Instant Pot Japchae

Although the star of this dish is dangmyeon (sweet potato starch noodles), japchae means “mixed vegetables” in Korean. The noodles are translucent, bouncy, slightly chewy in texture, and the variety of vegetables is a perfect complement to the noodles. Traditionally, each ingredient is prepped and cooked before everything is assembled together. This includes an extra step of  stir-frying the noodles after they have been cooked. While growing up, I would watch my mother laboriously make batches of japchae for special occasions.

Making japchae in the Instant Pot has been a game changer. Since the Instant Pot traps moisture, it creates an environment for the noodles to cook into the marinade and is a lot faster to make. For the Instant Pot, just make sure the noodles are cut to fit inside the pot and laid in a criss-cross pattern to prevent clumping. At the end of pressure cooking, just a few extra minutes on the sauté mode with sesame oil and spinach will give you the same stir-fried taste as the traditional method.

Japchae is versatile and people often add protein like marinated beef or shrimp, but I don’t miss the protein in this dish because it’s so flavorful on its own. So have fun with it and add a variety of your favorite veggies.