These Bok Choy Noodles are bursting with flavor from black sesame and homemade spring onion oil. This easy dinner is light, simple, and completely vegetarian and vegan friendly too.
Recently I came across Simon Bryant's new cookbook, Vegies, and being a fan of his work on The Cook and The Chef, I couldn't wait to flick through.
I've seen a number of books marketed under a "vegetable theme" lately, and have been disappointed when I opened them up. Many of the recipes feature veggies, but there is also a heavy reliance on meat for flavor.
(This is also one of the reasons I created my own vegan cookbook - Weeknight One Pot Vegan Cooking - where veggies are truly the star of the show.)
Simon's new book didn't do that at all and vegetables really are the star of his recipes.
Purchase made, I headed home and eagerly devoured the book, noting what recipes I couldn't wait to try.
And these Bok Choy Noodles were the first dish I tried - with my own adaptations of course!
I loved the simple flavors of this dish, which only requires a handful of ingredients. It was easy to pull together - and 100% vegan friendly too!
The real star of these bok choy noodles though, is the spring onion oil. It's so simple and flavorful - and I know I'll be making it to use in all sorts of dishes.
While you're here, be sure to grab our FREE 5-Day Meatless Meal Plan. It's packed with tasty recipes to make vegetarian cooking easy and delicious!
Tips for Perfect Bok Choy Noodles
In place of the fresh rice noodles in Simon's recipe I used fresh Udon noodles, which worked really well.
Traditional udon noodles are made from wheat, salt, and water - so they're vegan friendly too. You can grab dried udon noodles here on Amazon.
I also didn't the vegetarian oyster sauce that was called for, so I replaced it with extra soy sauce and added a dash of kecap manis. Kecap manis is a sweet soy sauce, popular in Indonesian cuisine.
The finished dish is really fresh, light and makes a perfect vegetarian (or vegan) meal for those warm summer days.
If you love Asian-inspired dishes, be sure to check out this Vegan Pho next. And if noodles are your jam - you'll want to take a look at these vegan pasta recipes.
While you're here, be sure to grab our FREE 5-Day Meatless Meal Plan. It's packed with tasty recipes to make vegetarian cooking easy and delicious!
📖 Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ a bunch of spring onions
- ⅔ cup canola oil, or other flavor neutral oil
- 2 teaspoon soy sauce, gluten-free variety if needed
- 1 teaspoon kecap manis
- 16 oz fresh udon noodles, or substitute dry noodles
- 3 bunches of bok choy leaves, halved
- big pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon black sesame seeds
Instructions
- Thinly slice on an angle some of the green parts of spring onion (to yield about 2 tablespoons) and set aside. Chop the remaining spring onions into 5 to 6 cm lengths and add to a small saucepan. Add the oil to the saucepan and place over a low heat for 30 minutes to infuse.
- Strain the oil, discard the onions and allow the oil to cool slightly before adding the soy sauce and kecap manis. Add the sauce to a large mixing bowl and set aside while you steam the bok choy and noodles.
- Lightly oil a bamboo steamer and add the bok choy and noodles.
- Add the bok choy and noodles to the boil with the oil and toss to combine. Add the salt and black sesame sees and toss through to coat.
- Divide the between 4 bowls and garnish with the reserved spring onion.
Rosa says
What a gorgeous bowl of noodles! I love everything about it. Yummy!Cheers,Rosa
Simone says
Just yesterday Tom and I were discussing the fact that we want to make more Asian inspired dishes and this is a perfect example of a delicious and healthy dish.. Love the different way of preparing the spring onion too!
Laura (Tutti Dolci) says
I love bok choy and the noodles are perfect here! Lovely flavors!
Thanh @ eat, little bird says
This sounds like a really lovely and simple dish, perfect for during the week. Udon noodles are perhaps my favourite noodles as I love their bouncy texture. I think I will try this recipe very soon!
Jennifer says
Udon are my favourite too Thanh. I always have them in the pantry 😀 If you are going to try this dish, I thought I'd give you the original dressing recipe calls for 1 tsp of light soy, 1 tsp of dark soy and 2 tsp of vegetarian oyster sauce.
Ashley says
I love bok choy but don't have many recipes with it. I will have to give this one a try 🙂
Jessica says
Mmm, that looks fabulous! I love Simon's Asian recipes - he seems to be able to create really fantastic flavours with simple ingredients.
K-bobo @ Gormandize with A-dizzle & K-bobo says
That spring onion oil is definitely a lovely idea! I will have to give that a try. Looks gorgeous!
thelittleloaf says
I love black sesame seeds - they add such gorgeous flavour to a dish. And this looks delicious. I'm not vegetarian but would happily eat this on its own!
Christine @ Cooking Crusade says
Gorgeous looking meatless meal! I just love adding sesame to anything - it adds such a wonderful flavour 🙂
Martyna @ Wholesome Cook says
Love the simplicity and flavours in this dish. Never thought of infusing oil with spring onion, but it sounds great!
Nami | Just One Cookbook says
What a nice surprise to see some Asian recipe on your site - I thought I was going to be drooling over your delicious sweets. 🙂 Happy to see udon used in this recipe. Looks simple and light and delicious! I can eat this for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, or even midnight snack... comfort for me!
Jen Laceda @ Tartine and Apron Strings says
Me being an Asian, I can say that I've eaten this quite a few times in my life 😉 hehe. Love this dish - and good idea with the vegetarian oyster sauce!
Donalyn says
How good does this look? I love noodle dishes like this - I'll be giving it a try for sure!
Choc Chip Uru says
Definitely one of my all time favourite noodle dishes my friend :DCheersChoc Chip Uru
Heather L says
Simon Bryant's Vego book is great isn't it! I grabbed a copy as soon as I saw it in my local bookshop and have enjoyed reading through it and devouring the photos... some of the ingredients are a bit of a challenge to get hold of in rural Australia though! But I did find the online Cruelty Free shop is a mail-order source of Vegetarian 'oyster' sauce and Vegetarian Blacan, both of which are used in Simon's recipes...The bok choy dish looks great... lots of my faves in one dish!
Allison Day says
This sounds delicious - and now I've got a mad craving for udon!
Kate@Diethood says
Oh how pretty!! And delicious, of course.
Jenny says
After going to Japan recently, I now want to put black sesame on pretty much everything! This looks like a lovely dish.
Tracy says
Love your blog. I have saved and pinned (w/ credit 2 U) many, many of your recipes. Can you please tell me what Kecap Manis is?I also want to thank- you for the link to the Vanilla Pod Mail Order Co.A question, do you know if Aussie Vanilla Essence is the same as our Vanilla Extract or is it a concentrated Solution. If it is more concentrated then our extract, how would I use it in our recipes? The same measurements or less?1 other thing, is it possible when giving out recipes could you include the ounces next to grams (its 30 gr = 1 liquid ounce. Here in America Metric measurements never took. I think that most of us probably see your measurements and exit the site. Just a thought. Thanks again, Tracy Ann
Jennifer says
Hi Tracy, thank you so much for leaving a comment and your kind words :DSo, to answer your questions:Kecap Manis is a Indonesian style soy sauce that is very thick and syrupy. It also has a slight sweetness to it as it contains palm sugar. You can usually find it in Asian supermarkets. I love it mixed with soy in stir fries.Regarding Vanilla Essence versus Extract - extract is made from real vanilla beans however the essence is, usually, a cheaper but a manufactured vanilla flavour. However, I have seen some extracts that are actually labelled essences here in Australia, which makes things confusing. The one from Natural vanilla website I use is called an essence but it's actually made from real vanilla pods. So it always pays to read the label. As for measurements, a manufactured essence is usually stronger in flavour than extract.I'll try to provide the measurements in ounces in recipes, however we don't really use ounces here in Australia. Everything is in grams. However you can easily convert measurements using the handy tool on this website http://www.traditionaloven.com/conversions_of_measures/weight_units.htmlI hope that helps. 😀
joan says
Thank you for this really tasty recipe. My hubby and I both loved it. I am guessing that the 150mls(2/3 cup) oil is a typo. We used 1 TBSP (15 mls) of oil and it was delicious and more than enough for this recipe. Thanks so much for sharing.Joan