Japchae is a Korean noodle dish made from sweet potato starch noodles and a variety of vegetables. It’s one of my favourite dishes because of its perfect balance between sweet and savoury.
Each vegetable in this dish requires a decent amount of attention to the way it is cut, and cooked. This dish may take a little more time than my usual recipes, as it has quite a few steps, but the ingredients are extremely simple.
The veggies
Japchae literally translates to mixed vegetables in Korean. The vegetables you choose for this dish are important, so I have included the following in mine. Feel free to add some extra/replace them with some of my other suggestions below:
- Bok choy
- Moringa
- Carrots
- Red Pepper
- Mushrooms
- Onions
What you can include:
- Meat (beef/chicken/pork/etc if you’re a meat eater)
- Bean sprouts
- Other peppers
- Spring onion
- Spinach
- Kimchi
- Chives
- Radish
Why moringa?
Moringa is an amazing superfood to add to any of your stir fry dishes. It does not change the taste or flavour of any of your dishes, but it certainly boosts the vitamin C and potassium content of your food.
This plant has 7x more vitamin C than an orange and 15x more potassium than bananas. It also helps increase your immunity. It has a ton of other nutrients such as calcium, iron, protein and amino acids.
Make sure you don’t over-cook it so most of the nutrients are retained before consumption.
How to cook this
Each of the vegetables need to be cooked separately then added to a large mixing bowl. Once the noodles are boiled, you can add that in and give it all a nice big toss with the sauce.
These Korean glass noodles (dangmyeon, 당면) are quite long, so it may need to be cut up before you serve.
I hope you enjoy this recipe! Please do share, rate and comment if you make this!
This recipe was inspired by Maangchi, the ultimate queen of Korean cooking.
Japchae (Sweet Potato Starch Noodles)
Equipment
- 1 large mixing bowl
- 1 plate to place your fresh veggies
- 1 Saucepan
- 1 Frying pan
- 1 food scissors
- 1 chefs knife
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup Fresh moringa leaves
- 2 Brown button mushrooms sliced
- 3 Baby bok choy root of the stem cut and leaves separated
- 1/4 Carrot julienned
- 1/4 Red pepper julienned
- 1/2 White onion sliced
- 75-100 grams Sweet potato starch noodles
- 30ml Soy sauce
- 1.5 tbsps Organic cane sugar
- 1-2 tbsps Pure sesame oil
- 1 tsp Minced garlic
- Salt to taste
- Pepper to taste
- Gochugaru (Korean red pepper flakes) Optional
- White sesame seeds
- Black sesame seeds
Instructions
Bok Choy
- Fill 3/4 of the saucepan with water, and let it reach a boil. Then, turn the heat down to low.
- Dunk the bok choy in the boiling water and mix it in for 30 seconds. You'll start to notice the bok choy turning bright green.
- Without emptying the boiling water from the saucepan, scoop the blanched bok choy into a strainer and gently wash it under cold water for a few seconds.
- Place the bok choy into your large mixing bowl, spray some sesame oil over it and add the garlic. Keep aside.
Sweet Potato Noodles
- In the same saucepan with the same water, add the noodles. Mix it in and let it cook for about 4-5 minutes or until soft.
- Once the noodles are cooked, empty the saucepan over a strainer and gently wash the glass noodles in warm water. Keep aside.
Onion, Mushrooms and Moringa
- In the frying pan, add some sesame oil and heat it up.
- Add the onions, and moringa. Stir fry until the onions are light brown.
- Add the mushrooms and let it sweat.
- Once the mixture is ready, place this in the large mixing bowl with the bok choy. Keep aside.
Carrots and Red Pepper
- In the same frying pan, add the carrots and red pepper. Sauté for a few minutes until the veggies are bright an tender.
- Once it's done cooking, add this to the large mixing bowl. Keep aside.
Tossing the noodles
- **If your noodles are stuck together, you can run some water over it to soften it, and separate the strands.
- The glass noodles may be too long to fully mix in with the vegetables, so you may need to cut it up. To do this, simply lift the noodles up using your hands, and snip it half way. Repeat this a few times to roughly cut them up to shorter strands.
- Add the noodles to the large mixing bowl. Add the soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, salt, pepper and gochugaru. Give it a few big stirs to mix it all in.
The garnishing
- Sprinkle some white and black sesame over the top and you can serve this warm, or hot.