
If some of you are scratching your head and wondering how chicken and vegan chow mein can be in the same recipe, let me ask, why not? I have fun challenging people's assumptions about food, and with the vegan chow mein, I just wanted to try something new. Last weekend, I had gluten-free pizza with vegan cheese, pork sausage, and pineapple.
I eat many vegan foods particularly baked goods because I have an allergy to cow milk and chicken eggs. Ironically, I can eat the meat of the moo-moos and cluckers, just not their milk or eggs. I can also eat goat and sheep milk cheese, and ostrich or quail eggs. Therefore, given that allergy information it makes sense to see chicken and vegan in the same dish because you don't have to be vegan to eat vegan foods.

So, in my first "I tried something new" #foodrevolution post, I tried baby bok choy and the Vegan Organic Chow Mein noodles by O'Hana House. I know it seems almost unbelievable that being Asian I have not eaten Baby Bok Choy as bok choy is common in many Asian dishes. I've had the regular kind, just not the baby version because well it just never came up. Odd I know, but it's true.
As a side note, for some reason, the O'Hana website does not list these noodles as vegan, but on the packaging it does on the back. All the ingredients are vegan friendly. The cool thing about these noodles too is that one pack is only 250 calories, and has 0g of Fat, and 0g of sugar. There are 27g of carbs but overall, I'm liking the nutritional info here.
The lazy in me also loves wok cooking because it's fast and easy. So you lazies, like me, will love this recipe because you'll spend more time in prep than actual cooking. Yes, it goes that fast which means eating shall commence soon!
In this recipe, I also used Tamari instead of regular soy sauce. Of course, either will work in this dish. If you're curious, this is the difference between Tamari and soy sauce. I like the Tamari because:
- It's less salty tasting then soy sauce
- It doesn't have wheat, only soy beans. Although you can get wheat-free soy sauce
- It's thicker but has a lighter less sharper taste than soy sauce
- It has more protein than soy sauce
Note in the picture that when you cut the base off the bottom of the baby bok choy to separate the leaves, it makes for a cool looking flower. I'm thinking that's some fun decorative food there.
Ingredients (serves two):
- *1 packet of Vegan Organic Chow Mein noodles by O'Hana House
- 1 chicken breast (no skin) cut into cubes
- 1 stem of baby bok choy - cut the base off the baby bok choy to separate the leaves. (use two if you want more leafy-ness)
- 1/4 cup julienne carrots
- 1/4 cup zucchini slices (circle cut in halves)
- 1/4 white onion cut into slivers
- 2 cloves garlic diced in big chunks
- About 7-12 shakes of Tamari from the bottle (depending on how much flavoring you want to add)
- pinch or two of garlic salt (to season chicken)
- 2 tbsp canola oil
* Instead of these vegan chow mein noodles, you can use any chow mein you like or udon for thicker noodles.
Let's get cooking:
- The best tool to use to cook this dish is a pair of tongs because you can get a better grip on the noodles.
- Heat a wok on medium and add canola oil.
- Saute the onions and garlic for about 30 seconds so they start to look soft.
- Add in the chicken mix in with the onion and garlic. Sprinkle some of the garlic salt on the chicken. You only want to use very little salt on the chicken because later on the Tamari will add more salt too. I like to add a little salt to the chicken so it can have a bit more flavor on it's own.
- When the chicken looks like it's mostly cooked, toss in the bok choy and mix with the chicken, onion, and garlic. Stir occasionally. Cook until the bok choy starts looking wilty.
- Toss in the zucchini and carrots, and mix in well with everything in the wok. Put about 3 shakes of Tamari over all the veggies and chicken. Cook for about a minute. Stirring occasionally.
- Open the packet of chow mein noodles. These noodles are fully cooked already, but they are a bit fragile and they break apart easily if you hack at it too hard to try and separate the noodles. I found it best to just toss the whole thing on top of the mix of veggies and chicken, and squirt just a tad bit of water on top of the brick of noodles to help soften them a bit. Mix the noodles around gently until they start to loosen from each other. Between the steam and the heat of the wok, the noodles will start to slowly loosen.
- When the noodles are practically all separated, put about 4-8 shakes of Tamari on top of the noodles, and again toss everything around for about a minute. You want everything to get really mixed in well with each other.
- Remove from wok on to serving dish.
Enjoy!
Result from trying something new
I only used one stem of baby bok choy, but next time I'll use two. I really like how it tasted and how it added leafy-ness to the dish. I also really liked the O'Hana vegan Chow Mein noodles. You can't even tell the difference in taste. The noodles in shape and texture did remind me a bit though of something you'd get in a cup of noodles like instant soup but better tasting.
Note: All pictures taken with an iPhone 3GS