Sweet potato glass noodles stir fry with shredded cabbage-another super yummy and simple dish, easy to prepare but bring a big flavor.
We are using glass noodles again today. Remember in the previous ants climbing a tree, mung bean vermicelli is fried with minced beef. Vermicelli noodles (Cellophane noodles)are also known as glass noodles in Chinese. Usually, they are made from starch including mung bean starch, yams (like konjak, sweet potato and potato). For this recipe, you can use either sweet potato glass noodle or mung bean glass noodle.
Let’s see how they look like.
To cook dried glass noodles, you need to pre-soak them either in cold water or warm water. Warm water can shorten the time. Usually the soaking process takes around 10-15 minutes with warm water. And drain them completely before frying.
Heat up cooking oil in wok; add garlic, ginger, green onion, dried pepper and Sichuan peppercorn to fry until aroma over slow fire. Do not get the garlic slices get burnt, otherwise the dish may come out slightly bitter. And then fry cabbage until slightly soft.
And soaked noodles and all the other seasonings. Gibe a big stir fry and transfer out immediately. Overcooking may break the noodles.
Besides, if you love cabbage, this Chinese style cabbage stir fry is highly recommended.

- Half of a cabbage , shredded
- 1 small bunch of glass noodles , the one I am using is similar to this one
- 1 green onion
- 2 cloves garlic , sliced
- 2 slices of ginger
- 2 dried chili pepper
- 10 whole Sichuan peppercorn seeds , optional
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- 1.5 tablespoon light soy sauce
- Pinch of salt
- Pinch of sugar optional
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In a large bowl, soak the glass noodles with hot water until turns light or soft. Transfer out and drain.
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To shred the cabbage: remove the hard core and cut the half into shreds directly.
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Heat up cooking oil in wok; add garlic, ginger, green onion, dried pepper and Sichuan peppercorn to fry until aroma over slow fire.
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Place shredded cabbage to fry for around 1 minute until slightly soft.
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Add glass noodles along with salt, sugar and soy sauce. Fry for another minute and transfer out.
trying this recipe for anniversary dinner
Hope you will like it. Happy cooking!
I love your website! I am having fun trying your recipes! Thank you for sharing your inspiration and passion for food!
Thank you so much Ibeth for all the lovely words.They made my day. Happy cooking together.
I made this recipe tonight. While the flavor was good, mine came out much drier than yours looks in the picture. How do you get yours to be so moist/wet? We had something similar to this while in Beijing a few weeks ago. Theirs was in a more soupy sauce. Should I add some type of broth? Or maybe just more oil? More soy sauce? Thanks.
Hi Lori,
I do not add extra broth for this recipe as the cabbage releases water after cooking. But if you feel it is too dry, feel free to add some hot water or chicken stock.
What type of cabbage is used. I could not tell from your photo of the shredded cabbage.
Hi David,
I use white cabbage, which is the most popular one in China.
I love this recipe! Thank you!
Thanks,Ibeth
I love this recipe- have made it several times now. Usually in a small batch so we can make one or two other dishes. I like adding julienned red peppers to mine and sometimes I grind the Sichuan peppercorns into a powder. 🙂
I know lots of readers do not like the Sichuan peppercorn seeds in stir-fries because it is quite annoying to pick them out. So use powder is a good idea.
I’m living in China now and I every time I try a new dish I look for it on your website so I can try make it myself. I love experimenting with cooking Chinese food! Thankyou for all your wonderful recipes :-)-
You are the most welcome, Gemma. Enjoy your cooking time.
Recipe stTES “1 small bunch of noodles”.how many oz. is 1 small bunch? Ive got a 12 oz. pkg. and im thinking that would be to much.
Just finished making this and I ate the whole thing (little piggy here) it was absolutely delish! My ‘glass noodles’ were rice vermicelli and I would like to try the yam ones next, have a pack in the fridge. I also had to use one red Thai Chili as I couldn’t find my dried chili peppers. I freeze the Thai Chilies whole, this one, while still frozen, I sliced down the middle and scrape out the seeds, then I threw the whole thing in the wok. I added some mushrooms that needed to be used and I had Nappa cabbage of which I only used about 1/4 shredded. Worked perfectly – this is a very ‘forgiving’ recipe. Can’t wait to make it again! Thanks Elaine!
I do have another question on the peppers. I have both kinds, green/black and reddish/orange. One is more perfumey like and the other more peppery numbing. I put both in a pepper grinder to use and today I used 4 seeds of each in the stir-fry.
My question is:- do you use one kind more than another? or a mix of both.
Also do you have any suggestions on how to use Sichuan peppercorn flavoured oil. I bought some (green label) and if I can find several uses for it I will also get the red label one.
Elaine, you’re the best! Thank you for your wonderful recipes!
Hi I’m new to vegan cooking and love what you are making here I would really like to try the glass noodles, but where would I go to get them I noticed they come in different flavors it would be great to add them to my diet.thank you for the beautiful pics.
Donna
This dish was WONDERFUL! Unfortunately, due to availability issues, I had to substitute a couple of things. Firstly, 1 used 1 fresh red chilli in place of 2 dried chilli peppers, Thai rice noodles instead of glass noodles, left out Sichuan peppercorn seeds as couldn’t find any and added 1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning instead. Loved it, loved it! 10/10! Thank you for a fantastic recipe I will be using again and again.
Thanks Brenda for your wonderful feedback. You are such a talented cook! Your version with fresh chilis and rice noodle seem quite appealing to me.
Gracias Elaine por compartir con nosotros sus deliciosas recetas, esto hace posible que podamos preparar nuestros alimentos sin ser expertos chefs, 🙏
This looks fantastic, just like the way mom makes it. Thank you for the recipe! I will make it tonight.
Thanks. Happy cooking!
Just made this. Came out exactly like your pic. Tastes yumm and Sooper easy to make!! Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for your wonderful feedback.
The visual photos add so much more to your recipes which I appreciate. Because this is my first time attempting this recipe to celebrate Chinese New Year. would you share the brand you prefer as it does make a world of difference. Thank you for your kind response.
I will try to share my personal brand in the future recipes. I choose Lee Kum Kee for most of the common kitchen seasonings including soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and hoisin sauce.