A street-style recipe, super easy to make yet tastes so appetizing and tempting. Chinese bhel is a variant of chop suey, widely popular in the streets of Mumbai. Basically, it’s a food item from North-Eastern origin in India. This savory street food is usually made from deep-fried noodles, finely chopped onions, perked with shredded cabbage, crunchy veggies like sliced capsicums, carrot, spring onions, soy, tomato, and red chili sauce mixed in different proportions. It comprises of spicy-sweet distinct flavors with tongue-tickling seasonings from various oriental sauces that are being mixed. This popular roadside snack is super quick and easy to make that you can hop onto anytime. The peppy Chinese flavors that are infused in this version of bhel taste so tempting and delicious.
These days the fried noodles are easily accessible, however, you can even make them at home with the Hakka or the Maggi noodles. Once you have this ready on your countertop, the rest work is just to chop all the veggies and toss all of this with the sauces. This snack requires no cooking as such. But, here I have turned up with its two super yummy variants. One is the cold version and another is the hot version. Both of these two variants look somewhat the same although, they have their diverse flavors as the former one (cold) is served just after being tossed, while the later (hot) is served hot right away from the wok. Let’s dive into the recipe to make this mouth-watering treat in absolutely street style.
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Ingredients
For crispy noodles
- Hakka Noodles- 160 gm + 160 gm (for each of the variant)
- Water as required for boiling
- Corn flour- 2Tbsp
- Salt to taste
- Refined oil for deep frying
For Cold variation
- Fried noodles- 160 gm
- Thinly sliced cabbage- 1 cup
- Julienned capsicum- 1 small
- Julienned carrot- ⅓ cup
- Schezwan sauce- 4 Tbsp
- Tomato ketchup- 1 Tbsp
- Red chili sauce- 1Tbsp
- Soy sauce- 1 Tsp
- White vinegar- 1 Tsp
- Salt as per taste
- Finely chopped Spring onion- ½ cup (optional)
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For Hot variation
- Fried noodles- 160gm
- Refined oil- 1 Tbsp
- Chopped ginger garlic- 2 Tbsp
- Sliced onion- 1 small
- Schezwan sauce- 4 Tbsp
- Tomato Ketchup- 1 Tbsp
- Red Chili sauce- 1 Tbsp
- Soy sauce- 1 Tsp
- Vinegar- 1 Tsp
- Red chili powder- ½ Tsp
- Sliced capsicum- 1 small
- Thinly sliced cabbage- 1 cup
- Finely chopped spring onion- ½ cup (optional)
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Method
For making the crispy fried noodles
- Firstly, will boil the noodles for frying. Take a deep pan, add enough water for boiling, then add 1 tbsp of oil, salt to taste, and bring the water to a boil. Now, add the noodles and cook until they are almost done.
- Next, strain the water and cool the noodles. Let the noodles sit ideal for about 10 mins so that all the water gets drained. You can add some oil to the boiled noodles if you notice, they are sticking to each other.
- After the noodles have completely dried, add cornflour to the noodles for that extra crispiness and mix well. Then, add some salt and mix nicely to lightly coat the noodles. Your noodles are ready to be deep-fried.
- Now, take a deep pan, and add some refined oil that is enough for frying. The oil needs to be in medium-high heat before adding the noodles for frying. If the oil is in low heat, then the noodles will absorb oil while frying. Once the oil is hot, drop in the boiled noodles carefully a few at a time and fry them on moderate heat. Take care that the noodles are dried perfectly, no water should be present otherwise it will splutter if you directly add it to hot oil.
- You need to fry the noodles until the bubbles stop appearing and the noodles become crispy. It will just take about a minute or two. You need to flip these noodles in between, and you’ll notice as these become crisp, the noodles will form a cluster and it will be easy for you to flip these up.
- Similarly, you need to fry all the noodles. Keep the fried noodles on an absorbent to soak up all the extra oil.
After frying all the noodles, divide the whole into two equal parts for making the Chinese bhel in two variants. Let’s start with the first variation of Chinese bhel.
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For making the Cold Variation of Chinese bhel
- Since everything is ready, the fried noodles, chopped veggies, your work is to just mix everything all together and toss-up with the sauces. It will hardly take 2 minutes to get the first variant of your Chinese bhel ready.
- Take a mixing bowl, add 4 Tbsp of schezwan sauce that is readily available in the market. Next, add 1 Tbsp tomato ketchup, 1 Tbsp red chili sauce, 1 Tsp soy sauce, 1 Tsp of white vinegar, and give this entire thing a good mix.
- You can replace vinegar with a dash of lemon juice, but add it at the end. Also, you can adjust the proportions of the sauces as per your taste. You can even increase or decrease the spiciness accordingly.
- Next, drop in the veggies one by one. Add the thinly sliced cabbage, capsicum, and carrot along with the spring onions. You can skip any of these if you don’t like it. But I suggest adding the capsicum and cabbage, as these will add that perfect crunch to your Chinese bhel.
- Now, break the fried noodles into the bowl. Mix everything well so that each and every noodle is coated with the sauce nicely. And there you go. Your first cold variant of Chinese bhel is ready to be served. You can taste it at this time and adjust the seasoning.
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Now, moving on to our second variant of hot and spicy Chinese bhel.
For making the Hot variation of Chinese bhel
- Firstly, heat 1 Tbsp of oil in a Chinese wok or a kadhai/pan. Add 2 Tbsp of chopped ginger and garlic and you have to saute this on high flame till the raw smell is gone.
- Now, add 1 small sliced onion. You need to saute the onion for just about 1 minute. Don’t overdo it. Add 4 Tbsp of Schezwan sauce/chutney, 1 Tbsp of tomato ketchup, 1 Tbsp red chili sauce, 1 Tsp of soy sauce, ½ Tsp of red chili powder, 1 Tsp of white vinegar and give everything a good mix. You can increase the spiciness as per your taste.
- Next, add the sliced capsicum, finely chopped spring onion, and the thinly sliced cabbage. Give all these a good stir. Do not over-cook these veggies as these taste very good if they are raw and crunchy.
- Finally, roughly break-in the fried noodles and add to it. Keep the flame high and mix everything very well. Your second hot variant of Chinese bhel is ready to be served.
While tossing, drop in the fried noodles in the end for both the variants. As the crispy noodles turn out to be soggy after some time, so be a bit quick while mixing everything and serve immediately. Do try out these two amazing variants of making the popular street style Chinese bhel. These are super easy and quick to make and a perfect go-to evening snacks for your weekends. Usually, you can stock up up the fried noodles in an air-tight container for about a week or 10 days. If you have the fried noodles ready, then it gonna take max 3-5 minutes to toss-up everything and dive into this delicious treat.