Longevity Noodles for Chinese New Year! Longevity noodles symbolize a wish for longevity. These are a popular dish to make for Chinese New Year, along with dumplings, fish, spring rolls, sweet rice balls and more!
During Chinese New Year, long noodles are eaten in all corners of China. “Longevity noodles,” also presented at birthday celebrations, are never cut or broken by the cook, and if they can be eaten without biting through the strands, it’s considered even more lucky.
Happy Chinese New Year!
The Chinese New Year is an opportunity to honor family and friends, and to enjoy some culinary traditions. So, what foods we should have on hand to ensure a prosperous and happy year to come? Here are 10 Good Luck foods for Chinese New Year:
- Tangerines and Oranges
- Long Noodles
- The Tray of Togetherness: a tray filled with things such as preserved kumquats for prosperity, coconut for togetherness and red melon seeds for happiness.
- Nian Gao: a cake
- Pomelo: a large citrus fruit
- Jai: a vegetarian dish
- Long Leafy Greens and long beans
- Whole fish
- Sweets
- Yuanbao (Jiaozi): dumplings
These noodles are traditionally served at Chinese New Year’s feasts. An ancient Chinese belief says that long noodles are the key to a long life so don’t cut the noodles as you eat them. I used what I had in my pantry. These are my go-to brown rice noodles.
You only need to boil these for about 4-5 minutes. After that, simply whisk together the sesame oil, garlic and soy sauce and a pinch of salt, to taste, until combined. Pour the mixture over the noodles and toss well to coat.
This is seriously the FASTEST Asian noodle recipe ever.
Longevity Noodles for Chinese New Year
Ingredients
- 8 ounces very thin long wheat-flour noodles* or any type of rice noodles
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil + more if needed
- 3 small cloves garlic finely minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger minced or grated
- 1 to 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce + more if needed
- Sea salt and ground white pepper to taste
- diced green onions for garnish
- sesame seeds for garnish
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat and salt it generously. Add the noodles, stir, and cook for about 4 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water and set aside in a large serving bowl.
- In a separate small bowl, whisk together the sesame oil, garlic, ginger, soy sauce and salt and white pepper, to taste, until combined well. Pour the mixture over the noodles and toss well to coat. Taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt/pepper and/or sesame oil or soy sauce if necessary. Garnish with diced green onions and sesame seeds and serve immediately.
Notes
Recipe from CookingChannelTV.com. Ever since seeing Diane Morrisey add grated ginger, it’s been added and it’s delicious! Here are more Longevity Noodles recipes to try! Anita Lo’s recipe where she adds bok choy, oyster sauce and long hot red chilis. Grace Young’s recipe (NY Times Cooking). The Woks of Life’s recipe.
Here’s to a long and happy life!
