Amazingly, my eldest son ate all of the veggies in his chap chae last night. This was a big deal because he rarely eats veggies. His comment was they didn't taste too different, they mostly added crunch.
These noodles are very fun for kids. They are sweet potato starch noodles (but taste nothing like sweet potatoes--they actually have very little flavor, absorbing whatever flavor is added to them), sometimes called Korean glass noodles. I purchase them at our local Asian market. I've never looked for them at the regular grocery store, so I don't know if they are sold there. But the Asian market is fun! Try it out. (By the way, I have recently discovered that the Asian market is the best place to buy sweet potatoes around here! They have the best kind and they are fresher than the ones at the grocery store.) Nutritionally speaking, I'm not sure how great these noodles are. I think they are a step up from Ramen (what isn't?) and they are gluten free, if that's a concern for you.
Chap Chae is a Korean dish. I used the recipe from Steamy Kitchen. She lists certain vegetables, but really, you can use whatever veggies sound good to you. I used carrots, onions, yellow pepper, green cabbage, spinach, and zucchini this time and it was excellent. The cabbage actually turned out great because I shredded it fairly small and it became a bit translucent and blended with the noodles so the boys who picked out their veggies ended up eating the cabbage, not even noticing. Whatever veggies you use, just stir-fry them to tender crisp and you're good to go. I've also used bits of scrambled eggs in this, with success.
This recipe does have a lot of sugar in it, so I decreased it by half, and we were all thrilled with the flavor.
You can also change the noodle to veggie ratio to fit your liking. I made ours with lots of noodles to compensate for the veggie picker-outers.
Click here for the recipe.
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