While we were in California visiting my family and friends, I asked my mom to be a guest contributor. She offered to demonstrate making chop chae, which is one of my favorite Korean noodle and vegetable dishes. It’s flavorful, light, and rich in vitamins.

Chop Chae. ©Reel Chow

My mother’s chop chae can be personalized to your own likes many different ways. Ron calls it “the chop chae foundation,” because the following recipe is a great place to start and add what you want. My mom used fresh spinach, carrots, button mushrooms, and onion. She added thinly-sliced sirloin (which was marinated in the traditional Korean bulgogi marinade overnight) with thin rice noodles. Of course, you can add seafood or poultry, broccoli, shitake or matsutake mushrooms, glass noodles, or many other foods. Think of it as the foundation upon which to make a great fish, meat, chicken, or vegetarian version.

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