Schezwan Noodles

These Schezwan Noodles are a favorite from the Indo-Chinese Cuisine. Al dente cooked noodles are tossed in a spicy, sweet, hot and tangy homemade schezwan sauce. It is a very popular dish served in the Indian-Chinese restaurants. In this post I show you how to make these delicious noodles at home from scratch (without using store bought sauce). All this gets done under 30 minutes and no blending required.

Schezwan sauce is made with a blend of red chilies, soya sauce, vinegar, ginger, garlic, onions and Sichuan pepper corn. You will also find variations where tomato ketchup and celery are used. With all these ingredients easily available in your pantry you don’t need a store bought bottled or premade schezwan sauce.

You can make these schezwan noodles from scratch like the way I have made it here. We love everything homemade so I often make a jar of this yummy Scehzwan Sauce which I use up in so many ways. But I follow the recipe from this post when I don’t have the premade sauce.

This homemade version has no MSG included but still your Schezwan Noodles tastes great, though you will miss the smoky flavors you get from the restaurant foods. Larger burners, high heat cooking techniques and a carbon steel wok contribute to the smoky flavors. However for a homemade version it is hard to replicate that but using a carbon steel wok and high heat does the job to some extent.

A lot of people also use liquid smoke to mimic the flavors but I don’t. I have shown the vegetarian version in the pictures but also shared the variations to make it with eggs.

What you need

Noodles: Like in the Hakka noodles, refined flour noodles or egg noodles are the staple in this dish. I try to limit the refined version so I used flat noodles made with wheat flour but we often use the soba or udon noodles which also go well. You may also use spaghetti in a pinch it works though it tastes different.

Red chilies are a key ingredient used in the sauce but for convenience I use ground red chilies aka red chili powder which works perfectly here. So you don’t need to soak or grind the red chilies.

Schezwan Peppers: The unique flavor in schezwan dishes comes from the schezwan peppers and they add citrusy notes to the dish. However if you can’t find, you may simply omit them or use Sichuan oil that is readily available in the Asian/Chinese stores.

Soya Sauce: Please use organic soya sauce or tamari for a gluten-free version. If organic is not available where you live at least use a naturally brewed soy sauce and avoid chemically made product.

Vinegar: Rice vinegar imparts a flavor along with a slight tang. But a lot of times I use apple vinegar and don’t find a lot of difference. You can also use lemon juice if you are allergic to vinegar.

More Noodles Recipes you may like
Veg noodles
Hakka noodles
Egg noodles
Chicken noodles

Photo Guide

How to make Schezwan Noodles (Stepwise Photos)

Preparation

1. Bring 6 cups of water to a rolling boil in a large pot. Add 160 to 180 grams (6 ounces) noodles (or 2 servings). Cook al dente following the instructions on your pack. While they boil,

• prepare 1¼ cup chopped mixed vegetables (1 medium carrot, 1/3 cup capsicum, 8 to 10 green beans). You can also use cabbage or mushrooms if you want.
• Also fine chop 3 to 4 garlic cloves and half inch peeled ginger.
• chop ¼ cup onions from 1 small onion
• fine chop 2 sprigs spring onions (optional, greens and whites separated)

2. When the noodles are cooked perfectly, drain to a colander. If you want you may rinse them and spread a teaspoon oil.

3. Make a red chili paste by mixing 1 tablespoon Kashmiri red chili powder with a few tsps of water. Please note that the red chili powder must be of good quality and less hot. You can also soak 15 deseeded Kashmiri red chilies and blend them to a paste.

4. Heat a pan with 2 tablespoons oil. Saute ginger and garlic until they turn aromatic. Add finely chopped onions. Saute until they turn golden.

5. Add the red chili paste, 1 tablespoon tomato sauce (optional) and very little salt.

6. Pour 1 tablespoon soya sauce, 1 teaspoon vinegar and add 1 teaspoon sugar.

7. Add 2 tbsp water and mix well. Add ¼ to ½ teaspoon crushed Sichuan pepper. If you don’t have them replace it with regular pepper.

8. Cook until the oil begins to separate. Set this aside.

Make the Noodles

9. In restaurants, broken red chilies are used to make schezwan noodles or fried rice. If you like that, you can fry the red chilies first until crisp at this stage. Add spring onion whites and saute for 1 minute. Add chopped veggies and saute until on the highest flame until they are half cooked yet crunchy.

10. Add the sauce we kept aside & the noodles. Mix and fry on a high flame for 2 to 3 minutes. Taste test and adjust salt or sauce to your taste.

11. Garnish with spring onion greens.

Serve schezwan noodles hot.

Variations

This recipe can also be used to make spicy egg noodles. Just beat 2 eggs and pour it to the pan once the veggies are fried. Scramble & fry until the egg is cooked completely. Increase the amount of soya sauce, vinegar and chilli. You can also use boiled egg or shrimps.

Related Recipes

Recipe Card

The recipe shared above makes 2 servings, please do not gauge the quantity of ingredients in the step by step photos since I had doubled the recipe here.