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Whether you need a cost-effective pantry recipe or would do anything to avoid instant noodle for a meal (like myself), Japchae is one of the easiest recipes that you can make from home – perfect for families and meal preps for an entire week that is easy on the budget and accessible ingredients.

Japchae 잡채 is a Korean stir fry noodle dish filled with vegetables and potato glass noodles; flavored with a little bit of sweet and savory. And if you’ve been following my recipes for a while, you can probably guess, by now, that I’m a huge fan of sweet and savory dishes.

What I love about Korean food is that majority of their dishes can easily be made vegan and, often, serve their meals with a variety of vegetables, starches, and fermented food. Which is a win for me and I would often crave Korean cuisine. Japchae is one of my go to dishes for noodles. There is just something so satisfying about how all the ingredients marry together – it is so simple yet so flavorful.

While this recipe isn’t something new and you may have probably come across a million and one of them (or not), ordering Japchae in restaurants / takeouts can still be quite difficult as they would serve it with beef. So I would often make it at home using my own version and share how I make this recipe with you. I hope you give it a try.

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Japchae 잡채 (Vegan, Gluten Free)

Course Dinner, Lunch, Main Course, Side Dish
Cuisine Asian, Korean
Keyword Asian Cuisine, Easy Dinners
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 5 people

Ingredients

  • 400 g Korean sweet potato glass noodles
  • 1 medium carrot julienned (or cut into match sticks)
  • 1 whole red bell pepper julienned (or cut into match sticks)
  • 1 whole green bell pepper
  • ½ small white onion thinly sliced
  • 4 cloves garlic minced
  • 2 stems green onions sliced
  • ½ lb oyster mushrooms (or mushrooms of choice)
  • 6 oz leafy greens (ideally spinach, see notes for preparation)
  • salt & pepper to taste

FOR THE SAUCE

  • ¾ cup (178ml) low sodium tamari (or substitute with soy sauce)
  • 3 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil plus more for frying
  • ½ tbsp sesame seeds

Instructions

  • Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the noodles according to the package instructions. Depending on your stove top, the glass noodles should roughly take around 6-8 minutes.
    Turn off heat and strain the noodles in cold water. If your noodles look too long, using a clean pair of scissors, cut noddles until you've reached your desired length. Set aside until ready for use.
  • In a small mixing bowl, combine all sauce ingredients. Mix well until sugar has been dissolved. Chop all the vegetable ingredients julienned or match sticks of the same length.
  • Preheat a skillet, cast iron, or wok on medium heat.
  • Coat pan with sesame oil. Sautée white onion and garlic until it is fragrant. Next add the mushrooms. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper.
  • Stir in the vegetables and sautée for about 1-2 minutes. Combine with the noodles and toss thoroughly. Then, pour the sauce and stir fry until all ingredients are well combined.
  • Set the heat to low and add in the leafy greens until have shriveled up into the noodles. Mix and drizzle a little bit of semame oil to finish and turn off heat. Sprinkle green onions and sesame seed.

Notes

*Leafy greens, preferably and most often used, will be spinach. But due to the limited stock of spinach with the current COVID-19 situation, I’ve used bok choy shown on this recipe.  
The traditional Korean way to prepare the spinach is putting it into a pot of boiling water for 1 minute or until it has wilted, strain, and then shock it into an ice cold bath. Once you are ready to cook with the spinach, squeeze out the excess liquids of the spinach and season with a little salt.