Round, thick potato noodles made from potato starch. Easy handmade potato starch noodles, can be used for hot pot, soups, stir-fries, and salad. I have made rice stick rice noodles with a noodle presser weeks ago. I get feedback saying that no noodle presser at home. Then I love to introduce an easy handmade version. This noodle is super chewy and performs really better for salad, stews, soups, and hot pot. You will love this texture as long as you tried once. If you can’t find potato starch, follow this step and use potato instead of sweet potato starch to make homemade potato starch.
What are potato noodles or potato starch noodles?
Potato noodles are called 土豆粉 (tǔ dòu fěn), it is made from starch noodles. They are thick and round noodles commonly used in hot pot, soups, stews and stir-fry dishes.
Other starch noodles
Starch noodles have lots of versions including mung bean noodles, sweet potato starch noodles, and potato starch noodles (土豆粉条). They have very different textures, much chewier than regular wheat noodles in general. I have made a rice noodle weeks ago using a noodle presser and this is a totally handmade version. You can also make a thin and round rice noodle version by using a noodle presser.
What’s potato noodle made of
To make potato noodles, you will only need potato starch, hot boiling water, and vegetable cooking oil. Adding oil can help to keep the dough moist and make the dough process much easier. There will be no oily taste in the final dough. Once the noodle is made, you can further use them in all types of dishes.
What does potato noodle taste like
If you never tried it, you may wonder what potato noodles taste like, whether like wheat-based noodles? Potato noodles have a mild, neutral flavor compared with wheat-based noodles. And it is much chewy but smooth and possibly a little bit slippery.
Once coated with seasonings, those noodles can be super great in taste. They are a good gluten-free alternative to wheat-based noodles and can be used in a variety of dishes.
Cook’s Note
- Because of the gelatinization, the starch dough can be extremely sticky after adding hot water, plastic wrapper, and rubber can be good helpers.
- Kneading the dough for a long time gives the final noodle a smooth surface and avoids any breaks caused by bumps. So I recommend 8 minutes of kneading.
Where to buy
You can buy 土豆粉 (tǔ dòu fěn) or potato starch noodles at many Asian grocery stores or online retailers that specialize in Asian ingredients. They are usually packaged in bags. If you cannot find the noodles, try to seek the starch and make the potato noodle at home. It is a quite interesting and enjoying.
How to make potato noodles at home
Add vegetable cooking oil to potato starch and then stir in hot boiling water. Wait for a while and then grasp all the crumbs together to form a ball. Then continue kneading for 8-10 minutes. The dough can be extremely stretchable, smooth, and without any small bumps. More kneading makes the dough better.
Dust the operating board with starch and then flat the dough and roll out to a rectangle. Cut into 1 cm thick strips and then shape into longer ones.
Bring a large pot of hot water to a boil and then prepare a bowl of cold water at the side. Add the starch noodles. Cook until floating, then transfer to cold water.
Prepare another small pan, add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil, and fry garlic and scallions until aromatic. Place light soy sauce, cumin powder, chili oil, salt, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil and sesame seeds in. Add the potato noodles, and simmer for 3-5 minutes until the noodles are properly softened.
Finally mix in sesame seeds, green onion and corianders.
Handmade potato noodles
Ingredients
Noodle dough
- 1 cup potato starch , or you can make it at home via this instruction, using potato instead of sweet potato.
- 1/2 cup hot boiling water
- 1 tbsp. vegetable cooking oil
Sauce
- 3 cloves garlic , finely chopped
- 2 leek scallions , white part and green part separated
- 1-2 tbsp. Chinese chili oil
- 2 tbsp. light soy sauce
- 1 tbsp. vinegar
- 1 tbsp. sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp. sugar
- 2 tbsp. cumin powder
- pinch of salt to taste
- 2 coriander ,finely chopped
Instructions
- Add vegetable cooking oil in potato starch and then stir in hot boiling water. Wait for a while and then grasp al crumbs together to form a ball. Then continue kneading for 8-10 minutes. The dough can be extremely stretchable, smooth and without any small bumps. More kneading makes the dough better.
- Dust the operating board with starch and then flat the dough and roll out to a rectangle. Cut into 1 cm thick strips and then shape into longer ones.
- Bring a large pot of hot water to a boiling and then prepare a bowl of cold water at side. Add the starch noodles in. Cook until floating, then transfer to cold water.
- Prepare another small pan, add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and fry garlic and scallions until aromatic. Place light soy sauce, cumin powder, chili oil, salt, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil and sesame seeds in. And noodles and let is simmer for 3-5 minutes until the noodles are softened to taste. At last, mix with green onion and coriander. Serve directly.
Video
Nutrition
Hi! I made these yesterday and right out of the pan they were so delicious! The texture was perfect, very chewy in a pleasant way. My gf loved them as well. However, we weren’t ready to eat so we let them sit on the stove for a while and ended up eating them an hour or so later when they were room temperature. The texture of the noodles changed and became too hard. We still enjoyed them, but they were so much better when I tried them right after cooking. Do you have to eat these right away or was is because they were cold? Or maybe there was another issue? I would love to hear your thoughts, thanks!!
Adan,
You can soak them in water or keep in air-tight bag. Cook small servings but finish each time.
Hi Elaine,
the pressere @home does exit and it works very well with your recipe!
I’ve bought it online and it’s called Camisin ‘Household Manual Steel Pasta Maker Noodles Presser Making Machine with 7 Molds Noodle Maker’.
Made potato noodles today using it to shape the dough and it worked but you need 2 people to work it out as alone it’s quite hard to press and handle it.
Hello Elaine! I just wanted to know if I can use tapioca or cornstarch for this recipe. They are the only starches I can find.
Thank you!
Cornstarch can’t hold shape and tapioca flour is too chewy for this. If you want to have try, please buy cornstarch.
Can you freeze these for storage? Or can you dry them and store in an airtight container?
Yes. They can be frozen in airtight container or bags.
Hi Elaine
I tried this and it just crumbled, but i can see that the temperature of the water need to be hot, i really am going to try that, but when you say that you need to wait a while before kneading, how long is that?
Marina,
You will need to wait until the dough is cooled. The time is depending on your room temperature.
People like saying that the noodle is from China…but can we agree that gnocchi is pre-potato noodle?
It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t affect our enjoyment of the food