Oma's Japchae

photos by Yu Tsai

Japchae is a traditional Korean dish that I grew up eating. This quintessential meal takes me right back to the kitchen when I was a little girl with my mom, and now I carry on the tradition and make it with my kids.

Japchae’s base is Korean stir fried sweet potato noodles. This dish is loaded with healthy fresh vegetables, shiitake mushrooms, carrots, onions, and spinach and even though its healthy, my kids absolutely love it!

The big secret of this dish is to cook all your vegetables separately to retain their texture and flavor. This is the way my mom always made it. It takes a bit more time, but the extra steps are worth it for the flavor!

Serves 4  /  Prep Time 30 min  /  Cook Time 30 min  /  Difficulty Easy

Ingredients:

• 6 oz sweet potato glass noodles 
• 1 TBL sake
• 2 TBL brown sugar
• 5 TBL tamari/soy sauce
• 2 TSP sesame oil
• 1 TBL avocado oil + 4 TBL avocado oil for saute 
• 1 cup julienned carrots
• 2 cups uncooked spinach
• 1 cup sliced onions
• 3 large shitake mushrooms
• 1/4 TSP sesame seeds for garnish

Directions:

1. Soak your dehydrated sweet potato noodles in cold water for an hour. 
2. Soak 3 large shitake mushrooms in 1 cup warm water.
3. After 20 mins, chop your rehydrated shitake mushrooms.
4. Save the mushroom water, we’ll use it later.
5. Sauté one cup of onions with 1 teaspoon avocado oil, salt and pepper.
6. Sauté julienned carrots with 1 teaspoon avocado oil, salt and pepper
7. Sauté rehydrated mushrooms with 1 teaspoon avocado oil, salt and pepper
8. Repeat the step with the spinach. 
9. Strain your noodles dehydrated noodles, making sure they're pliable.
10. Add 1 tablespoon of avocado oil to you're pan and add strained noodles.
11. Add saved mushroom water to the noodles and with tongs/chopsticks start tossing noodles. 
12. Stir in 5 tbl tamari/soy sauce and toss noodles
13. Add 2 tbs brown sugar and add 1 tbs sake and toss noodles.
14. Cook the noodles for 2 to 3 minutes.
15. Turn the heat off, add your vegetables and toss.
16. Last we are going to add 2 tbs sesame oil and toss again, garnishing with sesame seeds.