Hakka Noodles – Meatless Monday

Kitchen Equipments Required

Chopping Board, knife, colander or sieve to wash and drain the noodles, a big boiling pot to boil the noodles, a big wok or a pot to cook vegetables, a stirring spoon, a fork and spoon.

Ingredients

Noodles – 4 cups, cooked. See *notes for tips.

Garlic – 1 tbsp, finely chopped

Vegetables – 4 cups, either julienned or thinly or diagonally sliced. I used carrots, cabbage, spring onions, bell peppers and young tender green beans. You may use all or 1-2. See *notes for further tips.

Oil & Spices

Vegetable Oil – 1&1/2 tbsp

Dark Soy Sauce – 1&1/2 tbsp

Chili Vinegar – 3 tbsp. See *notes for more information.

Salt to taste

Method

Refer to the pictogram given at the end.

1. Boil the noodles in the big pot and wash them under cold water thoroughly. Always under cook your noodles a little. Set aside. Refer notes for more information.
2. Take the wok and heat oil in it. Add garlic in it and cook on high flame for few seconds till slightly golden.
3. Keep the flame high and add all the vegetables together. Keep tossing and stirring the vegetables continuously for 3-4 minutes. The point is to make cook them while keeping them crispy and not make them mushy and wimpy.
4. Now add the cooked noodles, dark soy sauce, little salt and chili vinegar to the wok. Toss and stir again on high flame for another 2 minutes.
5. Serve it hot along with the side of chili vinegar and soy sauce. An amazingly delicious meal is ready!

Notes

1. Noodles – Use the Hakka noodles as available in the market or egg or rice noodles or noodles of your choice. For other choices, udon and soba noodles can be used as well. I always use Angel Hair Pasta for making my Hakka noodles. This pasta doesn’t get sticky like other noodles and uses less oil in overall recipe. The taste is still really good. Also, always always cook your noodles little less than the required time for 2 reasons – first, they retain their shape when cooked further with vegetables and second, when cooked under, their carb availability to your body is reduced.
2. Washing the noodles – If you are using the regular noodles which are starchy, after washing them in the cold water, toss them in 1tbsp oil so that they don’t stick.
3. Vegetables – Make sure that all your vegetables are cut in even size and thinly sliced for even cooking. If you are using tender green beans, they can be added whole. If you are using bigger beans, cut them diagonally or matching to the other vegetables.
4. Chilli Vinegar – For a good kicking taste, rice wine vinegar or even wine vinegar is recommended. In case you don’t have either, a regular distilled white vinegar would also do. To make chili vinegar, simply take 1/4 cup vinegar and add 1 long or 2 small chopped green chillies to it. Let it sit for 15 minutes before use.