Is it the most healthy? Probably not, there's oil involved and not a lot of fresh vegtables. But fuck it's good.

I got it from the book The Food of Sichuan by Fuchsia Dunlop. Which I can recommend if you're not vegan, since it includes a lot of meat. Although there are quite a few recipes that can easily be made vegan.

I own the book in a different language, so I'll translate roughly.

Ingredients (2 servings):

  • 40 grams of walnuts (unroasted)
  • About 100 ml oil (something relatively tasteless like sunflower oil or soybean oil)
  • 40 grams of roasted or fried peanuts. Chopped finely.
  • About a packet of yibin yacai or pickled vegtables from Tianjin. I'd recommand googling yibin yacai to see what the packet looks like before you go to your local asian grocery. But you can also just use kimchi or something similar if that's easier to get.
  • 2 teaspoons of roasted white sesame seeds.
  • 300 grams of dried noodles or 200 grams fresh noodles. Any kind will do, although get fresh Chinese noodles if you can. Otherwise I like Udon noodles (or if vegan).
  • 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
  • about 3 tablespoons of thinly sliced spring union (or however much you like)

For the spicey oil:

  • 2 tablespoons chili flakes
  • a decent chunk of ginger with skin
  • About 100 ml oil (something relatively tasteless like sunflower oil or soybean oil)
  • 20 grams of walnuts, roughly chopped
  • 1.5 teaspoon of sichuan peppercorn
  • 2 teaspoons sesame oil

Making the spicy oil. This can be done beforehand and yields enough for later usage.

  1. Get a small heat-resistant bowl and add the chiliflakes. Pour the oil into a small pan or a wok and heat on high heat.
  2. Throw in the ginger. The oil should be hot enough to immediately start hissing.
  3. Add the 20 grams of walnuts and fry for about a minute on low heat.
  4. Turn off the heat and add the sichuan peppercorn and leave for a minute.
  5. Pour the oil over (through a sieve makes things easier) the chili flakes so that they start to hiss and smell.
  6. Once the oil has cooled, add the sesame oil.

Preparing the noodles:

  1. The original recipe calls for frying the walnuts in about 200 ml of oil. But since I have an airfryer I just sprinkle them with a bit of oil and throw them in the airfryer for about 5 min (keep an eye on it, they should smell good and have a golden-brown color, but they can turn black quick). Definitely saves a lot of oil. You can also just pan fry them with just a bit of oil. Once they've cooled a bit, chop them into rice-grain size chunks.
  2. Rinse the yibin yacai and squeeze out excess liquid. Then fry them shortly in a bit of oil untill fragrant. Personally, I like to add a clove of garlic as well.
  3. Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the packaging. Once they are cooked and you have removed the access water. Divide accross two bowls and quickly add 2 tablespoons of the spicey oil and half a tablespoon of soy sauce per bowl. Quickly mix with the noodles before adding the rest of the toppings.

Try it out, you won't regret it. Once you have the oil ready-made it is very easy and quick to make. The taste of fried walnuts in combination with preserved vegtables is really hearty and delicious.