Pumpkin & Pork Rice Vermicelli
This pumpkin & pork rice vermicelli (fried bee hoon) is a balanced one-dish meal with pumpkin, meat, cabbage, choy sum and noodles. I experimented by using my favourite Taiwanese shallot sauce as the base for the meat & sauce. The taste is fantastic :p
If you don’t eat pork, you can substitute it with mince chicken, or omit the meat for vegetarian version.
See Also:
This is my bottle of shallot sauce, which is the same brand (Bull Head) as the famous sacha sauce. In this dish, the sauce is used to season both the meat and the noodles. I used to buy many bottles of this shallot sauce whenever I travel to Taiwan. Nowadays, since Sheng Siong has started to import this, I no longer need to stock up on them when I’m overseas. This shallot sauce is a great discovery for me, because I frequently do a meal prep dish of my favourite shallot meat sauce with it. I’ll make a video recipe for that at the end of the year.
Pumpkin Rice Vermicelli Recipe
At the last step, turn off the stove once the liquids are almost evaporated from simmering, to minimize the cooked noodles from breaking into small strands.
Substitute mince pork with mince chicken (or turkey), or omit the meat for a meatless vegetarian version.
Ingredients:
- 150g pumpkin flesh cut to uniform small chunks
- 150g dry rice vermicelli noodles (bee hoon/米粉)
- 1 tbsp cooking oil
- 6 shallots sliced thinly
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 150g minced pork (or chicken)
- 2 tbsp Taiwanese shallot sauce (紅蔥醬)
- 100g round cabbage sliced to long strips
- 150ml water
- 3 stalks choy sum (cai xin) sliced to short sections
- chopped spring onions &/or coriander to garnish
(A) Seasonings
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Taiwanese shallot sauce
- 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
- 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
- 3 dashes white pepper powder
Directions:
- Pre-cook pumpkin. Place cut pumpkin in a microwaveable bowl with 1 tbsp water added. Microwave on HIGH (850W) for 3 minutes for buttersquash, and up to 5 minutes for other harder variety of pumpkin, until softened. Alternatively, steam the pumpkin for 3-5 minutes. Set aside.
- Soak rice vermicelli in water until softened – about 30 minutes for regular vermicelli or 10 minutes for instant ones. Drain and set aside.
- Cook aromatics, mince meat & cabbage. Heat oil in a wokpan, then add shallots & garlic. Stir fry the aromatics briefly until sizzling. Then add the mince pork, spreading them out one layer on a pan. Spread the shallot sauce over the meat and stir fry until the meat is evenly coated & cooked on the surface. Add cabbage and previously cooked pumpkin. Cook until cabbage starts to turn translucent.
- Cook the pot of noodles. Add softened rice vermicelli, water and seasonings (A). Stir to make sure the noodles are evenly coated in the seasonings and simmer until the water is almost absorbed. Add choy sum & stir fry quickly until cooked. Transfer noodles to a serving bowl and garnish with spring onions &/or coriander.