Local Asian/Mexican fusion: Hickory Nut Gap chorizo with mung bean noodles

We’re going for getting all our meats and produce either out of our own backyard or local farms. This year we started buying meats at Hickory Nut Gap Farm which is only 10 miles from our home. It’s wonderful to drive there and pick our own meats and eggs.

I also recently bought some mung bean noodles at a local asian market. I don’t know the name of the market but it’s on Tunnel Road. Mung bean noodles are a wonderful alternative to pasta and they are free of grains which some people are allergic to. I cook by thinking of what is on my shelves and in my fridge and go from there. This recipe was born out of staring at a package of loose chorizo sausage.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb chorizo loose sausage (the delicous sausage I used was from Hickory Nut Gap)
• 1 small cabbage shredded, I used a food processor so that it was very fine
• 1/2 onion sliced fine
• 1 bunch green onions
• Tamari and red chili flakes to taste
• 2 bunches (about 3 oz) mung bean noodles (purchase at any Asian market)

I first cooked the sausage until crumbly and lightly browned. I removed the meat and used the juices to cook the sliced onion and cabbage. Once it was cooked to a tender consistency I added the meat back in. I used some tamari to keep the cabbage cooking nicely ala stir fy.

I prepared about 3 oz of the mung beans. I put them in water in a pot on the stove. They do not need to come to a boil. They cook very quickly. When they are softened I simply put them in a collander and cut them up with scissors. They are infinitely long so if you don’t cut them up they will be very difficult to eat. I plopped the cooked mung beans into the veggie and meat mixture and mixed them all up.

The noodles grow A WHOLE LOT. But mostly after I added them to the veggies. Not right when they were cooked.

This was a first time experiment for me so I will be perfecting the experiment and if you use this idea play with it as though it’s an experiment too. The noodles are deceptive when cooked before you add the veggies. They expand! So I suggest not having too many expectations and just having fun.

Fresh green onions added at the last minute was a nice touch as well.

This is essentially what it looked like, though I forgot to take a photo so I snagged this off of google images. This looks like perhaps there is no meat in it.