Garlic noodles with double the garlic! Made with oven-roasted garlic and black garlic (for its umami-ness), these noodles are packed with garlicky flavor and a must try for every garlic lover out there!
If you're like me and you think that garlic should go on everything, then you'll love the combination of the two different types of garlic (black and roasted) combined with these simple noodles. The neat thing about roasting the garlic for these garlic noodles is that it brings out the natural sweetness out of the garlic so it makes this dish super garlicky with hints of sweetness which go well with the saltiness of the soy sauce and oyster sauce.
INGREDIENTS FOR GARLIC NOODLES
For this garlic noodles recipe, all ingredients can be found at a local grocery store with the exception of maybe oyster sauce, sesame oil and black garlic. If you cannot find oyster sauce or sesame oil in your local grocery store, you should be able to find them at an Asian grocery store. Black garlic is a bit trickier to find - if you cannot find them at an Asian grocery store or gourmet food store you can find them online on Amazon.
Type of Noodles
For this garlic noodles recipe, I have tested it on both vermicelli noodles and spaghettini. Both noodles work well, but if you use spaghettini you will need to boil the noodles ahead of time before frying the noodles together with the garlic. For the vermicelli noodles, you need to soak them in hot water (covered with a lid) for 1 minute before frying it. If you are using vermicelli noodles, you may want to use 1 bulb of garlic instead of the 2 I recommend in the recipe card because it is a thinner noodle the garlic flavor will be much stronger. If you can, try to use spaghettini over spaghetti, I find spaghetti too thick for the recipe and the flavor of the sauce can't come through all the thicker noodles.
PUTTING IT TOGETHER
Roasting the Garlic in the Oven
Roasting garlic at home is super easy to do, and I love doing it in batches of 2-3 whole bulbs at a time so I can have extra to use for other dishes. I usually store roasted garlic in the fridge for up to a week with no issues. When you are roasting garlic, cut the top off horizontally. Cut far enough down so that you are cutting the tops off all of the cloves but don't throw the top away! I don't like to waste anything so I usually roast the whole thing including the tops - cutting it first just makes it easier to pop the roasted garlic out when they are soft and cooked. If the layers of garlic skin is very thick, peel off a few layers off but keep a few layers on so that it stays together during the roasting step. Drizzle it with oil (and if you don't mind a bit of salt, sprinkle a small pinch of salt on top) and set the top of the garlic back on top and wrap it foil and you're good to go. Make sure you have something on the bottom to catch the oils in case it drips when it's roasting in the oven.
Bake it at 400F (204C) for approximately 35-40 minutes. Every oven's heat is different so check on it at the 30 minute mark and squish the garlic cloves with a fork to see if its soft and mushy. If it's mushy it's done - if it's not easily mashable with a fork then keep roasting it 5-10 minutes more.
Black Garlic & Roasted Garlic Mash
Once the roasted garlic is done, we have the fun part - the mashing! Squeeze out, or pop out all the garlic cloves, along with the black garlic cloves (which should be easily to peel) and mash them both together with a fork on a cutting board.
When it's all mushed to bits and combined, add it to a bowl and add a few tablespoons of oil to it and continue to mash it until it looks like black mushy paste. Set this aside - you will be toasting it in some butter and oil before combining it with the noodles and the sauce.
Looking for More Noodles Recipes? Try these!
- Beef Chow Fun (Beef Ho Fun)
- Crispy Cantonese Beef Chow Mein
- Maple Curry Yaki Udon
- Beef & Onion Soy Sauce Noodles
- Japchae (Korean Glass Noodle Stirfry)
- Yum Woon Sen (Thai Glass Noodle Salad)
- Pad Woon Sen (Thai Glass Noodle Stirfry)
- Singapore Noodles
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Recipe Card
Garlic Noodles
Recipe Notes
- This recipe also works great with vermicelli rice noodles, although I would recommend using 1 bulb of garlic instead of the 2 I recommend in the recipe card!
- If you can't get a hold of black garlic, you can substitute it with 1 teaspoon of aged modena balsamic vinegar (which is more syrupy and less acidic) and ½ tablespoon of honey. Normal balsamic vinegar is too acidic to be a good substitution so if you can't find the aged modena balsamic vinegar you can just substitute it with ½ tablespoon of honey but it won't be a 100% true substitution.
Ingredients
- 250 g spaghettini (or half a pack of thin rice vermicelli)
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2-3 tablespoons oil
Garlic Mash
- 2 whole garlic bulbs
- 1 black garlic bulb
- 3-4 tablespoons oil
Sauce
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
Instructions
Preparation
- In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients under 'Sauce' and set it aside for later
- [If you are using spaghettini] Set the stove to medium high heat, and set a big pot of water on it and wait until the water boils. Once it starts to boil, add in the spaghettini and cook it for 4-5 minutes. Drain the spaghettini and rinse with cold water and set the noodles aside for later.
- [If you are using vermicelli] Add the vermicelli into a large bowl and pour boiling water until the noodles are fully submerged. Cover it with a plate and let it cook for 1 minute and drain once it is soft. Rinse with cold water and set aside for later.
Roasting the Garlic
- Pre-heat oven to 400F (242C)
- Peel off a few layers of skin from the garlic bulb, but keep a few layers on so the garlic bulb stays intact
- On a cutting board, cut the garlic top off the garlic horizontally. Cut far enough down that so that you are cutting the tops off all of the cloves but don't throw the top away.
- Place the bottom of the garlic in a large piece of foil and drizzle oil on it liberally
- (Optional) Sprinkle a pinch of salt over the oil and garlic
- Place the garlic top back on and close the foil up into a packet, and make sure it is well sealed. Place it on a pan or a cookie sheet to catch any oils that drip during the cooking process
- Once the oven has reached 400F (242C), put the garlic in for 35-40 minutes. (Check at the 30 minute mark if the garlic is mushy when you press a fork against the clove, it it's mushy then it's done - if it's not then continue to cook it until it is soft)
- Once it is done, remove it from the oven and let it cool before handling it.
Preparing the Garlic Mash
- Once the roasted garlic has cooled, remove the cloves from the pods and place them on the cutting board. (Save the garlic oil, if there is any left in the foil)
- Peel the black garlic.
- With a fork, mash the black garlic and roasted garlic together.
- Once they are well combined, put it into a bowl and add 3-4 tablespoons of oil and any garlic oil from the foil into the bowl and continue to mix everything together until you have a soft black garlic mash. Set this aside.
Putting It Together
- In a frying pan, add 2-3 tablespoons of oil with 2 tablespoons of butter and set the stove to medium low heat.
- Once the butter has melted, add the garlic mash into the oil and toast it for 3-5 minutes, spreading it out as much as you can into a thin single layer on the pan while keeping the garlic moving (so it doesn't burn)
- Bump up the heat to medium heat and add in the noodles and mix the garlic mash into the noodles for about 1 minute
- Add in the sauce and continue to flip and mix the noodles so they get an even distribution of garlic mash and sauce on it. Cook it for about 2-3 minutes
- Plate it up, and Enjoy! 🙂
Nutrition
*Nutritional information is calculated using online tools and is an estimate*
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Kris says
Wonderful sauce! I adapted some of it because of missing ingredients and choice— I used a ‘rice’ by “Miracle Noodle”* and (vegan) Worcester sauce instead of the oyster sauce. This was rad! I mixed in some of the mashed garlic with a little oil directly into the ‘rice’ to season that since it’s so bland on its own, then added the rest of the sauce ingredients and mixed well, adding that second mix to some cooked diced Gardein chick’n strips in the pan. Deeeelish! Now I found a way to use up a lot of this black garlic I have in the pantry from a recipe that only called for two of the bulbs/cloves 😅
*I just discovered these “Miracle Noodles” in the rice section of our grocery store; they also make a spaghetti and linguine option. It’s in a bag, super low calorie but don’t expect a perfect substitute for rice. It’s a different texture and bland but this sauce was really yummy mixed into it!
Joyce Lee says
Hi Kris,
I'm so happy you liked this! I'll definitely need to look up these Miracle Noodles! They look like they are shirataki noodles, which I LOVE! Thanks so much for sharing this with me!
Barb says
Would that be one of the single black bulbs and not a bulb with multiple cloves?
Joyce Lee says
Hi Barb,
It would be a whole black bulb with multiple cloves. The ones that I buy, the cloves are melted together in the bulb and difficult to separate into cloves. It's approximately 2 tablespoons worth of black garlic. Hope this helps!
Jackson Brody says
This was fantastic, thanks! Found an old jar of black garlic I bought three or four years ago and thought I'd try to make something of it. The stuff appears to last indefinitely under proper storage conditions. These noodles along with the miso glazed eggplant made for a really divine dinner. Also made Ottolenghi's black pepper eggplant to put it over the top.
Joyce Lee says
Hi Jackson,
I"m so happy you liked this! I love black garlic, and I wished it was a more well known popular ingredient! Something about that sweetness right?