SWEET POTATO VERMICELLI RECIPES

_Japchae_ is traditionally made for parties or celebrations, but I like to make it for a light lunch or part of a big dinner. Dried sweet potato noodles can be found in most Asian supermarkets. They are incredibly chewy but healthy and delicious. This recipe works as a side dish (_banchan_) or can even be served as an appetizer or light snack.

Provided by Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee

Yield Makes 4 or 5 servings

Number Of Ingredients 14

• Ingredients

Recently, I visited H-Mart International which is a part of a large Korean supermarket chain. After perusing every aisle, I had the urge to try making a dish with a Korean flare. The vermicelli (glass) noodles piqued my interest. In Korean cuisine, glass noodles are usually made from sweet- potato- starch and are called dangmyeon. Since I've made many vermicelli/ cellophane/glass noodle dishes, I thought the Korean version would be something new and learned about a dish called Japchae, which is made from sweet potato noodles, stir fried in sesame oil with vegetables, thinly sliced carrots, onions, spinach, and mushrooms. It is sometimes served with beef, and flavored with soy sauce and sweetened with sugar. Japchae is usually garnished with sesame seeds and may be eaten either hot or cold. I found something to use as a base and used the vegetables that I had on hand. No mushrooms or spinach, but had daikon, baby bok choy and snow peas. First, I decided to shred both carrots and daikon on my spiral vegetable slicer and made a vegetable "noodle" topping. Right before serving, I added a touch of ponzu. Since I had baby bok choy and snow peas in my fridge, I used both as vegetables to accompany the carrot and daikon noodles as the vegetables in the dish. And, of course, I used fresh garlic, fresh ginger, reduced-sodium soy sauce, and toasted sesame seeds which are typical staples in most Asian dishes. I sautéed the vegetables in canola oil and added the sesame oil later because it is very powerful, at least I think it is. For the "heat" I offered red pepper or chili oil for each guest to select how "hot" they wanted their serving to be. I can't say this is an authentic Korean dish, but using the sweet potato noodles was a new and a fun product to try.

Provided by Cecelia Heer

Total Time 55 minutes

Prep Time 35 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Number Of Ingredients 17

• Ingredients

Nutrition Facts : ServingSize 191 g, Calories 217, FatContent 17.43 g, TransFatContent 0.01 g, SaturatedFatContent 2.25 g, CholesterolContent 0 g, SodiumContent 1849 g, CarbohydrateContent 12.49 g, FiberContent 2.9 g, SugarContent 4.07 g, ProteinContent 4.59 g