Hot and sour sweet potato noodles (Suan La Fen) is one of the most famous Sichuan street foods. With 5 to 8 RMB, you can buy this street food almost in every city of China.It is featured by its spicy and sour taste as well as the numbing feeling.
This is almost the sister dish of another famous Chongqing food–Chongqing noodles. The version here is a very basic version without any other meat toppings.On Chinese food streets especially in Chongqing, this noodles can be served with fried minced pork sauce (炸酱), red-braised beef (红烧牛肉) and red-braised large intestines (肥肠). Whenever eating at home, I prefer this much simpler way so I can finish up within 15 minutes.
The noodles used for this snack is thick sweet potato noodles (红薯粉), which is much chewier than common noodles. Theoretically it belongs to vermicelli and you may find it in large Asian grocery stores. If you failed to find some, use this one and pre-soak until soft before starting making yourself a bowl.
Usually we top this noodle soup with fried peanuts (or fried soy beans) and pickled mustard head to add some crispness.
Prepare the serving bowls. Add chili oil, light soy sauce, vinegar, sesame oil, Chinese five spicy powder and Sichuan peppercorn powders in. Heat up some oil and fry the mashed garlic . Pour the hot oil along with the garlic into the serving bowls. And some chopped spring onion, coriander and salt into the serving bowl too.
Tune the seasonings: pour a small amount of stock or water for boiling the noodles to the serving bowls.Transfer the noodles to serving bowls too and slightly add more water to cover. Serve hot with black vinegar and Chinese chili oil so you can adjust the taste based on how sour and spicy you want.
Hot and Sour Potato Noodles
Ingredients
- 2 serving sweet potato noodles
- 2 tbsp. roasted peanuts or deep fried soy beans
- 2 spring onions , chopped
- a small bunch coriander , chopped
- 1/2 cup chopped pickled Sichuan vegetable , zhacai
- 3 garlic cloves mashed
- 1 tbsp. peanuts oil
Seasoning for each serving bowl
- 1/2 tsp. Sichuan peppercorn powder
- 1/2 tsp. Chinese five spicy powder
- 1 tbsp. Chinese chili oil
- 2 tbsp. vinegar
- 1 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 1 tsp. sesame oil
- salt to taste
- 1 cup water for boiling the noodles or hot stock
Instructions
- Soak the sweet potato noodles with enough water until soft. Transfer out and set aside.
- In the serving bowls and mix all the seasonings. Heat up peanuts oil in pan to stir-fry the mashed garlic until aroma. Mix the garlic oil with Sichuan peppercorn powder, red oil, Chinese five spice powder, green onion, coriander, light soy sauce, black vinegar and salt in serving bowls.
- Cook soaked sweet potato noodles around 5-8 minutes until you can break the noodles (or follow the instruction on the package). Transfer the noodles out to the serving bowls and then add top with pickled vegetables, roasted peanuts and chopped spring onions and coriander. Serve hot!
Nutrition
“1. In the serving bowls and mix all the seasonings. 2. Heat up peanuts oil in pan to stir-fry the mashed garlic until aroma. 3. Mix the garlic oil with Sichuan pepper, red oil, Chinese five spice powder, green onion, coriander, light soy sauce, black vinegar and salt in serving bowls.”
I’m a little confused in this section. If I mix all the seasonings in the serving bowls as the step 1 instructed, that would include chili oil, 5 spice, vinegar, light soy sauce, salt already. Then do I add to add them again at the step 3? Also, the step 3 mentioned sichuan pepper, not powder.
When you say coriander, did you mean cilantro 香菜？
Yes, that’s it.
Step 2 you mentioned green onion, coriander. Step 3, the last sentence, you mentioned them again. Do you mean to add them twice for both steps?
Yes, add it in batches.