Cabbage Glass Noodles Stir Fry & What We Eat in China #2

Crispy cabbage and tender mung bean noodles fried in a savory sauce. The dish takes five minutes to cook and is super versatile—a perfect healthy side for your dinner or to serve as a main dish when cooking for one. {Vegan, Gluten-free adaptable}

Last week I introduced an easy northern Chinese dish: Stir Fried Choy Sum with Dried Shrimp, and what we serve on a dinner table back in China. Today I want to continue this topic and introduce another fast home-cook style dish (家常菜, jia chang cai): Cabbage Vermicelli Noodle Stir Fry.

What we eat in China

More accurately, this is more of what we eat in Northern China. And I want to emphasize again that every region and every person has their unique way of serving dinner. So this is only a representation of my family tradition.

In the picture below is a typical weekday lunch at my grandma’s place. The food was super simple—homemade pork and cabbage steamed dumplings, stir fried greens, and millet congee. You can only see three plates of dumplings on the table, but there were more cooking in the kitchen. The dumplings are cooked in small batches and served hot, so we usually start eating when a few plates are ready.

The advantage of serving lunch this way is, you only need to prepare one main dish in a large quantity. In my family, it is either steamed dumplings or steamed buns with a meat and vegetable filling, or boiled noodles served with sauce (like noodles with fried pork sauce or with northern style gravy). Sometimes the stir fry is replaced with a cold appetizer such as cucumber salad and wood ear mushroom salad.

In the picture below you’ll see a typical weekday dinner at my parents’ place, serving for three. We had—leftover steamed dumplings, millet and red bean congee, and cabbage vermicelli noodle stir fry.

You might be surprised that you didn’t see rice in either of the pictures. That’s right! Different from Southern Chinese food where rice is served with every meal, northern Chinese families prefer dumplings and noodles. We call it Mian Shi (面食), which can be directly translated into “dough food”. It represent staples that are made with wheat flour—dumplings, buns, bread, meat pie, savory pancakes, and noodles all belong to this genre.

What are glass noodles?

Glass noodles (粉丝, fen si) also called cellophane noodles, mung bean noodles, bean thread noodles, or Chinese vermicelli. They are different from regular vermicelli noodles that are made with rice, as glass noodles are made with mung beans and have a more transparent color.

Glass noodles are usually sold in dried form. You need to boil them to reconstitute, so they become tender. Then you can use them in soups, stir fried dishes, or spring rolls. Because glass noodles soak up whatever sauce you cook them in and become very flavorful, it is a great way to add texture and volume to a dish and make it even more delicious.

In the recipe below, I demonstrate one of the most popular home-cook style stir fry using cabbage and glass noodles. I introduced two flavors: a garlic flavor and a spicy flavor. Both are equally delicious so I’ll leave it to you to choose which one to cook 🙂

The cabbage glass noodle stir fry is usually served as a side in a multi-course meal. However, the dish is highly versatile and you can easily make it into a more significant one-pan meal for one person. For example, you can scramble some eggs or brown some ground pork (lightly seasoned with salt) first, and add them back to the cabbage and glass noodles at the end. Serve it with a small bowl of steamed rice (or without), then you’ll have a healthy mix of greens, protein and carbs.

Cooking video

I’ve created this short video for you, so you can easily get an idea of the workflow. For more Chinese cooking videos, follow my YouTube channel!

More delicious Northern Chinese Veggie recipes

• Stir Fried Choy Sum with Dried Shrimps
• Tomato and Egg Stir Fry
• Fried Potato, Eggplant, and Pepper in Garlic Sauce (Di San Xian)
• Baby Bok Choy in Garlic Soy Sauce
• Shredded Potato Stir Fry

If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @omnivorescookbook on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.

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Cabbage Glass Noodles stir Fry & What We Eat in China #2

5 from 3 votes

Crispy cabbage and tender mung bean noodles fried in a savory sauce. The dish takes five minutes to cook and is super versatile—a perfect healthy side for your dinner or to serve as a main dish when cooking for one.

Author: Maggie Zhu

Course: Main

Cuisine: Chinese

Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes minutes

Servings: 2 to 4

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Ingredients

• 1 batch glass noodles yields 2 cups after soaking
• Option 1
• 1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns
• 2 dried chili peppers
• Option 2
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• Stir Fry
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil or vegetable oil
• 1/2 head small cabbage sliced (yield 4 cups after cutting)
• 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
• Optional 1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce (*footnote 1)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar
• Pinch of salt or to taste

Instructions

• Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Add the dry glass noodles. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until al-dente. Rinse with tap water to stop cooking and drain. Cut into 3-inch strands.
• Heat a wok (or a large skillet) over medium-high heat until hot. Add oil and swirl to coat the bottom.
• Option 1
• Add the Sichuan peppercorns. Cook and stir until the color turns from red to dark brown, but not burned. Remove and discard the peppercorns by scooping them out with your spatula.
• Snip the chili peppers into 3 to 4 pieces, add into the wok, and stir a few times until the color turns dark.
• Option 2
• Add the garlic and stir a few times, until you can smell a strong fragrance.
• Stir fry
• Add the cabbage. Stir and cook for 1 minute, to coat evenly with oil.
• Add the glass noodles. Stir for another 1 minute.
• Add the soy sauce, dark soy sauce, chicken bouillon powder (or salt), and sugar. Immediately cook and stir, until the cabbage turns tender but retains some crunchiness.
• Turn to medium-low heat and carefully taste the cabbage. Sprinkle with a bit more salt and stir again, if needed.
• Transfer to a plate immediately and serve hot.

Notes

Using dark soy sauce adds a beautiful brown color to the dish. You can use soy sauce to replace dark soy sauce as well.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving of the 4 servings, Calories: 110kcal, Carbohydrates: 10.7g, Protein: 2.1g, Fat: 7g, Sodium: 273mg, Fiber: 2.1g, Sugar: 2.9g

Did You Make This Recipe?Don't forget the last step! Leave a comment below, and tag me @OmnivoresCookbook and #OmnivoresCookbook on Instagram!