Healthy Meat-Sauce with Edamame, Tofu, Carrots, Sweet Potato 健康炸酱

ZhaJiang Mian 炸酱面 is a dish of wheat noodles topped with a mixture of ground meat stir-fried and simmered with bean-based sauce. I have always enjoyed a good bowl of ZhaJiang Mian. In one of my trips back to Singapore, I started to wonder if ZhaJiang Mian has turned healthier? At least, I thought the ZhaJiang Mian served in Ding Tai Fang restaurant is quite healthy. The ZhaJiang meat sauce I have tried in the past have more meat but I did not see much meat in Ding Tai Fang's version. Instead, there was more tofu and even edamame beans in the meat-sauce mixture.


It's okay as I like this version too! So much so that I decided to cook a similar healthy version at home. With a little inspiration from the restaurant dish I have tried, I added some edamame to the meat-sauce. In addition, I also use carrots (finely grated to sweeten the sauce) and sweet potato (also finely grated to sweeten and thicken the sauce), and five-spiced tofu (to pump up the proteins and flavor) especially when I use less meat in this concoction.


Basically this meat-sauce can be base for noodles or even a side with rice. Very yummy!



Healthy ZhaJiang with Edamame, Tofu, Carrots, Sweet Potato 健康炸酱
Ingredients: 1-2 shallots finely sliced, 1 medium organic carrot - blitzed, 1 tbsp finely minced garlic, 1/4 lb organic ground chicken, 1 2bsp soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine, 1 piece of five-spice marinated tofu finely diced, 1-2 cups frozen edamame, thawed

Directions: In a lightly oiled heated wok, sweat the shallots for about 5 minutes or more till turn soft. Add finely grated carrot, then garlic, and add the ground meat breaking up to smaller bits in the wok. Add Chinese cooking wine and soy sauce while breaking up the meat. Fry the meat and veggie mixture evenly in the wok. Add water and allow mixture to cook for about 10 minutes. Then add the tofu, mix well into the mixture, if mixture too dry, add some water, cover the wok and simmer for another 8-10 minutes for flavors to develop. Add the edamame about 5 minutes before cooking ends.




Tag: noodles, meat sauce, meat sauce noodles

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