New Year’s Eve Noodles
Chinese New Year Noodles
New Year’s Eve Noodles are a wonderfully delicious and easy meal to make for New Year’s Eve. It is good luck to eat long noodles at your New Year’s celebration as it represents longevity or long life in the New Year.
This recipe has a few unique, but easy to find ingredients like sesame oil, Chinese 5 Spice, and rice wine vinegar. All of these ingredients are easily found in the Asian aisle of most grocery stores.
These noodles will be your new New Yearés Eve tradition and they make great leftovers for New Year’s Day.
This recipe contains a few ingredients that may be unfamiliar to you. I have included some pictures of the unique ingredients to help you find them if you are not familiar.
I have found these ingredients very easily at most grocery stores as well as Walmart.
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Instant Rice Noodles
These are the noodles I use for this recipe. There are many brands of this type of noodle that are easily found in the Asian food aisle of most any grocery store.
They also sell this type of noodle on Amazon that you can order. If you cannot find this kind of noodle, use linguine noodles that are fully cooked when you add them to the dish.
Chinese Five Spice
Chinese Five Spice is easily found in most grocery stores. This blend is Chinese cinnamon, fennel seed, star anise, and cloves.
When it comes to the fifth spice, there can be a bit of a difference between ginger, white pepper, and Sichuan peppercorns depending on the brand. This blend does have a strong flavor so use a little at a time until you find the amount you like.
Please remember that this spice tastes different when cooked in the dish as opposed to tasting it right from the jar. Give it a chance to “bloom” in the sauce you are going to make for this dish and then taste as you go.
I think it’s wonderful to mix different cultures together so we can all learn from each other, especially when it comes to food. These noodles might just become a part of your family’s new year’s culture!
New Year's Eve Noodles
New Year's Eve Noodles are a wonderfully delicious and easy meal to make for New Year's Eve. It is good luck to eat long noodles at your New Year's celebration as this represents longevity or long life in the New Year. This recipe has a few unique, but easy to find ingredients like sesame oil, Chinese 5 Spice and Rice Wine Vinegar. All of these ingredients are easily found in the Asian aisle of most grocery stores. These noodles will be your new, New Year’s Eve tradition and they make great leftovers for New Year's Day.
Ingredients
- 1 package Instant Rice Noodles (approximately 7 to 8 ounce package *pictured in post
- 1 lb of ground chicken or any ground protein of your choice
- 1 Red Bell Pepper, finely diced
- 2 to 3 cups of Sugar Snap Peas, Diced
- 6 green onions both white and green parts, sliced
- 5 tablespoons of any kind of sesame oil, I use a black sesame oil and a chili sesame oil, any kind will do (divided)
- 1/3 cup of rice wine vinegar
- 1/4 cup of soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon of creamy peanut butter (can be omitted for nut allergy)
- 1/4 teaspoon of Chinese Five Spice *picture of this in post, you can omit if you cannot find
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon of toasted sesame seeds
- black pepper to taste
- *can add 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne if you like spicy
- *seasoning can be adjusted according to preference
- **If you want EXTRA sauce on the side, you can make a second batch of the sauce with the same ingredients and measurements and add that second batch to a sauce pan and letting it simmer on low for about 15 minutes while whisking occasionally. Be sure it does not boil over or burn. Serve it on the side of the noodles. This is in addition to the sauce you will add to the skillet when making the noodles.
Instructions
- Prep all of your veggies first so they are reasy to stir fry. I like to snap the end of the sugar snap peas and pull the string down the length of the pea to remove it, you can skip this step if you do not want to take the time.
- Add your rice noodles to a large bowl and boil about 6 cups of water, pour the boiling water over the noodles to cook them, leave them sit in the hot water for only about 2 ish minutes until they are soft, then drain and rinse really well with cold water and then let drain again in a colander while you cook the rest of the food.
- Add two tablespoons of sesame oil to a skillet and add your pound of ground meat of choice. Cook and break up into a fine crumble as it cooks.
- In a bowl, add your soy sauce, vinegar, 2 tablespoons of sesame oil, peanut butter, pepper, ginger, Chinese five spice, garlic powder, sesame seeds and optional cayenne, whisk until well combined and the peanut butter is whisked in smooth.
- When the ground meat is almost fully cooked, add your green onions and sauté for a couple minutes then remove this from the skillet.
- Add the last tablespoon of sesame oil, and the peppers and sugar snap peas, sauté for about 7 minutes, or until the veggies are soft but still have some crunch.
- Add back the ground meat protein and the sauce, bring to a simmer and simmer for about 2 minutes.
- Add your cooked rice noodles to the skillet, they will be kind of sticky, but the heat and sauce with help separate them. Sauté for about 5 minutes, tossing well to coat in the sauce and to combine with the meat and veggies.
- Serve with more sesame seeds on top and more green onions. You can also add a squeeze of lime juice and some cilantro if you like.
For another great Asian style dish, try these pork egg rolls.