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Napa Cabbage Glass Noodles is a Chinese dish with napa cabbage stir fried with glass noodles, shiitake mushrooms, dried shrimp, garlic in a shiitake mushroom soy sauce!

What is Napa Cabbage?

Napa Cabbage is one type of cabbage, and is also known as Chinese cabbage. It is oblong shaped, and it’s leaves are more tender than your normal green cabbage.

It is more closer to lettuce in texture, which one time confused the cashier that was trying to ring my Napa Cabbage up. He was convinced it was Lettuce, but I had to explain that it was actually Napa Cabbage!

Fun fact: Napa cabbage is the type of veggie most commonly made in to Kimchi (a fermented dish originating from Korea).If you’re looking for a napa cabbage recipe – check out my Stir Fry Napa Cabbage with Dried Shrimp recipe!

To learn more about Chinese veggies, check out my extensive article on the various Chinese vegetables here!

What is Glass Noodles?

Glass noodles are also known as cellophane noodles or fensi 粉絲. It’s a transparent clear noodle that is made from starch – this can be mung bean, potato, sweet potato, or tapioca, which makes it naturally gluten free.

They are sold as dried noodles, and has to be soaked in water and softened prior to cooking. Once softened, you can cook them in soups, stir fries, spring rolls or more! We always include it as an ingredient in our hot pot!

When you purchase them, they are usually in pack of 8 bundles (example on amazon). I use one bundle to make this dish.

If you’d like to learn more about other types of noodles, check out my post here!

How to cook Napa Cabbage Glass Noodles Stir Fry

First, gather your ingredients:

• 40g glass noodles (or about 2 bundles of glass noodles)
• 1-2 cup of hot water
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 6-8 dried shiitake mushrooms
• 2 tsp dried shrimp
• 1/4 head of napa cabbage, cup in to 1 inch pieces
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil

To prepare, we will soak two ingredients. First, soak the glass noodles in cold water. Second, soak the dried shiitake mushrooms in 1-2 cup of hot water, enough to cover the dried shiitake mushrooms (do not discard water when done soaking). Soak both for 15 minutes.

Cut Napa Cabbage in to about 1 inch pieces. You can do this by slicing once lengthwise, and then slicing in to 1 inch long width wise. Separate the whiter thicker sections of the leaves from the softer leafy sections. Also, I like to make the white pieces a little smaller, as they do take a little longer to cook.

Once mushrooms are softened, cut them in to slices.

Add oil in to wok or cooking pan, and allow it to heat up. Add sliced shiitake mushrooms and dried shrimp and let it cook for about a minute.

Now add the softened glass noodles, and stir fry for about a minute, and then add 1 tbsp of soy sauce. Stir fry for another 2 minutes, and remove from heat.

Now add some more oil to the pan. Add the thicker white pieces of napa cabbage and stir fry for about 2 minutes.

Add the remaining napa cabbage, and stir fry until napa cabbage is softened. Tip: If your stovetop’s heat isn’t very high – you can add a splash of water, and cover with lid for a couple of minutes, and then remove. This will help steam the veggies and soften it faster.

Add the glass noodles back and add garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, the water used to soak the dried mushroom. Stir fry everything for about 3 minutes or so, until everything is softened and the water has been soaked up by the noodles.

Remove from heat and serve!

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