Sweet potato vermicelli

This is called Japchae.

It is a savory and sweet dish of stir-fried glass noodles and vegetables.

It's originally a Korean dish but I make this noodles with less chili.

Sometimes with chick pea eggs but often without them.

This is the simple way of cooking Japchae.

Here you can replace the vegetables with whatever you like.

But the "sweet potato vermicelli" and roasted sesame oil are essential ingredients.

Ingredients for 3 servings.

3 bundles (150g) of dried sweet potato vermicelli

A pot of water

10ml olive oil

Vegetable of your choice (300g in total )

1 cup carrot

1 cup bok choi stems

1 cup bok choi leaves

1 cup green onions

1 cup mung bean sprouts

A pinch of salt (less than 1g)

1 clove of garlic (chopped)

3 g cloud ear mushrooms

3 g dried shiitake mushrooms

(1/2 cup each water for soaking mushrooms. See the preparation B)

1 tsp white sesame seeds (or any seeds)

Sauce

50-55ml of kombu dashi soy sauce (Ninben vegan tsuyu)

(or 1tbsp sugar+ 3tbsp light soy sauce but check for suitable salt level )

15g Gochujang

15g or more shiitake mushroom stock (See the preparation B)

10g rice vinegar

10g roasted sesame oil

A pinch of black pepper

Optional toppings

+1tsp white sesame seeds

+green onions

+chick pea eggs

Preparation A

How to chop ingredients

Vegetables should be 300g in total.

Preparation B

STEP1

Soak shiitake mushrooms in a small bowl with 1/2cup of water for about 1 hour and slice them.

Reserve some shiitake water for the sauce as it's a good broth.

Soak cloud ear mushroom in a different bowl with 1/2 cup of water.

(Discard the cloud mushroom's water)

STEP2

Mix all the ingredients for the sauce in a bowl.

Again, depends on the soy sauce the salt level is different.

But I don't recommend any dark soy sauce for this dish.

STEP 3

In a frying pan, spread 10g of olive oil.

Saute sliced and strained mushrooms with

chopped garlic and white sesame seeds until fragrant over low heat.

It will take bout 3 minutes.

STEP 4

Boil water in a pot. (without salt)

Put the vermicelli in plenty of boiling water and boil them for 7 minutes in total.

STEP 5

Add sliced carrots, chopped green onions, and bok choi stems in the frying pan from the step 2.

Sprinkle a pinch of salt ( 5 cracks)

Stir fry them until bok choi stems become translucent.

If you skip adding salt here, the whole thing will be soggy at the end.

Dehydrate vegges well before the next steps.

It will take about 3 minutes over a medium heat.

STEP 6

Add finally bok choi leaves, mung bean sprouts and black pepper. ( 5 cracks)

Turn off the heat and place a lid.

Steam the last last ingredients for 1-2minutes.

STEP 7

After boiling the vermicelli.

These vermicelli are usually really long.

Strain noodles and chop 6-7times with using a kitchen scissors.

👉Cut radially ＊as if slicing a cake because they are so very long.

You can't use a knife, they are very chewy and really hot to touch.

STEP 7

Toss noodles in the frying pan over the vegetables.

Season with the mixed sauce ,lightly stir-sty everything over a high heat

until well combined.

And it's done :)

Optionally add some chick pea eggs.

Sprinkle some seeds just before serving this dish:)

(You can add other seeds as toppings as well )

Did you know ?

Sweet potato vermicelli is rather low in calories compared to most noodles

such as rice noodles, wheat(soba/udon/pasta)noodles ....!

100g of wheat pasta contains about 360kcal where these sweet potato vermicelli contains only 180kcal and they keep you full if you add a lot of veggies and protein rich ingredients, and some fat like this recipe.