sheet pan chow mein

Here’s a really fun dinner I made recently, the sheet pan chow mein from Hetty McKinnon’s,newcookbook, which is a love letter to all the vibrant Chinese food she grew up eating plus many of her other Asian favorites. You — we, if I may be so presumptuous — love McKinnon’s vegetarian cooking because she’s so creative, as we saw in thischickpea and kale shakshuka, and yet it’s all so practically-minded, clearly having been vetted in the chaos of real life family dinners.

In Mandarin, “chÇo miàn” means “stir-fried noodles.” It’s always made in a wok, and it’s still the best and quickest from one, says McKinnon. But the sheet pan makes it easier in a different way, in that we can add ingredients and walk away, letting the oven give the noodles their signature crisp, while we… break up a fight over Legos, or pour a glass of wine. (The latter, please.) What sets chow mein apart from lo mein is this crisp, the mixture of crispy fried strand and soft noodles that are smothered in a robust and aromatic sauce. McKinnon encourages us to make chow mein with whatever leftover vegetables and/or seasonal produce she’s got, which gives us a lot of freedom. I can’t wait to see how you mix it up.