My love of spicy food is starting to rub off on Chef K. When we first met, his spice tolerance was pretty low so I would tone down all our spicy recipes for him. However, this is the first time Chef K has told me my recipe was not spicy enough!
This dish traditionally uses sweet potato noodles, but we had leftover kelp noodles from a previous recipe, so we used them here instead! You can use whichever clear noodle you prefer.
The kelp noodles add a bit of crunch. That texture works really well with this dish, even though they don’t soak up the soup as well as starchy noodles. The sweet potato noodles have more of a traditional chewy noodle texture.
To add to the sour flavor of the vinegar, we top the noodles with a pickled vegetable. Pickled mustard greens are a popular topping for this dish. However, we couldn’t find good pickled mustard greens, so we swapped them for pickled garlic stems. There are many other options to choose from at the Asian market, but the garlic stems just looked so interesting!
Keep your spice in your bowl, not the floor,
Your favorite alternative chefs, K & T
Suan La Fen (Hot and Sour Noodles)
Ingredients
- 12 oz kelp noodles
- 2½ cups vegetable broth
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tsp sesame seeds
- ½ tsp whole peppercorns crushed
- 6 oz pickled vegetables we used pickled garlic stems
- Cilantro for garnish
Sauce
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tsp tamari
- 2 tbsp chili sauce
- ½ tsp sesame oil
- ½ tsp monkfruit sugar
- Salt to taste
Instructions
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Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook kelp noodles for a few minutes.
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Heat up your vegetable broth and keep at a low simmer.
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Add vegetable oil to a wok over medium heat. Lightly cook garlic, sesame seeds, and peppercorns quickly. then transfer to a large bowl.
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Add remaining sauce ingredients to the bowl and pour in the hot broth.
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Add noodles to the bowl and top with pickled vegetables. Garnish with cilantro.