One of my favorite types of restaurants to eat at are All You Can Eat Korean BBQ! Has anyone been to them? There are plenty here in LA! What I love to eat with the BBQ are the side dishes known as, “ban chan”, in Korean. Aside from Kimchi, my other favorite “ban chan” is “Jap Chae” which are Korean glass noodles mixed with an array of colorful vegetables. Korean glass noodles are made from sweet potatoes, and are called “dangmyeon”. Jap Chae is so delicious, and I love the mixture of veggies it contains. It has spinach, shiitake mushrooms, carrots, and bell peppers in them, which makes it a really healthy dish! Definitely a dish I would feed my son!

I haven’t been able to dine out at any Korean BBQ restaurants lately, and I’ve been craving Jap Chae so bad! So, I decided to trek out to my local Asian market and buy ingredients to make this absolutely delicious dish! 

I couldn’t believe how incredibly simple it is to make Jap Chae, and how incredibly inexpensive it is too. You can make it a vegan dish & opt out on the “bulgogi”, or you can add the beef and it will still be equally delicious. I decided to make my own “bulgogi” to add the noodles to make sure this dish is still inexpensive to make. There are already marinated beef at the market, but it was priced way too high! I used Food Network’s recipe to make the bulgogi. A must-try!

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp sesame oil, divided
• 2/3 cup Tamari or low sodium soy sauce
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1 lb sweet potato noodles (dangmyeon)
• 1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced
• 2 bunches spinach
• 1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
• 2 carrots thinly sliced into matchsticks
• 6 stalks green onion, chopped into 3-inch lengths 
• 1 cup shiitake mushrooms, sliced
• 1 lb cooked bulgogi
• A pinch of black pepper to taste

Directions: 
1) In small bowl combine sugar soy sauce, 2 tbsp sesame oil, mix and set aside. 

2) Take a medium saucepan, fill with water and boil. Add spinach to the boiling water, blanch and quickly drain. Squeeze out excess water with your hands. Set aside. 

3) Boil another pot of water, add the sweet potato noodles and cook 3-5 minutes until soft. Drain and set aside. 


4)Take a large skillet, place on the stove and add 1 tbsp sesame oil. Heat on medium heat and add garlic to simmer for a minute. 

5) Add all vegetables and stir-fry until they start to soften. 

6)Add noodles and stir. 

7) Then add soy sauce mixture.

8) Finally add bulgogi,blanched spinach, and a pinch of black pepper, mix everything together until vegetables are fully incorporated with the noodles. Serve and enjoy!

I’m so happy I made this tonight! It was such a huge hit with my family. Nathan liked it a lot! Go-figure, he loves anything with noodles! Do you guys like Korean food? If so, what your favorite? Let me know if you try this recipe out! Have a great week!