Dan Dan Mian is a Chinese noodle dish traditionally made with minced meat. We’ll show you how to cook it vegan instead.
The Chinese street food Dan Dan Mian combines noodles with a spicy sauce, green vegetables and traditionally minced meat. But it can also be made vegan. The “Dan Dan” in the name denotes the long bamboo poles from which the baskets dangle, in which the vendors hand the dish to the customers on the street. “Mian” simply means “noodle”.
As an alternative to minced meat, we suggest a mixture of tofu and mushrooms that you can make yourself. Alternatively, you can also buy vegan minced meat. Make sure all ingredients are organic. By buying organic products, you support ecological agriculture that does not use chemical-synthetic pesticides and thus protects the environment and health.
Recipe: How to prepare vegan Dan Dan Mian
Ingredients:
200 g tofu
100 gmushrooms
1 clove(s) garlic
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
0.5 tsp Zechuan pepper
2 tsp Tahin
1 tsp sugar
0.5 tsp five spice powder
Chilli flakes to taste
20 gpeanuts
200 g pak choi
2spring onions
oil for frying
200 g Chinese noodles without egg
Directions:
Crumble the tofu and finely dice the mushrooms. Peel and chop the garlic. Mix everything in a bowl with 2 tablespoons soy sauce and 1 tablespoon sesame oil. Let the mixture steep for 15 minutes.
Grind the Szechuan pepper. Mix with the remaining sesame oil, remaining soy sauce, tahini, sugar, five spice powder, and chili flakes in a small bowl.
Roughly chop the peanuts. Wash the bok choy and remove the core so that you have individual leaves. Wash the spring onions and cut them into rings.
Heat some oil for frying in a pan. Sauté the tofu and mushroom mixture over high heat until most of the liquid has evaporated.
Cook the noodles according to package directions. Add the pak choi about three minutes before the end of the cooking time.
In each of the bowls you plan to serve in, mix one part of the condiment sauce you prepared in step two with 5 tablespoons of the pasta water. Drain the remaining water from the noodles.
Put the noodles on the sauce. Serve the tofu-mushroom mixture and the pak choi on top. Sprinkle with the spring onions and peanuts. This is how you can serve your Dan Dan Mian. Before eating, you can stir it so that everything mixes with the sauce.
This is how you can modify the Dan Dan Mian
You can make Dan Dan Mian as spicy as you like by varying the amounts of chilli flakes and Szechuan pepper.
You can buy Five Spice Powder at the store or make your own using our Five Spice Powder recipe. Alternatively, you can use another Chinese spice mix.
Instead of the pak choi, you can also simply use Chinese cabbage. With the mushrooms, you can also decide whether you choose button mushrooms, try oyster mushrooms or take shiitake mushrooms.
