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5 from 23 votes

Dan Dan Noodles

Ingredients

For the Mince

  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 5 cm piece of fresh ginger peeled and finely chopped
  • 4 garlic cloves minced
  • 100 g chopped pickled mustard greens see note above
  • 200 g vegan mince I use naturli or the stuff from the fresh meat aisle, rather than frozen stuff, but either work well
  • 1 teaspoon hoi sin sauce
  • 1 teaspoon five spice powder
  • 2 tablespoon light soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine

For the Sauce

  • 3 tablespoon tahini
  • 1 tablespoon peanut butter
  • 2 tablespoon Szechuan peppercorns toasted in a dry pan and roughly ground
  • 2 teaspoon Chinese black vinegar
  • 100 ml Szechuan chili oil see note above
  • 2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

To Serve

  • 2 x 200g packs udon noodles
  • 100 b bok choi
  • 2 tablespoon peanuts toasted and chopped
  • 2 spring onions finely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon black sesame seeds

Instructions

To Make the Mince

  • Heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok over medium-high heat.
  • Add the ginger, garlic and pickled mustard greens and stir-fry for a few minutes.
  • Break the mince up with your hands as you drop it into the pan. Fry until lightly browned.
  • Add the hoisin sauce, five-spice, soy sauce, and Shaoxing wine. Stir well.
  • Cook for another few minutes, until most of the liquid has evaporated. Set aside.

To Make the Sauce

  • In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients. Set aside.

To Make the Noodles

  • Cook the udon according to instructions. When cooked, remove the noodles from the pan using a spaghetti claw. Retain the water. If you like, you can toss the noodles in a little vegetable oil to stop them from sticking, but if you work relatively quickly this isn’t necessary.
  • Stir around 150ml of the noodle water into the sauce ingredients. Stir to combine.
  • Return the noodle water to the hob over a medium heat and use it to cook the bok choi. If there’s not enough water remaining, top the pan up with some fresh boiling water.
  • Once the bok choi is cooked, drain the water off.
  • Add the noodles to the bok choi and mix. Add the sauce (as much or as little as you like.
  • Plate up the noodles. Top with the mince and sprinkle with peanuts and spring onion.