Make your favorite noodle takeout in just 30 minutes or less! This stir-fried shrimp mei fun uses easy-to-find ingredients, including shrimp, cabbage, and your choice of vegetables. It is full of a variety of flavors and textures with pantry ingredients, such as green onions, garlic, ginger, and many more.
What To Love About Shrimp Mei Fun
Shrimp mei fun is just like my other shrimp noodle recipes, such as Shrimp Chow Mein and Shrimp Chow Fun. It is easy to make and customize with your chosen ingredients. Use mei fun noodles, choose your protein and vegetables, and season it just how you like it.
The key ingredient is mei fun noodles made of rice flour and water, which are also known as mai fun, Chinese rice noodles, or rice vermicelli. These are thin, translucent rice noodles commonly used for soups and stir-fried recipes. Mei fun noodles are prepared by soaking in warm water until soft before seasoning and stir-frying.
The fun part is choosing your ingredients. In this mei fun recipe, shrimp is the main protein and cabbage for more fiber. I season it with green onions, ginger, garlic, oyster sauce, salt, and sugar.
It is the perfect meal for lunch or dinner packed with protein and vegetables. Serve this dish if you need something quick and easy. Pair it with other main dishes like Black Pepper Beef Stir-fry and Air-Fried Chinese Chicken On A Stick.
How To Customize Shrimp Mei Fun
It’s all up to you which ingredients you want to put! You can use shrimp or other protein ingredients and toss in your favorite vegetables. Here are some suggestions on ingredient tips and alternatives to consider.
- Mei fun noodles: Mei fun noodles are notable for their thin and translucent noodles. These are usually sold dry and pre-cooked, which you will have to soak in warm water for cooking. If you can’t find mei fun noodles, there are several other substitutes with similar translucent appearance and chewy texture. Swap mei fun noodles with thicker rice noodles and glass noodles. The next closest substitutes that you can work with are Asian noodles like fresh wide rice noodles or Italian spaghetti pasta. Depending on the type of noodles, the cooking time and method may vary. See how I cooked the other types of noodles in these recipes:
- Shrimp: Make it fast and easy with peeled frozen shrimp. You can also use fresh shrimp, but you will have to peel the skin, remove the tail, and devein it. For more seafood ingredients, you can add prawns, lobsters, mussels, or scallops. To make this dish vegetarian or vegan friendly, I recommend diced extra firm tofu, king oyster mushroom, and shiitake mushroom.
- Vegetables: I love incorporating cabbage into my dishes because of two reasons: it is super healthy and easy to find in the market. If you have noticed, most stir-fried dishes use thin slices of meat and vegetables to cook it fast. I chopped the cabbage into strips, but you can cut it in any shape you want. Just like my other noodle recipes, such as beef chow fun, you can use whatever vegetables you have in your fridge. Aside from cabbage, I recommend adding chopped bok choy, broccoli, shredded carrots, onions, snow peas, green onions, baby corn, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, or any of your leftover vegetables at home.
- Seasoning the noodles: After soaking the noodles, I season it with dark soy sauce and oil before stir-frying it.
- I like to add dark soy sauce to give the noodles a nice light brown color. It also makes it umami and adds a slight sweet taste. You can substitute dark soy sauce with light or regular soy sauce, but the color won’t be as dark. Other alternatives to try are tamari, liquid aminos, coconut aminos, or gluten-free soy sauce.
- Oil adds moisture and keeps the noodles from sticking together. Any cooking oil, such as olive, avocado, sesame, or safflower oil. You can also use neutral-tasting oil like peanut, soybean, or vegetable oil. However, removing oil from the seasoning is also fine if you prefer oil-free.
- Stir-frying ingredients: It is even more delicious with garlic, ginger, and green onions. You can adjust the taste in the end with oyster sauce, sugar, and salt.
- Garlic: I don’t know about you, but stir-fried dishes are not the same without fried garlic. I love garlic for its strong flavor and aroma, giving any dish a kick of garlicky and nutty taste. If you don’t have garlic but want the garlicky flavors, substitute 1 clove of garlic with 1/8 tsp of garlic powder or 1/4 tsp of granulated garlic. You can also use my Crispy Fried Garlic recipe and pre-prepare it for the stir-frying step. This can also be used as a topping as a last step.
- Ginger: Ginger always goes with garlic in most stir-fried dishes. It gives the dish a warm, peppery, and sweet taste. You can substitute fresh ginger with ground ginger using 1/4 to 1/2 tsp ground ginger for every 1 tbsp of fresh ginger.
- Green onion: Add a pop of green with chopped green onions or spring onions. It imparts a mild sweetness and oniony taste. You can substitute green onions with chopped chives, shallots, white onions, yellow onions, or red onions.
- Light soy sauce: Light soy sauce is important for adding salty and umami flavors. You can also use regular soy sauce and adjust the amount accordingly. Aside from light soy sauce, you can use tamari, liquid aminos, coconut aminos, or gluten-free soy sauce.
- Oyster sauce: As a final touch, I add about a tablespoon of oyster sauce. It gives the dish a sweet and savory taste, similar to the flavors of soy sauce and barbecue sauce. You can swap oyster sauce with hoisin sauce, teriyaki sauce, kecap manis, Worcestershire sauce with soy sauce and sugar, oyster-flavored sauce, or fish sauce.
- Salt and sugar: Adjust the overall taste with salt and sugar. Use sea salt, kosher salt, or table salt. Counter the salty flavors with a bit of sugar, like white sugar, brown sugar, coconut sugar, or cane sugar.
- Optional flavoring ingredients: Change the flavor with other optional ingredients like chili sauce, pepper flakes, sesame oil, and white pepper. You can make it hot and spicy with chili sauce, chili garlic, and chili pepper flakes. Sesame oil is great for nutty and earthy flavors while cooking wines like Shaoxing wine and dry sherry are best for a sweet and briny taste.
What To Prepare For Shrimp Mei Fun
You just need one piece of kitchenware to complete the dish, a non-stick pan or a wok. Prepare your mixing bowls for soaking and a knife for chopping. As for the ingredients, here’s what you need to prepare.
- 200g of rice noodles
- 1 tbsp of dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp of cooking oil
- 5g of green onions
- 5g of ginger
- 5g of garlic
- 100g of shrimp
- 100g of cabbage
- 1 tbsp of light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp of oyster sauce
- Sugar (adjust to taste)
- Salt (adjust to taste)
How To Cook Shrimp Mei Fun
Cooking shrimp mei fun is simple as it only requires soaking the noodles, stir-frying the ingredients, and seasoning it. You can complete the dish in less than 30 minutes, depending on whether you use pre-cut ingredients like frozen shrimp and vegetables. Watch my Instagram or TikTok tutorial videos for more guidance!
Did you like this shrimp mei fun recipe? Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments section. Don’t forget to tag me on social media @kitchenmisadventures to share your cooked shrimp mei fun!
- Soak the rice noodles in warm water for 10 minutes and drain. If you are using other types of noodles, please follow the package instructions. The noodles should become soft afterward.
- Mix the rice noodles with dark soy sauce and cooking oil. Set aside. By this time, the noodles turn slightly brown.
- Heat oil in a pan and stir-fry the green onions, ginger, and garlic.
- Add cleaned and deveined shrimp. Cook until the shrimp becomes orange.
- Add thinly sliced cabbage and stir-fry until soft.
- Combine the soaked noodles and season with light soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt, and sugar.
- Stir-fry until the ingredients are well combined.
Stir-Fried Shrimp Mei Fun Recipe (Done In 30 Minutes!)
Ingredients
- 200 g of rice noodles
- 1 tbsp of dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp of cooking oil
- 5 g of green onions
- 5 g of ginger
- 5 g of garlic
- 100 g of shrimp
- 100 g of cabbage
- 1 tbsp of light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp of oyster sauce
- Sugar adjust to taste
- Salt adjust to taste
Instructions
- Soak the rice noodles in warm water for 10 minutes and drain. The noodles should become soft afterward.
- Mix the rice noodles with dark soy sauce and cooking oil. Set aside. By this time, the noodles turn slightly brown.
- Heat oil in a pan and stir-fry the green onions, ginger, and garlic.
- Add cleaned and deveined shrimp. Cook until the shrimp becomes orange.
- Add thinly sliced cabbage and stir-fry until soft.
- Combine the soaked noodles and season with light soy sauce, oyster sauce, salt, and sugar.
- Stir-fry until the ingredients are well combined.
