Suan La Fen or Hot and Sour Glass Noodle Soup is a classic Sichuan Noodle dish. In the back streets of Chengdu, you can find these noodles freshly made with sweet potato starch. Today we can buy the sweet potato noodles dry from grocery stores and make the soup at home! This recipe follows the traditional Sichuan flavors of spicy and sour soup, so be prepared!
Where is Suan La Fen from?
Suan La Fen or Hot and Sour Glass Noodles is a traditional Sichuan dish made with sweet potato noodles. The soup is made from chili oil, soy sauce, Sichuan peppercorn and stock. Suan La Fen is famous for its spicy and sour flavors.
How to cook dry sweet potato noodles?
The best way to cook the sweet potato noodles is to bring a pot of water to boil. Drop in the noodles and let cook for 8-12 minutes. Test to see if you can break the noodles in half with chopsticks. Or try one and see if it’s soft enough. Remove with a strainer and drop in the soup bowl.
Make an easy homemade chili oil.
One of the most important ingredients for the soup is chili oil. You can make a simple chili oil in about 10 minutes at home. Instructions can be found in the video: https://youtu.be/uip3wjM0S9Y
Stock for the soup.
I highly recommend using a stock for the soup base to have the extra flavor. I used homemade chicken stock for this recipe with no salt. If you are going to use store-bought chicken stock, reduce the salt and soy sauce in the recipe to adjust the flavor. If you are vegetarian, simply replace the chicken stock with vegetable stock.
Can you make Suan La Fen vegetarian?
Totally! Simply use vegetable stock for the soup base and replace lard with olive oil.
What are the toppings for Suan La Fen?
Typically toppings include: Fried peanuts, fried soybeans, green onion, celery, preserved mustard tuber (zha cai) and beansprouts. You can add different greens as well such as bok choy and lettuce. You can also replace peanuts with any other kind of nuts you like!
Watch Full Video Instruction:
Sichuan Suan La Fen (Hot and Sour Glass Noodles)
Ingredients
- 1 bundle dried sweet potato noodles
- 1 handful beansprouts
- 1 tbsp green onion (chopped)
- 1 tbsp preserved mustard tuber (zha cai)
- 1 tbsp finely chopped celery
- 1 tbsp deep fried soybeans
- 1 tbsp deep fried peanuts
soup base
- 1 tsp garlic paste
- 1/4 tsp ground Sichuan peppercorn
- 1/4 tsp salt (or to taste)
- 1 tbsp Chinkiang vinegar
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1/4 tsp dark soy sauce
- 3-4 tbsp chili oil (plus 1 tbsp with sediment)
- 1 tsp lard (replace with olive oil if vegetarian)
- 1.5 cup chicken stock (replace with vegetable stock if vegetarian)
Instructions
- Fry some peanuts and soybeans for topping. Simply add some oil to a pan on medium low heat, and slowly fry the peanuts. It takes 8-10 minutes . Top with some salt and mix well. Use the same process to fry soybeans. Remember to keep the heat medium low. If the oil is too hot, the beans can be burnt and turn black easily. Take out the soybeans and set aside.
- Make the soup base. In a soup bowl, combine garlic paste, Sichuan peppercorn powder, salt, light soy sauce, vinegar, a little bit of dark soy sauce. 3-4 tablespoon of chili oil plus one tablespoon with sediment. Add 1 tsp of lard (replace with olive oil for vegetarian version). Lastly, add 1.5 cup of boiling hot chicken stock. If you are vegetarian, simply replace with vegetable stock.
- Cook the noodles. Drop dried sweet potato noodles in boiling water and cook for about 8-10 minutes. The noodles are ready when you can break one in half with chopsticks.
- Use a strainer to drop noodles in the soup bowl.
- Add fried soybean and peanuts, finely chopped celery, finely chopped green onion, preserved mustard tuber (Aka Zha Cai) and some fresh bean sprouts as toppings.
- Serve
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