Glass noodles are a transparent noodle made from starch—usually potato. Japchae—a Korean dish loaded with veggies and beef and flavored with lots of garlic, soy sauce, and sugar— is one of the most popular things to make with it!
Putting together this dish is really quite simple. There are three main steps; boiling the noodles, stir frying the veggies, and frying the beef. After that, it’s just a matter of mixing everything together!
There is an additional traditional step of lightly frying an egg mixture and then slicing to get thin strips of bright yellow egg. However I usually skip this step because I like to keep recipes as simple as possible, but feel free to add it if you’d like!
The first step is setting a large pot of water to boil. Once it comes to a boil, add in glass noodles and cook until the noodles are tender. This depends on the brand you use, so be vigilant and check the noodles every few minutes till they’re ready!
While the noodles are cooking, prepare your veggies. Peel and julienne carrots, slice an onion, slice bell peppers into thin sticks, slice a cucumber on the diagonal thinly, and mince lots and lots of garlic. Other vegetables you can also include are spinach, green bell peppers, red bell peppers, mushrooms, and green onion. Choosing colorful vegetables really makes the dish pop.
Once all the veggies are ready heat a heavy bottom skillet on high heat and add oil until it shimmers. Toss in your veggies and wait a moment before mixing. This will help the vegetables develop color instead of steam! Sauté for a few minutes or until the vegetables juuuuust begin to turn tender. Then remove from heat.
By this time the noodles should be cooked! Drain the noodles and place in a large bowl-large enough to mix everything together. Season the cooked noodles with soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, sesame seeds, and garlic. Glass noodles are traditionally very long which can make it difficult to eat. So to make it easier, cut the noodles with scissors. Give it a quick mix then top with the veggies and set aside.
To prepare the beef, marinate it with the same mixture used in the noodles—soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, sesame seeds and lots of minced garlic. Use the same skillet that the veggies were cooked in-simply add a little more oil and place on high heat again. Then add the beef in a thin layer and wait a minute before mixing so the beef can also caramelize. Because the beef is so thinly sliced, it will only take a couple of minutes to cook.
Pour the beef over the noodles and veggies and give everything a mix. now taste your noodles! Chances are it might need salt, or more sesame oil. Whatever it is, add it in, give it another mix, and you’re ready to serve.
That was pretty easy wasn’t it?! Top your plate with a little extra sesame seeds to make it extra pretty and enjoy!
Ingredients
Serves 6-8
- 2 bundles of glass noodles
- 1 pound thinly sliced beef
- 1/4 cup oil for sautéing
- One large onion, sliced
- 2 large carrots, julienned
- 1 bell pepper, sliced
- 4 mini cucumber, sliced diagonally
- 2 tbsp l minced garlic
For the Sauce
- 1/3 cup soy sauce
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1/3 cup minced garlic
Combine and divide sauce for noodles and beef.
Directions
1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add noodles. Once cooked, drain and place in a large mixing bowl or tray
2. Cut the noodles with scissors to make them a little easier to eat
3. Mix together seasoning sauce and save a quarter of it to marinate the beef. Pour the rest into the noodles and mix.
4. Pour the saved sauce into thinly sliced beef and mix together. Set aside
5. In a heavy bottom skillet, add oil and heat on high heat till it shimmers. Add all the vegetables along with garlic and salt and cook on high until they just start to turn tender
6. Add the cooked vegetables to the noodles
7. In the same pan, add a little more oil and heat on high heat. Then add marinated beef and cook for a minute on each side until caramelized and cooked through
8. Add beef to noodles and cooked vegetables. Give everything a mix and serve with an extra drizzle of sesame oil