VEGAN RECIPE REVIEW: Hakka Noodles

I've had these pictures for about a week now and I need to post this before I forget about it! (Like the time I made the recipe for chickpea loaf and had completely forgotten that I made it and reviewed it months prior.)

I *love* cabbage but I don't use it as much as I would like to; I don't have many recipes that call for it. My family is kind of indifferent to it, but they lean more on the "don't like" side, so that's another reason I don't use it often. But when I saw this recipe for Hakka noodles--something I'd never heard of--it sounded like something my whole family would enjoy. And it was loaded with veggies.

I chose this particular recipe for Hakka noodles simply because it was what I came across on Pinterest. I didn't know that there were so many different ones! I'm going to look at some others and see if they are all pretty much the same as far as the ingredients go.

This recipe is from The Hidden Veggies (I'll link to it again at the end of the post), and is described like this:

"Vegetable Hakka noodles are a spicy Indo-Chinese style noodle in a spicy oil based sauce with cabbage and bell peppers."

Cabbage and bell peppers are favorites of mine, I love both Indian and Chinese food, and how can you go wrong with noodles? Yum!

First, the ingredients:

Rice vinegar, tamari, olive oil, chili garlic sauce/sriracha, cabbage, garlic, bell pepper, onion, carrot, spaghetti noodles, and green onions.

As I've mentioned, when I cook a new recipe, I like to prep everything beforehand, even though it takes longer. I like not feeling rushed when I cook, so I chop all the veggies and measure out spices or whatnot before I even start cooking.

There was a lot of veggie-chopping, but it looked pretty when I was done!

First, you cook the spaghetti according to package directions. We all know what that looks like:

Then you heat some oil and stir-fry the onions:

Then you add the cabbage, carrots, and bell peppers with a little salt:

When those are done (but still a little crunchy) put them in a bowl and set aside.

Then you add to the (empty) pot an alarming amount of oil (I kind of cringed, but trusted the recipe), sriracha, and garlic. I mixed them together before adding so that the oil didn't look like so much!

However, when I poured it into the hot pan, it separated a bit and you could see all the oil. I don't know why large amounts of oil make me cringe like that! I just hoped that the pasta itself wasn't drowning in oil. (I used to work at Steak N Shake when I was in college, and I remember we had a pasta dish there that was super oily; it always grossed me out. Maybe it just reminded me of that.)

Once that cooks for a few minutes (I didn't bother rinsing out the pot from the veggies, so that is what you see floating around in there), you add in the tamari and rice vinegar:

Once the sauce is combined, you add the pasta and stir it all together. I was surprised that there wasn't much color, because the sauce was clearly red, but it coated the pasta well:

It looked boring, but then you add the veggies and give it a good toss to mix everything together:

For such a large bowl of cooked veggies, I was surprised that the pasta to veggie ratio wasn't as impressive as I thought. I would have liked double the amount of cabbage! I'm a huge fan of green onions, so I piled those on top. 

My first thought was that it was milder than I expected. For a large amount of Sriracha, I thought it would be super spicy.

(Side note: I'd always assumed that "chili garlic sauce" was the name for sriracha--which I thought was the brand--but I learned that I was wrong about both of those. This recipe actually called for "chili garlic sauce". A google search told me that sriracha is spicier than chili garlic sauce, so I guess I was just expecting an abnormal amount of heat. Sriracha and chili garlic sauce are frequently substituted for each other because they have similar flavor profiles, however.)

I added some more tamari and that made a big difference--I think it just needed the extra saltiness. I also ended up adding more sriracha for extra heat. As for the oiliness, it actually wasn't nearly as bad as I expected! There was just enough oil to coat the noodles, but not so much that it pooled in the bowl.

Jerry and the kids liked these noodles, too--they all added more tamari, though, too. The next day, Jerry took some leftovers to work and I ate the last of the leftovers that evening--by that time, it was mostly veggies and far less pasta, which was fine with me because I was craving the cabbage. After I heated it up, I added a handful of peanuts which gave it a great flavor and extra crunch.

It made a large batch; the recipe says eight servings, but my family got about six--we like large helpings ;)  It's definitely a recipe I'll make again! Next time, I'd probably just use pre-shredded coleslaw mix (two bags) and I'd add another bell pepper, and extra tamari. I love it when I find a recipe that all four of us like--since becoming vegan, that's hard to do!

You can find the full recipe at The Hidden Veggies - Hakka Noodles.