#Veganuary Sweet Potato Glass Noodles

Namaskaaram Gosh, I feel like that title is a mouthful to be honest. I'm not very creative when thinking about blog titles and prefer to say it as it is I suppose.

I agree, this is slightly another adventurous dish for Veganuary. But I like stepping outside the box once in a while. I am a first timer when it comes to Noodle based dishes and certainly don't want to brand this dish as Chinese or Thai.

It started off in my mind as a hot pot. Where I would make a broth, dash a few veggies in there, cook the noodles in water and place them delicately over the hotpot. It would be a big pot of lots go vegetables like carrots, kale, parsnips etc. But it happens that I completely forgot to buy the afore mentioned veg when I went grocery shopping. So I really had to work with what I already had at home.

It was an absolute disaster and failed on ever level possible. I wasn't upset about the whole situation, but more sad for the ingredients I thought I had wasted which mind you cost a pretty penny. Wasting food just isn't the one too right?!

Determined I opened up my pantry and started the resurrection process. So here is how I did it.

This serves two people.

Ingredients

3 Clusters of Sweet Potato Glass Noodles

1 Cup Fine;y chopped Onion

2 Tablespoons Low Sodium Soy Sauce

3 Tablespoons Fresh Lime Juice

3-4 Cloves of Garlic, finely chopped

4-5 Okras

Handful Enoki Mushrooms

1 Lemongrass, chopped into quarters

Handful Coriander

Thumb size Ginger julienned

2 Red Thai Chillies

1 Tablespoon Coconut Oil

1 Cup of Water

Revival Ingredients

1 Cup Meridian Peanut Butter ( I used the crunchy one because that is what I had at home)

1 Aubergine Sliced

1 Spring Onion Chopped for Garnish

2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar

1 Lemongrass chopped

Coriander to garnish

Method

For the Broth

I started off by stir frying the Onions, ginger and garlic in some coconut oil
Once the onions are looking translucent, add in the soy sauce, chillies, lemongrass and coriander. Stir for a few minutes and let it simmer in low heat.
Once reduced, add 1 Cup of water and let it simmer for another minute or so
I then proceeded to sauté the Okra to use as a topping for the noodles. Let it sit on side.

For the Noodles

3 Cups of water into a saucepan and let it come to a boil.
Dash in the noodles once the water has started boiling up and leave the noodles in there for 5 mins.
Strain and serve over the broth

Now this is where it all went tits up. I didn't have enough broth for the noodles to sit on so they just ended up dry. Which was so upsetting but then I had a light bulb moment and began revival.

For the Revival

In a wok or a sauce pan, heat up some coconut oil.
Add in red chillies, garlic, lemongrass and ginger to stir fry for 30 seconds
Add 1 Cup of Peanut Butter to the pan and give it another stir
Next, add in 2 Tablespoons of white wine vinegar and let the sauce simmer on low heat for about a minute.
Turn the heat off, add in the glass noodles and gently fold and leave aside
Pan fry the Aubergines and serve over top of the noodles and garnish with coriander
Done

There was a lesson learnt. Work with what you have. I created flavours with the ingredients I already had. Of course the initial panic of whether it would be edible existed, but that soon vanished after you tucked in. Sometimes cocking up is pretty much the best thing you will ever do. Especially when you are the one having to revive the entire situation you are in.

I know a bit deep for a Glass Noodle Recipe post. But that is what I learnt. Creativity comes in various forms. And to me I'm glad I was able to resurrect this back to life and avoid chucking it in the bin. It was a simple goal to achieve and if anything the end product was the bonus. Make sense babes?

Hope you give this one ago. If you had a similar situation, how did you deal with it? And what did you learn from it?

Let me know in the comments below :)

Muchos love guys!

Aj