had everything in my kitchen to make it! Beautiful photos too 🙂
Oh my goodness this looks so so good- I love the soba noodles and all the different flavorings in this!
Nasi(if thats how you spell it ) Goreng is Pauls fave oriental dish, with prawns,it must be said. This one is a must especially with the new noodles we have at our disposal with the new food range he is handling.Wish me luck.lol xx
I bookmarked this one! I’ve been trying to learn more about Malaysian food, and this looks delicious. I like the idea of using soba noodles, can’t wait to give it a try!
You had me at sesame oil and chili paste! 😀 And love the last picture of the rose!!!
This caught my eye earlier but I had to stop reading to cook dinner. Wow! The flavours in that bowl!! I cook mee goreng often at home as my boys LOVE it, but my version is much simpler than this symphony of flavours you’ve stirred up. It really does look incredible and I love that you used soba – one of my favourite noodles!
really good recepie i am definitely trying it..
I’m making this tonight, substituting a homemade Indonesian curry powder which I’ll also use to flavour pan fried strips of firm tofu. Thanks to you both for the recipe.