Longevity noodles (Long life noodles)

Longevity noodles (or long life noodles, 长寿面) is a famous Chinese dish for celebrating birthday and New Year.

The one long noodle represents people’s wish of a long and healthy life.

Longevity noodle is actually not that hard to make – with this recipe, you will only need 4 ingredients and 2 hours to make this amazingly long and delicious noodle that can bring people good luck!

No stand mixer or experience is needed! You will be able to make the longest noodle you’ve ever seen with your bare hands.

Ingredients for Making Longevity Noodles

– 250 g all purpose flour (1½ cup + ½ tbsp)

I used King Arthur all purpose flour (which I also used for making baguette) to make my longevity noodles. You can also substitute whole wheat flour for half of the all purpose flour, without making other changes.

Do not use low protein flour or pastry for making noodles, otherwise they will break apart easily.

– 138 g water (½ cup + 1 tbsp + 1 tsp)

Add 138g cold water to the flour to make a dough.

Do not use hot water for the dough. The cold water can prevent the thermal denaturation of the protein in the flour, forming more gluten, so the dough is firm, tough, and strong, and the longevity noodles produced in this way are less likely to break apart from the middle.

When making noodles, the flour : water ratio is usually 1: 0.55. While making dumpling skins (see my dumpling skin recipe here), the flour : water ratio is usually 1: 0.5.

– 2 g salt (⅓ tsp)

Adding a pinch of salt to the noodle dough not only boosts its flavor, but also makes the noodle chewier, stronger and more elastic.

Salt has a binding effect on gluten and thereby can add strength to flour. As the salt tightens the structure of gluten, the dough can better hold the water and expand without tearing.

– ¼ cup vegetable oil ( for lubricating the noodle)

While stretching the longevity noodle, you can lubricate your hands with some vegetable oil (canola oil, corn oil, or any type of neutral flavored oil) so that the noodles is less likely to be teared apart.

Once you made the long noodle, add a thin layer of vegetable oil in a shallow bowl, then coil up the long noodle in the bowl like a snaked.

The oil can prevent the noodle from drying out or sticking, so that we could prepare the dough one day ahead. The noodle dough will also become more elastic and softer after resting in oil.

Long life noodles Q&A

1. Do I need a stand mixer?

No, you don’t need a stand mixer at all.

This longevity noodle recipe requires little kneading effort and minimal kneading skill. You will only need to knead the dough with your hands for 3 times, 5 minutes each time.

Whenever you feel that the dough is turning hard to be kneaded (or stretched), let it rest for 10 minutes, then it will become soft and elastic again. It’s because when the dough is rested, the gluten structure will organize itself into long protein chains, which could be easily stretched without breaking apart.

But it’s totally fine if you want to save some efforts by using a stand mixer. You can just use the medium-low speed of a stand mixer instead of hand kneading in every step I mention kneading.

2. What happens if I break the noodle?

Don’t be panic if you accidentally teared the noodle apart when you stretch it. You can always secretly link it back together into a long noodle.

And it’s totally okay if the noodle break apart in the pot. Nothing bad will happen! The behavior of eating noodles is representing the wish of living a long life, it doesn’t have to be a whole long noodle.

3. What’s the soup base for longevity noodles?

The classic soup base for longevity noodles is yang chun noodle soup (阳春面), which is very simply seasoned with lard, soy sauce, fried egg broth, scallion, salt, sugar, and vinegar. You can make this soup base within 10 minutes by following my Chinese noodle soup recipe here.

4. Is longevity noodle vegan friendly?

The noodle itself only contains flour, water, salt, and vegetable oil. So it is a vegan food.

My soup base recipe contains lard and eggs. But feel free to substitute the lard with sesame oil, and replace the fried egg broth with vegetable broth. Then it will be vegan friendly too.

5. Can I make longevity noodles gluten free?

High gluten flour is a must-have for making hand-pulled noodles.

Although there are many gluten-free handmade noodles recipes online, they would tell us to make a flat piece of dough and cut it into noodles. These noodles will also be delicious, but can’t be as long or chewy as our hand-pulled longevity noodles.

6. How to store longevity noodles?

Coil up uncooked longevity noodles like a snake, soak it in vegetable oil to prevent sticking, cover with plastic wrap, you can keep it in the fridge for up to 24 hours until ready to cook.

Serve cooked longevity noodles immediately when it’s still hot. They will turn mushy after cooled.

Step-by-step INSTRUCTIONS 

1. Add all purpose flour, cold water, and salt to a large mixing bowl, stir with a pair of chopsticks or a spatula until all the ingredients are roughly mixed.

2. Knead the dough with your hands for about 5 minutes until it forms a roughly smooth dough. (It’s okay if the dough is not perfectly smooth right now. It will become smoother after resting.)

3. Cover the dough with plastic wrap, let it rest under room temperature for 15 minutes.

4. 15 minutes later, remove the plastic wrap, knead the dough again with your hands for 3 minutes. Cover the dough again with the plastic wrap, let it rest under room temperature for 15 more minutes.

5. After the second rest, remove the plastic wrap, knead the dough with your hands for 3 more minutes until it’s very smooth.

6. Use your finger to poke a hole in the middle of the dough, and stretch out to form a ring.

7. Lubricate your hands with 1 tbsp of vegetable oil, keep stretching the ring into as long as possible. (When you feel that the dough is hard to stretch, you can cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes. The dough will become more elastic and easier to stretch after resting.)

8. When the dough is stretched into a 3-meter-long (about ½-inch-diameter) ring, you can tear it apart from the thinnest part and make it into a rope.

9. Add ¼ cup of vegetable oil to a large shallow bowl, coil up the dough inside the bowl like a snake. (Make sure that there is a thin layer of oil between each round of the dough to prevent sticky. If the dough is not fully soaked in oil, you can brush some extra oil on the surface of the dough to prevent drying.)

10. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, let the dough rest under room temperature for 1 hour, or you can rest it in the fridge overnight if you want to prepare this noodle one day ahead.

11. Fill a large pot (at least 5 qt volume) with half pot of water. Bring the water to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low to keep the water simmering.

12. Remove the plastic wrap from the dough, pick up one end of the dough coil with your left hand, then grab it about 8 inches (about the length of chopsticks) down the rope with your right hand. Stretch the dough to double its length (16 inches) before throwing it into the pot.

13. Keep stretching the rest of the dough without breaking it apart until you throw all the dough into the pot. (The given amount is for 2 servings. You can break the dough apart from the middle and only cook half of it to cook 1 serving of the noodle. You can cover and keep the rest of the dough in the fridge for up to 1 day.)

14. Bring the water back to a boil over medium-high heat, optionally add some washed bok choy and mushrooms to be cooked together with the noodles. Boil the longevity noodle for 5 to 6 minutes in total.

15. Strain the noodle, place it into a bowl of noodle soup (see my Chinese noodle soup recipe here). Top with bok choy, mushrooms, a fried egg, or any other toppings of your choice. Serve hot immediately.

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