Everyone Loves Noodles!

So tonight I made a batch of Pancit noodles to bring along to a work potluck tomorrow. Pancit is a traditional Filipino noodle dish and is usually served at Filipino parties and celebrations. This is probably because it is fast and easy to make and can be cooked up in bulk quantities.

I've probably Americanized my versions of pancit when I make it, but it always gets eaten up bowl after delicious bowl. Tonight's batch was a strictly vegetarian dish since I'll be serving it to all my students at work and 2 of 9 are vegetarians. I hate to exclude people from the deliciousness.

Tonight's recipe included the following stir-fry of veggies:
6 cloves minced garlic
1 medium sized red onion, sliced
8 oz sliced mushrooms
1/2 red bell pepper, julienned
1/2 yellow bell pepper, julienned
2 carrots, thinly sliced
2 medium zucchinis, sliced
1/2 head cabbage, thinly sliced

Here they are...everyone in the pool! I know - this is way more than what is traditionally used in pancit, but hey, I'm only half so I feel entitled to change things as needed. :)

I actually didn't throw them in all at once though. I started with the garlic in a bit of cooking oil and when the aromas started coming out I threw in the carrots and onions into the mix since they take a bit longer than the rest of the vegetables. Next were the zucchini and bell peppers followed by the mushrooms. At this point I seasoned the veggies with some soy sauce and a drizzle of store-bought teriyaki sauce (though I do prefer stir-fry sauce at this point). I added the cabbage last since it takes the least amount of time to cook and I like to keep it fairly crisp. I also poured in about a 1/2 cup of hot water to get some steam action going for the cabbage.

After the veggies were to the desired doneness, I drizzled on more teriyaki sauce, gave it a toss and them transferred the vegetables into a large bowl, which I set aside. I used the same pan to pour about 4 cups of hot water with a couple of vegetable bouillons in it. I used both Pancit Bihon noodles (the thin rice sticks, which had to be soaked in hot water about 15 mins prior to cooking) and Pancit Canton noodles which are flour noodles with a nice rich flavor to them. I like mixing the two types of noodles because it gives the dish more texture.

Once the vegetable stock was boiling, all the noodles went into the pan! Here we go:

The way my mom taught me to make the pancit noodles is to always use a flavored stock and only enough to absorb into the noodles. No draining necessary if you do it this way! It's better to start with a low amount of liquid add a little bit of hot water at time, if needed, to make sure you don't end up with sticky noodle soup. Once the water is absorbed and the noodles are soft, you can throw your veggies back in for one last toss before it is ready to serve. This batch was particularly big so I ended up splitting this process into two halves.

The end result is here:

I tried a little bit of the finished product and the noodles were really tasty and the veggies were fresh and crunchy. I did miss the bites of chicken that I usually include and I think next time I'm definitely making it with chicken. The vegetarians will just have to sit that one out.