Chow Mein is one of the ultimate comfort foods, and one that I’ve sincerely missed since going gluten free! As a vegan it’s sometimes hard to find good Asian style food that doesn’t contain fish sauce, and if you are gluten free and vegan, it’s even harder because soy sauce has wheat in it. Well, now you can have this yummy comfort food again! This Gluten-Free Chow Mein w/ Rainbow Veggies and tofu is a healthier, veganized, gluten free version of your favorite take-out. With tons of veggies and yummy tofu, this dish goes from side to main! Now you can satisfy your Chow Mein cravings, and with this large recipe, you can feed your whole family and/or have leftovers! #winning
If you follow my blog, and I hope you do, you may know that we are a family of four, my husband and myself, and two boys that are big eaters! You may also know that I am a huge fan of leftovers, because who doesn’t love opening the fridge and having a wonderful meal all ready to go?! Healthy lunches the next day or dinner already made – yes please! When you take the time to prepare a healthy meal and you have leftovers for another meal, it just makes it all that much more worthwhile. So most of the recipes on my blog make at least 4, but sometimes 8 servings. This Chow Mein is one of those large recipes because I use a ton of veggies, and it’s also one of those recipes that gets even better as it sits over night and all of the flavors get friendly with each other! If you have a smaller family, you may want to cut the recipe in half or freeze some.
Vegan “Scrambled Eggs”
While you can definitely make this Chow Mein with just noodles and veggies, I really love adding some vegan ‘scrambled eggs’ to the mix. Adding this rich source of protein to the noodles and veggies, turns this dish into more of a whole meal. When I was a teenager, there was a super yummy, little Thai place around the corner from my apartment, and I loved that they put bits of fried eggs in their Pad Thai. Even though this is chow mein, and not pad Thai, I love mimicking that in this recipe. So I make my Vegan Breakfast Eggs recipe, and add it to the noodles and veggies.
For the noodles, you can use any gluten free pasta (or regular pasta if you aren’t gluten free!). I usually use either Barilla gluten free spaghetti, or Target’s Simply Balanced gluten free spaghetti. Both brands (it may be the same manufacturer, labeling it for Target), are made from corn and rice. The Barilla website states that there is no GMO ingredients in their pasta, and I emailed them to make sure it was vegan as well. (It is!) The Target brand says imported from Italy, and since GMOs are outlawed in Italy, I assume that this brand is GMO free as well. Target’s website states that they aimed to have no GMO ingredients in the Simply Balanced line by the end of 2014. (Most of the line is organic.) I will try to verify this and report back. 🙂 Either way, both brands really emulate the look and feel of ‘regular’ pasta. Another brand that I frequently use, and really love, is Ancient Harvest Corn and Quinoa pasta. It’s high in protein and it’s organic! It’s not quite as durable, so you’ll need to be a little bit more careful when tossing it, but it is really good pasta, so the extra care is worth it. What’s your favorite brand of gluten free noodles?
You are really ‘eating the rainbow’ here! We should all shoot for this kind of variety everyday, but sometimes we fall short of that goal, so all of the these veggies + tasty noodles = Double Win! A couple of notes about the recipe and then I’ll let you get to it! First, you’ll want to use either a really large pot to cook the noodles, so that you can add the veggies and tofu later to toss together OR use a really large pan for the veggies. I don’t have a large wok, so I use a large roasting pan. It’s the biggest pan I have, and it works great for this. Also, tamari is naturally brewed soy sauce and it’s usually made without wheat. If you are gluten free, make sure your tamari is gluten free. This is the one I use. Also, you can use brown sugar if you like in the sauce. I’ve used brown sugar, agave, and coconut sugar. They all work fine. I like to serve this with Sriracha sauce for a little kick, and if you like spicy you could definitely add some red pepper flakes to the sauce. As always, feel free to contact me by email, social media or in the comments if you have any questions!
I hope you enjoy this recipe, that you will stay connected and come back for more. The Holidays are coming and I have a lot of great recipes lined up for you. Sign up for my email newsletter below, or hit me up on Social Media (buttons near my photo) to stay in touch! Thanks for reading! xoxo, Angel
A simple recipe for Chow Mein style noodles with lots of veggies and tofu scrambled 'egg'.- 1 (12 oz) packages Gluten Free Spaghetti Noodles, prepared
- 1 C diced celery
- 1 C chopped white onion or 1 tsp onion powder
- 3 T vegetable oil (sesame is good, or any neutral flavored oil)
- ½ C water
- 3 Large Carrots (sliced into rounds or thin sticks)
- 1 sweet Bell Pepper, sliced or diced
- 1 Bunch of Broccoli
- 2 C diced cabbage
- 2 C mung bean sprouts (opt.)
- 1 RecipeVegan Breakfast Eggs * Try to crumble the tofu so that it stays in chunkier pieces as it tends to break apart more as you cook it.
- Sauce
- ½ C (gluten free) Tamari
- 2 T Coconut sugar or Agave syrup
- 4 t minced fresh garlic
- ¼ t ground ginger
- ¼ t black pepper
- Sriracha sauce and Tamari for serving (both optional)
- In a large pot, prepare one package of gluten free spaghetti according to package directions.
- While spaghetti is cooking, prepare 1 batch of Vegan Breakfast Eggs.
- Prepare sauce in a glass measuring cup by mixing all ingredients together.
- In a very large pan or wok, heat the oil, and then saute the onions and celery for about 3 minutes, over a medium heat. Add broccoli and carrots, and ½ C water. Toss the broccoli and carrots with the onions and celery and put a lid on the pan, for about 4 minutes until the veggies start to get brighter. When the brighter color starts to appear, add the cabbage, and bell pepper. Stirring occasionally, cook until the broccoli and carrots are crisp tender (another few minutes), and then turn off heat.
- Pour the sauce over the noddles and heat for a couple of minutes, stirring and tossing to coat the noodles. If the noodle pot is big enough, add the veggies to the noodle pot, if the veggie pan is bigger, add the noodles to the veggies. Add in the tofu and stir the whole mix together.
- Serve with Sriracha Sauce and tamari as desired.
- Leftovers keep in the fridge for several days.
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Angel McNall is the author and photographer of High Vibe Lifestyle. For over 20 years, Angel has been teaching people how to live more vibrantly by eating a plant based diet, and using plant based medicine. 
