EATS: Japchae (Korean Stir-Fried Sweet Potato Starch Noodles) Recipe

Japchae is a classic Korean dish. It’s a vegetable stir-fry made with sweet potato starch noodles as the base. There are variations of Japchae that include seafood, or beef. Typically, I make and serve a vegetarian version of Japchae and so that’s the recipe I’ll share with you today. The process to make Japchae is a little involved because it’s best to cook each vegetable separately to ensure the right texture to each component. That being said, the cook time on each vegetable is not very long and you can set aside each vegetable and use the same sauté pan as you go. Once you get to the end of the process and combine the noodles with the bright vegetables and sauce, you get a colorful and satisfying dish.

Japchae Ingredients

• 8 ounces Korean sweet potato starch noodles

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 1/4 cup mirin

• 1/4 cup high temperature oil (grape seed oil or avocado oil)

• 3 Tablespoons soy sauce

• black pepper

• 2 Tablespoon white sugar

• 1 Tablespoon toasted sesame oil

• kosher salt

• 2 carrots, peeled and julienned

• 1/2, yellow onion thinly sliced

• 8 shiitake mushroom caps, de-stemmed and sliced

• 6 ounces fresh spinach, blanched (boil water with salt, cook spinach for one minute. Remove from heat and shock in ice water. Dry, squeezing out as much water as possible.)

• White toasted sesame seeds for garnish

Japchae Instructions

A few tips: add cooking oil a bit at a time to the sauté pan as needed to cook each component. Salt and pepper the vegetables as you go along.

• First, in a medium pot bring water to a boil. Add sweet potato starch noodles (thin are traditional to Japchae but I prefer to use thick noodles) to water. Cook until tender and drain. Set aside in a medium to large mixing bowl.

• In a sauté pan, heat oil until smoky. Add onions and cook until lightly browned. Reduce heat. Remove from heat and combine with blanched spinach. Season with salt and pepper.

• In the same pan, sauté the carrots until slightly cooked. It should take 1-3 minutes. Remove from heat and add to onions and spinach.

• Next, sauté the shiitake mushrooms until browned. Remove from heat and add to other cooked vegetables.

• In a mixing bowl, whisk together garlic, sugar, mirin, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Make sure that you whisk until the sugar is dissolved.

• Combine the vegetables with the noodles in a large mixing. Incorporate the sauce. Top off with sesame seeds and serve