Remember the sweet potato noodles I bought recently?
I wasn’t sure what to do with them at the time of purchase, but a quick search on Google turned up this wonderful YouTube tutorial for making Japchae – a traditional Korean noodle dish. The video is clear and precise…
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I used the purple noodles, and paired them with Spanish onion, eye fillet, mixed dried mushrooms, garden vegetables (carrots, leeks, rainbow chard) and toasted sesame seeds. All the ingredients were pan-fried individually first, then combined with the boiled noodles…
The sauce is a mixture of soy, sugar, garlic and toasted sesame seeds…
I made notes as I was watching the video – if you’d like a copy of my scribbles (to save you making your own), they’re here…
We all loved this, particularly Big Boy who is very fond of Korean cuisine. It’s easy to make and can be served at room temperature, which makes it a great do-ahead dinner party dish!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
It looks delicious, and very authentic, too. Did you serve it with kimchi?
Misky, I didn’t, but it would have gone well with them! The original recipe was very good, and I was glad not to have to fry the noodles in the wok – cleaning up was much easier than when I normally make noodles! :)
It does look yummy, your boys are very lucky.
Aah you’re kind Glenda. Can you come over and tell them that for me? ;-)
Next time I am over, I will !!
That looks delicious. Do the noodles taste like sweet potato?
Manuela, thank you! They actually just taste like regular glass noodles, but with a firmer texture – they’re a little bit chewy. I think this is going to become a regular dinner party dish here – it looks so pretty! :)
Oh, Celia, I KNEW you would pull something extraordinary with those noodles! Didn’t I tell you? ;-)
I am going to try and find some, would be nice to cook a dish like this once I have a kitchen to play in
Thanks darling..x It’s a remarkably unmessy dish to make – it just uses one frypan and a mixing bowl. I was surprised, I thought it would need the big wok, but it didn’t! :)
Sorry I missed your IMK post and your sweet potato noodles I would have directed you to my Sweet Potato Noodles post, here is the link: http://gardentowok.wordpress.com/2012/11/16/sweet-potato-noodles/
Your Japchae looks mouth watering good. Was window cleaning and am starving, could use a bowl right now.
Norma, I knew I’d seen a recipe with them before, but I couldn’t remember where! Thank you – it’s good to know that they can stand up to being stirfried without going mushy! :)
Looks delicious, love the fact that you’ve used home-grown veg in Korean cuisine. I have some great beef from a local smallholder that I’d been meaning to stir fry in some sort of noodle dish, may have to give this a go.
Andrea, discovering the noodles is exciting, as they’re quite sturdy and don’t turn to mush like other noodles I try to cook have a tendency to do! It was so nice to be able to use our garden greens – thank you for understanding how exciting that was for me.. :)
That looks scrumptious! Great dish for the warmer days ahead!
I think it’s a dish I’ll be making regularly from now on – it’s pretty enough for a dinner party! :)
I only recently learned about sweet potato noodles, but haven’t been able to find any yet. I’m so inspired by this dish of yours and can’t wait to find these lovely noodles. :-)
I hope you find some – it can be tricky, as sometimes they don’t have any English labeling on them! :)
I must have missed your earlier post about the noodles as this is all news to me. Looks like a great dish!
Amanda, they’re great fun, I hope you find some to play with! They’re pretty widely available in Asian grocery stores in Sydney now!
Just ate this dish at a Korean restaurant. It was great. Was a little leery when the waiter told me that the consistency of the noodles was “like gummi bears.” You’re right though, they are a little bit chewy, but did not remind me of gummi bears!
Michele, that’s an interesting description – you can see what they were trying to say, but you’re right, they’re nothing like gummi bears! :)
What a great dish and you, Miss C, have beautiful hand writing! I love a stir-fry with eye fillet. I must get out and try some of these Korean noodles xx
Charlie, they’re widely available, but let me know if you can’t find any and I’ll get you some. We seem to have a heap of eye fillet in the freezer at the moment! :) xx
I love the texture of this noodles, and you just reminded me that I still have some in my cupboard.
Hope you are having a great week Celia :D
Juliana, thank you! Hope you’ve had a good weekend too! :)
Looks yummy. Are the sweet potato noodles gluten free?
Meg, I *think* so, but I couldn’t find anything about it on the packaging, so I can’t be sure.
Whatever did we do before YouTube? It is amazing the “stuff” you can find there — like this recipe. With those ingredients, Celia, it must be very flavorful. It looks fantastic, too. I can honestly say that I’ve been to restaurants and my meal looked nowhere near as good as the dish you’ve presented here. :)
John, thank you! I was so pleased with this YouTube tutorial – it made a dish which I’d eaten but had no idea whatsoever how to prepare seem so simple to do! (And it was!)
It looks scrumptious :)
Thanks Tandy, it was! :)
Potato noodles are a favourite of mine but your efforts look much nicer than the food court version I eat on occasion. I’ll keep an eye out for them. It hadn’t occurred to buy and cook them myself!
ED, I’m the same, I liked eating them, but was mystified as to how to cook them. I hope you try them, they were remarkably simple to make!
WOW! Can I come to dinner tonight :) Thanks and Love, nia
Of course you can darling, I’ve set a place for you.. :)
Isn’t the chew of these lovely Celia! You did a great job with these and I would definitely come over for this dinner (or any other to be honest) :)
Your notes are very impressive sweetie- and perhaps just a little OCD? Xox
Becca, are the noodles gluten-free? I read somewhere that they were, but there’s nothing written on the packaging! :)
They should be, like glass noodles are, and I’ve never had any trouble with any so far. All yummy!
Thanks love! xx
That looks really good and I like the idea of not frying the noodles.
Pat, that bit surprised me too! I always end up overfrying my noodles and ending up with it all going a bit mushy, so this was a welcome alternative.
That looks so good Celia, but I have to confess I’m still rolling the word ‘enrobing’ around in my head! Just the word and the vision of the enrobing ceremony had me transfixed!!
Jan, it IS a great word, isn’t it? I can still remember watching a chocolate enrobing machine at work – it was a sight to behold!
These are some of my favourite noodles ever! I love the sesame flavour :D Yours look packed with flavour!
Thanks Lorraine, I had to toast the sesame seeds, but I think they sell pre-toasted ones at Harkola!
I saw that photo and I could feel my face forming a smile. What a lovely dish!
Maureen, thank you! It IS very pretty, isn’t it?
I’m a fan of Korean food, Celia and this dish sounds really delicious! Great tutorial from you, as always!
Thanks love, but credit goes to the clever Korean lady who made the video! :)
This sounds scrumptious & looks beautiful as well. Those noodles are really interesting.
Diane, the first time I tried these in a food court, I asked what they were and was sure I’d heard incorrectly. Back then, I couldn’t imagine noodles being made from sweet potatoes! :)
Yum! I love dishes like this (anything sweet and salty is my thing!!) I’ve never tried sweet potato noodles before, but now I’ll keep my eye out for them. And your notes are so cute. Thanks for sharing this one Celia! xo
Em, you’ll definitely be able to find the noodles in NY! They come in all sorts of colours too. The notes are a bit tragic, but I thought since I’d written them anyway, that I’d put them here so that if nothing else, I could find them again.. ;-)
Great scribbles :)
Ha! :) As I said to Em above, they’re here more so that I can find them again more than anything else.. ;-)
Looks and sounds absolutely gorgeous – no Korean food Up our Mountain in Spain but I could try to adapt some of the ingredients :)
Chica, I hope you find a workable adaptation. This dish might work with regular glass noodles if you can’t find the sweet potato ones! (Or is that stretching it too? :))