Sweet Potato "Hokkien Style" Noodles

Want to add more vegetables to your diet? Try making these yummy Chinese sweet potato based hokkien style noodles! They taste as good as they look and you'll get a huge serve of veggies and vitamins!

I was at the store one day and picked up a bag of Chinese hokkien noodles. They come in quite a large bag and we often have a bit of difficulty finishing the whole bag with just two people-even with a husband like Mr NQN that has an enormous appetite. And just then it occurred to me that I could try and mimic hokkien noodles using sweet potato. We always love adding vegetables to our dishes. It couldn't be that hard could it?

I'd need a spiralizer for the task. Sometime last year I bought a small hand held Betty Bossi veggie twister spiralizer. I made zucchini noodles before I gave up on it. I wasn't able to make carrot noodles-maybe it was me or maybe it was the thing. It's quite likely me though. I usually refuse to read instructions for anything. I figure if it was designed well and you had half a brain you should probably be able to figure it out (having said that out loud I see how it could end with a trip to Emergency...).

Anyway I was convinced that spiralizers were a waste of money. It's funny how much a discount can change your mind though. I think all of the homewares stores hopped on the spiralizer trend but now have a huge surplus of them. I was shopping when I saw a huge selection of spiralisers, all on sale for over 50% off.

I bought a bigger one that was supposed to sit on a benchto and was soon spiralizing like a boss. My favourite setting is the spaghetti one and I was cranking out sweet potato noodles. I combined them with my mother's hokkien noodle recipe and before long I had a wholesome, vegetable rich delicious dinner ready. It's one that I now make for when I've had a lot of meat or heavy meals but don't want a cold salad. I enjoyed them so much that since then I've made 5-6 lots of these. Which is about the same quantity than the packet of hokkien noodles come to think of it...

So tell me Dear Reader, are you good at reading instructions on appliances? And if you've had heavy or rich meals do you try and balance out other meals? Have you got a spiralizer and how often do you use it?

And pssst if anyone wants the Betty Bossi, let me know! I'm happy to post it to anyone to see if they can make sense of it!

Sweet Potato "Hokkien Style" Noodles

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Serves 2 for dinner

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

• 1 chicken thigh, cut into slices
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 500g/1.1lbs. sweet potatoes
• 1 large red onion, peeled and sliced
• 1 clove garlic, peeled and sliced
• 4 slices fresh ginger
• 150g/5ozs. prawns
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup spring onions, sliced

For sauce

• 2 tablespoons water
• 1.5 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oyster sauce
• 1 teaspoon chicken stock powder
• 1.5 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoons sugar

Step 1 - Season the chicken with sugar and salt and set aside. Then adjust your spiraliser to make spaghetti noodles. Peel the sweet potato, cut a flat surface on each end and make noodles.

Step 2 - Mix all of the sauce ingredients together in a bowl so that they are ready to add to the pan.

Step 3 - Heat a frypan or wok on medium to high heat. Beat the egg in a bowl and make a flat omelette. Remove from the pan and slice into shreds. Add more oil and fry the onion, garlic and ginger until softened, then turn heat to high and add chicken and fry until cooked through. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Step 4 - Add a bit more oil and then place the sweet potato noodles in the pan. Place the lid on and allow to steam for 2-3 minutes. Then turn over and fry the noodles gently. You don't want them completely soft. Add the prawns into the pan and cook and then add the chicken and onion mixture. Add the sauce to the frying pan and gently cook everything together. When the prawns and sweet potato are cooked, place them onto a serving plate. Top with sliced omelette and green onions.