Yachae Japchae – Recipe from the Korean vegan

I typically cook a cuisine style over the course of a week and this week I decided to make Korean food in order to use the last of my japchae.

I made yachae japchae from The Korean Vegan cookbook; the recipe below is a general approximation to protect the author’s intellectual property.

Yachae means vegetables in Korean so grab whatever vegetables you like that you feel would hold up in a stir fry. I used the traditional vegetables for this dish – carrots, onions, bell peppers, and spinach.

For protein I reconstituted dried shiitake. Nasoya has a “KoreanBBQ” soy meat substitute that’d work well for japchae.

Finally you need japchae which are also called glass noodles or sweet potato starch noodles. I had about 100g of noodles (uncooked) so quantities are based on that

Blanch 2 cups spinach in salted boiling water ~2 minutes. Immediately transfer to cold water to stop the cooking process. Squeeze out the excess water and set aside.

Prep vegetables. I julienned 1/2 carrot and 1/4 each of red, yellow, and green bell peppers*, and 1/3 c cabbage. Stir fry each vegetable separately in a hot pan with a drizzle of oil, salt and pepper. Set aside in bowl. Add 1/3 of the cooked spinach (I made sigeumchi namul with the remaining spinach, recipe below)

*you could use a single pepper but red, yellow, green add nice color and different flavors.

Cook 1/2 thinly sliced onion, 5-6 sliced shiitake, and 1-2 cloves garlic in a pan with oil, lightly salt and pepper. Cook ~ 5 minutes. Add a few dashes of shoyu with a drizzle of honey. Mix and cook a couple minutes then transfer to the bowl with the vegetables.

While you prep and cook the vegetables boil water and cook the japchae according to the package, usually -7 minutes. When done immediately drain and run cold water over them.

Mix noodles and vegetables. Add a few dashes of shoyu, squirt of honey, sesame oil, salt, pepper, and sprinkle of sesame seeds. Everything is to taste, adjust based on your preference. Japchae is traditionally slightly sweet with a sesame flavor.

I ate the japchae with napa cabbage kimchi** from the Farmer’s Market and sigeumchi namul.

**Many kimchi are traditionally made with anchovies, etc. Look for kimchi marked as vegan.

Sigeumchi namul (not the author’s recipe) – season the remaining cooked spinach with 1/2 T shoyu, 1 t sesame and 1/2 clove minced garlic. I added a pinch of gochugaru and a drizzle of honey before topping it with sesame seeds and mix.

You can find japchae, gochugaru, etc at your local Korean store, sometimes at a Chinese grocery store or on Amazon

by shikawgo