Veg hakka noodles
The Indo-Chinese street-cart noodle: thin noodles tossed over high heat with crunchy cabbage, peppers and carrots, lots of black pepper, soy, vinegar and chili.
- 30 min total
- 20 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $1.12 a serving
- 350 calories
- Good the next day
- Vegan
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 8 oz spaghetti
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
- 1 serrano pepper, finely chopped
- 4 stalks green onions, sliced, whites and greens kept apart
- 1 carrot, cut into thin matchsticks
- 2 cups green cabbage, thinly shredded
- 1 green bell pepper, cut into thin strips
- ½ red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
- 1 tbsp chili garlic sauce
From your pantry
- 2 tsp salt, divided
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil, divided
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp white vinegar
- ¾ tsp black pepper
Each serving has about 350 calories, 10 g protein, 52 g carbs and 11 g fat, and costs about $1.12 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No spaghetti? Fettuccine works.
- No green onions? Chives work.
- No green cabbage? Red cabbage or coleslaw mix works.
- No green bell peppers? Yellow bell peppers work.
- No red bell peppers? Yellow bell peppers work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Bring a large pot of water over high heat with 1½ teaspoons salt. Cook the spaghetti 1 minute less than the package says, , under cold water and with 1 teaspoon oil.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
High heatTimer: 8 min
Dolly’s tip: Rinsing stops the noodles clumping, which is how Indo-Chinese street cooks do it.Heat the rest of the oil in a large over high heat until it . Add the garlic, ginger, serrano and green onion whites and stir 30 seconds.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Shimmering oil. Oil shimmers when it’s hot enough to cook: its surface looks rippled and wavy, like heat over a road. That’s your cue to add the food, just before the oil would start to smoke.
How you’ll know: The oil looks wavy and runs thin like water when you tilt the pan, with no smoke yet.
High heat
Add the carrot, cabbage and peppers and 2 to 3 minutes, keeping them crunchy.
Stir-fry. Stir-frying means cooking small pieces fast over high heat in a little oil, stirring almost constantly. It moves quickly, so have everything chopped and ready before the pan gets hot.
How you’ll know: It sizzles loudly the whole time, and the vegetables turn bright and tender-crisp in minutes.
High heatTimer: 2 min 30 sec
Add the noodles, soy sauce, vinegar, chili garlic sauce, pepper and the rest of the salt and with tongs 2 minutes, until everything is coated and hot.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
High heatTimer: 2 min
in the green onion tops and serve.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
More dinners like this
Tallarín saltado de verduras (Peruvian stir-fried noodles)
30 min
Kung pao noodles
30 min
Schezwan fried rice
30 min
Instant Pot lo mein
25 min
30-minute dinners ›Vegetarian dinners ›What to make with carrots and green cabbage ›What to make with bell peppers and carrots ›What to make with pasta and bell peppers ›