One Pan Mongolian Beef Noodles with Broccoli

This One Pan Mongolian Beef Noodles is a family-size meal where the noodles cook with everything else in the same pan – no need to cook them separately! Tossed with my favourite Mongolian Lamb sauce and loaded with broccoli , this is a complete dinner in 15 minutes, start to finish.

One Pan Mongolian Beef Noodles with Broccoli

It seems like only yesterday that I first shared a cheeky method where I cook noodles in the same pan as the beef, vegetables and sauce rather than boiling them separately (it was 2019!!!). I was a little skeptical about how it would be received – one pot pasta was widely accepted, but noodles?? That was pretty outlandish back then!

But it was really well received, and I was relieved – firstly, not to be disgracefully admonished (it does happen!), and secondly, because the method does work. Unorthodox, yes. But it doesn’t compromise the end result for convenience, and it’s darn tasty.

Since then, I’ve shared a chicken one, Thai peanut one, mushroom one and chow mein. Today’s sparkling new addition is beefy, flavoured with the tasty sauce from Mongolian Lamb, with bright green broccoli tangled through flavour-coated noodles. It’s a big batch that will serve a family of four, and will take you 15 minutes from start to finish to get on the table.

Ingredients in One-pan Mongolian Beef Noodles

Here’s what you need to make this.

FOR THE NOODLES

This recipe calls for instant noodle cakes, also called 2 minute noodles here in Australia and ramen noodle cakes in the States. These are dried pre-cooked noodles that cook quickly in liquid, and are basically designed to be indestructible!

• Instant noodle cakes – As noted above, these are also known as 2 minute noodles (Australia) or instant ramen noodles (US), about 70g/2.5oz each, though you can use noodle cakes up to around 100g/3.5oz. They cook in 2 minutes and are designed to be bulletproof (think, uni student friendly!!) so it’s impossible to stuff this recipe up. I buy plain noodle cakes in sleeves of 10, if yours has seasoning packets, just discard them. Our sauce is so much nicer. 🙂

  Other noodles – I can’t think of other types of noodles that will work here as other noodles need to be rinsed after soaking or boiling, to rinse off excess starch so they don’t become gluey in the pan. Whereas instant noodles do not. You could also prepare any other type of noodles per the packet and toss with the sauce (don’t add the water), like you would any other stir fried noodles!

• Beef mince (ground beef) – Any fat percentage is fine here, the higher the fat, the juicier and beefier the dish! (The fat contains good beefy flavour). You could also use other proteins – chicken, turkey, pork or lamb. This sauce will suit all of these, though just bear in mind chicken and turkey are leaner so the bits of meat littered throughout the noodles will be a little firmer.

• Broccoli – Use one very large head or one and half regular ones. Other vegetables – carrot, cauliflower, capsicum, mushroom, green beans, baby corn or other vegetables that can hold up to 3 – 4 minutes in the pan will work just fine here.

• Garlic and onion – Essential flavour base for this noodle dish!

FOR THE SAUCE

Here’s what you need for the sauce. The combination is very specifically chosen for maximum flavour with minimum ingredients! If you don’t have Mirin or can’t consume alcohol, don’t worry, there’s an easy alternative.

• Dark soy sauce – This has strong soy flavour and stains the beef and noodle a deep mahogany colour. Carried at most large grocery stores these days. This cannot be substituted with light soy sauce or all-purpose soy sauce as these have less flavour. If you use these instead of dark soy sauce, you will find the flavour lacking. ** UPDATE: I am sad to see some feedback coming through from readers disappointed with the flavour and this is what I suspect has been happening as in most recipes, I say it’s ok to substitute with light or regular soy sauce. So I’ve emphasised more strong that it MUST be dark soy sauce!! **

• Hoisin sauce – A thick, sweet-savoury Chinese sauce with lovely Chinese five spice flavour. Key flavouring for the Mongolian Lamb sauce we’re adopting in this recipe! Substitute with oyster sauce plus an extra 1/4 teaspoon Chinese Five Spice.

• Mirin – This is a sweet Japanese cooking rice wine that adds depth of flavour and is why this simple sauce is so tasty! Carried at regular grocery stores in Australia these days. For alcohol free, substitute half the water for chicken stock. It’ll give the sauce a bit of depth of flavour you lose by leaving out the mirin.

• Chinese Five Spice Powder – A combination of five spices that adds warm, fragrant, distinctly Chinese flavour. easy to find at regular grocery stores these days.

• Sesame oil – Use toasted sesame oil (brown, the default carried at Australian grocery stores) not un-toasted which is yellow and doesn’t have as good a sesame flavour.

• Water – We add water straight into the pan with the beef and sauce for the noodles to absorb and soften.

How to make One-pan Mongolian Beef Noodles

You need a large deep pan for this recipe – noodles for 4 is a lot to toss! I use a 30cm / 12″ non-stick pan (Pyrolux Ignite Chef Pan, not an affiliate link 🙂 ), pictured in this post. It has a glass lid, stay-cool handles and is deep enough for a double batch of bolognese. One of my favourite pans!

If you don’t have a large deep pan, use a large pot. The smaller surface area is fine – you’ll have deeper sauce for the noodles to cook in, plus nice tall walls for enthusiastic noodle tossing!

1. Cut the broccoli into fairly small pieces, to ensure they cook through quickly (these noodles cook fast!) and also smaller pieces don’t get in the way as much when squidging the noodle cakes into the liquid to cook.

   Don’t forget to use the broccoli stem too! Cut off the tough outer skin, then cut into batons.

2. Mix the sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

3. Cook – Give the onion and garlic a bit of a head start first, then add the beef and cook, breaking it up as you go. Once the beef is no longer red, pour the sauce over and stir until all the beef is nicely coated in the sauce

4. Add broccoli then stir just until the broccoli is lightly coated in the sauce.

5. Add water – Pour the water in, give it a stir then let it come up to the simmer.

6. Break the noodle cakes in half along the direction of the noodles, so the noodle strands stay intact.

7. Squidge the uncooked noodle cakes into the sauce, burying them into the beef and sauce as best as you can. I find it’s easiest to put them in upright on their side, because we’re trying to put a fair amount of noodles into one pan.

   Don’t fret about precision here, like submerging them evenly or rushing. We will be shuffling them around and tossing as they start to soften. These noodles cakes are built to be bombproof.

8. Start tossing to soften noodles – After you get the last noodle cake in, leave them for 30 seconds to start softening. Then use tongs to flip the noodles over so the other side can start softening. Leave them again for around 30 seconds, then start untangling the noodles and tossing them around so they soften fully. By the time all the sauce in the pan is absorbed by the noodles, the noodles will be fully soft – it takes about 2 to 3 minutes.

9. And look at that! A big pan of noodles coated in a tasty sauce with beef and broccoli – a complete dinner. Divide between bowls and serve!

So there you go. Dinner on the table in 15 minutes. Really! Once you start cooking it will take 7 to 8 minutes, assuming you’ve got a good heavy based pan and a strong burner. That leaves 7 minutes to chop the broccoli, slice an onion and mix the sauce.

But if you’re trying to watch The Bachelor while FaceTiming five of your besties, refereeing a sibling fight and chasing a Jaffle dragging a pot plant through the house, then you might want to allow a bit of extra time. 🙂 – Nagi x

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Watch how to make it

Life of Jaffle

Jaffle the Shoe Thief. Can someone explain to me why dogs only take one shoe from each pair?? At least if he took both it’d halve the number of shoes taken out of action!!!

Then of course, the shoe rescue part becomes a thrilling game for him as he bolts around the yard, letting me get just close enough to take a swipe at the shoe only to prance off again gleefully…..

….. until he tires out and falls asleep protecting his prize.

Life of Jaffle.

Life of Nagi! 😂