Hand-Pulled Noodles From China’s Rugged Northwest

I spent a good chunk of my 20s as a freelance writer meandering through China, spurred on by youthful wanderlust and a desire to learn more about Chinese food. But as I was traveling through the vast and gorgeous provinces of Xinjiang, Gansu, Qinghai and Ningxia, I quickly grew tired of eating meat. 

With expansive deserts, towering mountains and vast grasslands stretching as far as the eye can see, the landscape in this region is stunning but rugged—and that ruggedness is mirrored in the area’s cuisines. The food of northwestern China is hearty—an effect of the region’s harsh, blistering cold winters. Noodles and flatbreads form the foundation of the cuisine, and they are often studded with cumin-dusted chunks of meat. Due to the arid climate, leafy greens are rare, and the few vegetables that are common and available are the ones that are easy to transport from other areas, such as bell peppers, onions and tomatoes. There’s also a warm, earthy heat to the cuisine.

But it turns out that in China, hearty food is often synonymous with meaty food, and I eventually became weighed down by the copious amounts of lamb and beef I was consuming. There were a couple of weeks when I just wanted to go entirely vegetarian. My go-to orders during these times were tomato and egg stir-fry, fish-fragrant eggplant and hand-pulled noodles. 

One of my favorite vegetarian options was 炒拉条子 (chǎo lātiáozi) or stir-fried hand-pulled noodles.” (Latiaozi refers specifically to non-alkaline, spaghetti-shaped, hand-pulled noodles vs. lamian, which have added alkaline and are more challenging to make.) The dish is anchored by thick strands of chewy wheat noodles and dressed with chunks of tomato, bell pepper and onions and flavored with cumin and chili pepper powder. The traditional version of this dish often also includes meat—usually thin slivers of lamb or beef—but I would always ask the chef to make it sans the protein. 

The first time I ordered this dish, I was eating in a small noodle house in Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu. I had been traveling for a couple of weeks already and was sleeping over at a friend’s CrossFit gym across the street. My friend, upon hearing my lament about feeling weighed down by the food of the north, tipped me off to this combo. It was a revelation: The dish didn’t feel like it needed meat, and I still think that it’s better without. The noodles themselves are usually substantial and filling enough. The vegetables add a necessary textural contrast and brightness to the dish, which I both appreciated and craved at the time. 

This recipe for vegetarian hand-pulled noodles is based on that dish. Despite the extra effort, I always make it with handmade noodles because that thick, chewy mouthfeel is an integral part of the experience. It’s a texture that can only be achieved with freshly pulled noodles. The noodles can be served a la carte, but more often than not, they’re paired with a bevy of other dishes. Whenever I make it at home, I like to pair it with tomato and egg or chili bean-coated eggplant, both of which also remind me of my travels in China.

Making Pulled Noodles From Scratch

In the north of China, noodles are king. From an agricultural perspective, China can be divided into two regions—the wheat-growing lands of the north and the rice-growing lands of the south—and this divide shows up in the regional diets. In the north, the main carbs of choice are wheat-based buns and noodles. 

Consequently, most chefs and home cooks in Northern China are adept at whipping out a batch of perfectly al dente homemade noodles entirely from scratch. Everyone has their own recipe. Home cooks keep things simple, while restaurant chefs will sometimes add an alkaline solution that alters the pH in the dough and strengthens the protein networks, resulting in a chewier and more elastic batch. 

My recipe is a really basic one with just bread flour—which has more gluten than all-purpose flour and therefore yields a dough with more elasticity and strength—salt and water. It works best if you pull out each strand individually. It’s a time-intensive process, but it’s fool-proof. Just pull each noodle and bounce it gently against the table to elongate it. The rhythmic force causes the dough to lengthen even more, due to momentum generated by the bounce—the result is that the dough naturally stretches like taffy.  

There are a lot of more complex (and probably more efficient) noodle recipes out there, including the ones that require layering the strips of dough together and pulling them apart at the same time, like an accordion. That approach is great if you have the technique down, but it takes a lot of practice and is frustrating if the dough snaps or if the strands are too sticky and begin to stick together. 

You can also use store-bought noodles for this recipe, if you prefer. Just cook them slightly less than the package calls for; you’ll cook them a bit more when you stir-fry them with the vegetables. Fresh wheat noodles or dried knife-cut noodles would both work well. 

Flavoring Vegetarian Hand-Pulled Noodles

While these noodles have a rich, warm, complex flavor, the mixture of aromatics is actually a lot simpler than it might seem. Cumin and chili pepper powder are the defining flavors in this dish. Vegetarian seasoning powder adds a subtle depth of flavor—though if you’re not vegetarian, a quick dash of chicken powder will also do the trick. Lastly, you add a small hit of soy sauce to give the whole thing a nice warm color.

For more rich, flavorful Northern Chinese-Style dishes, check out Taylor’s recipes for Xinjiang Cumin Lamb and Big Plate Chicken (another fun noodle-based dish).