Vegan Dan Dan Noodles
Delicious, filling, tasty noodles
Ingredients
- 250 g fresh shitake mushrooms or button, or brown or a combination of all of them
- 1 tsp szechuan peppercorns
- 1 tbsp rice bran oil
- 40 g pickled gherkins finely chopped
- 2 spring onions sliced diagonally
- 1 tbsp shao hsing wine
- 2 tsp light soy sauce
- 200 g noodles these could be any type of noodles - egg noodles, soba, udon noodles. Or even spaghetti
- 200 g asian vegetables, quartered choi sum, gai lan, bok choy (or I used broccoli!)
For the sauce
- 2-3 tbsp tahini or sesame paste depending on how strong sesame flavour you like
- 3 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp chilli oil crunchy Wong She & Co. oil is perfect :)
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Instructions
- Place the mushrooms in the food processor and blitz until around lentil size (be careful not to over do it as it will just go too mushy - sorry about that!). Put the szechuan peppercorns in a dry frying pan over low heat and toast for about 4-5 minutes until fragrant and then grind in mortar and pestle.
- In the same pan add the oil over high heat and add mushrooms. Fry for 8-10 minutes until dark brown and beginning to crisp, pressing the mushrooms into a single layer with the back of a spoon to maximise crisping. Add the gherkins, spring onions, and the ground szechuan pepper and fry for a further 2 minutes. Add the rice wine, soy sauce and continue to cook for another 2 minutes.
- Cook the noodles as per the packet instructions. Add the greens for the final two minutes to cook through.
- Make the sauce by mixing all the ingredients together - it may require using a small whisk to make it come together (it may split, but just keep whisking).
- Just before the noodles have finished cooking, fill a cup with some of the noodle cooking water. Drain the noodles and the vegetables (separate the vegetables if you can but not really necessary). Mix the sauce and the water into the noodles tablespoon by tablespoon until the noodles are nice and saucy. I used about 6-7 tablespoons.
- Divide noodles and vegetables between the plates and put mushroom mixture on top and the greens to the side of the bowl. As mentioned, I left the vegetables in with the noodles when I added the sauce.