Vegan Jjajangmyeon (Noodles in Black Bean Sauce)

5 from 14 votes

The result of all the kdramas I’ve been watching: constant noodle cravings. All those cravings and seeing endless bowls of this iconic Korean-Chinese fusion noodle dish has resulted into this Vegan Jjajangmyeon. ? Jjajangmyeon is a really popular Korean-Chinese fusion noodle dish with a really thick black bean sauce loaded with diced potatoes, zucchini, onions, and mushrooms instead of the usual pork. If you’ve watched k-dramas you’ve probably seen a few scenes with these noodles involves since they’re often ordered for takeout and are really affordable, too. The black bean paste or chunjang alone is quite salty so when cooked down with a little broth and the rest of the ingredients, it creates a nice rich flavour that’s perfectly complimented with a little sweetness from the sugar.

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Prep Time 15

Cook Time 25

Total Time 40

Course Main Course

Cuisine Asian, Chinese, Korean

Servings

Calories 408 kcal

Ingredients

Mushrooms and Broth (if using dried mushrooms)

5 dried shiitake mushrooms for mushroom broth
2 cups boiling hot water for mushroom broth OR

Mushrooms and Broth (if using fresh mushrooms)

6 fresh shiitake mushrooms (add to the 80g mushrooms below), see notes
2 cups vegetable broth

Noodles

6 servings dry wheat noodles , dried jjajang noodles, or dried udon noodles (each dry serving is around 65g) see notes

Cornstarch Slurry

2 tbsp corn starch
1/4 cup room temperature water

Bean Sauce

3 tbsp neutral oil
5 cloves garlic minced
1 large onion diced
1 tsp minced ginger
4 green onions thinly sliced makes around 1/2 cup sliced
1/2 cup black bean paste or chunjang around 190g
200 g zucchini diced (from 1 large)
250 g potato peeled and diced (from 2 small)
80 g fresh shiitake mushrooms diced (around 7 pieces), see notes
250 g cabbage chopped into small squares (from 1/2 small head)
3 tbsp cane sugar
2 1/2 tbsp vegetarian mushroom oyster sauce or soy sauce, to taste
Ground pepper to taste
More vegetable broth or water, if needed
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil optional

To Finish

Julienned cucumber
Yellow pickled daikon radish danmuji

Instructions

Mushrooms and Broth

Dried Mushrooms: Soak the dried mushrooms in boiling hot water for 15 to 20 minutes or until completely rehydrated. This will be best done in advanced (or even soaked overnight).
Dried Mushrooms: When the mushrooms are rehydrated, squeeze out the excess liquid and then finely dice the mushrooms as well so these can be mixed in the sauce later on. Do not discard the broth since we’ll be using this for the sauce later on.
Fresh mushrooms: If using fresh mushrooms, simply slice the mushrooms into small squares then prepare the vegetable broth.

Noodles

Cook the noodles according to package instructions until chewy. Drain from the water and then run through running water to stop them from cooking and to remove excess starch. Set aside.

Slurry

Mix together the corn starch and water in as mall bowl until the corn starch has dissolved. Divide into bowls and then set aside.

Bean Sauce

Prepare all the vegetables by slicing them into small cubes/pieces. For the potatoes, I made sure to soak them in water after dicing so they don’t turn brown as they do when exposed to air.
Heat a large pan or wok over high heat. Add in the oil.
Once hot, add in the onion, garlic, ginger, and green onions. Sauté for 2 to 3 minutes until tender and aromatic.
Add in the chunjang or bean paste and fry in the oil for 2 to 3 minutes.
Add in the zucchini, potatoes, and mushrooms (both the fresh and reydrated ones!). Sauté for 2 to 3 minutes before adding in the cabbage. Mix the vegetables well with the paste and then pour in the broth.
Lower the heat to medium high then everything together and make sure the bean paste has dissolved in the water.
Cover the pot and leave the veggies to cook for 5 to 6 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
Lower the heat to medium. Mix everything together and then season with the sugar, soy sauce, and pepper. When the sugar has dissolved, give the corn starch slurry a good mix again (since the corn starch tends to sit at the bottom).
While mixing the sauce, pour the slurry in a clockwise motion and then keep stirring until the sauce thickens.
Taste the sauce and feel free to season more, to taste, if needed. If you’d like the sauce a little less thick, feel free to add a little water or broth (around 2 to 3 tbsp) then mix well.
Turn off the heat. Mix in some toasted sesame oil into the sauce, if you’d like.

To Serve

Scoop generous amounts of the sauce over each bowl of noodles and then top with some julienned cucumber (if using) and a side of pickled radish (if using).
Mix the sauce and noodles together. Slurp away!

To Store the Sauce

Since this makes a big batch of sauce, you can save some in a container and refrigerate for up to 5 days. See notes below for some tips.

WATCH Video

Notes

For the broth and mushrooms: if you’re using vegetable broth and not dried mushrooms, just add more mushrooms for the bean sauce ingredients. So you’ll have 6 shiitake mushrooms + 80g or around 7 pieces of shiitake mushrooms. So that’ll be around 170g or 13 pieces total of shiitake mushrooms for the sauce.

Black bean paste: Black bean paste or chunjang is where this dish gets its unique savoury flavour from so there is not substitute for the paste in this recipe.

Noodles: I used dry wheat oodles for this recipe since I didn't have fresh noodles. But if you have access to fresh jjajang noodles that you can get from your local Korean or Asian store, that would be the best!

LEFTOVER SAUCE

If you have some leftover sauce, you can do the following to enjoy a fresh bowl of jjajangmyeon!

Cook a fresh batch of noodles.
While the noodles are cooking, you can scoop up some of the sauce (just enough for your noodles) then reheat it in the microwave or in a pan.
Drain the noodles from the water and then top the reheated over the noodles afterwards.
Mix well and enjoy!

NUTRITIONAL INFO

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