Fun to make, tasty to eat, these noodles with pickled veg and chili oil will warm you up on colder evenings.  

It's so fun to see how basic ingredients—water and flour—can come together to create something incredibly divine. The pickled veggies paired with the biang biang noodles may not be traditional, but this is my way of making the dish fresher and healthier. Pickled vegetables are the perfect way to save time when you're putting this divine dish on the table. Although it looks impressive (homemade dough!) and tastes great, it’s mostly about smart cooking, which means you’ll have this on the table much faster than you’d think. Specifically: you can make the pickled veggies a few days ahead in a (large) jar. That way, you’ll always have enough for these noodles, but also for other dishes like rice bowls or fish-based meals.  

For the dough, I encourage you to multiply the quantities, as it stays good in the fridge for at least 3 days. When you're ready to make the noodles, you only need to stretch the dough into noodles and cook them for 2 minutes. The whole process literally takes 5 minutes, I promise you. 

Fun fact: The noodles have the onomatopoeic name biang biang because it resembles the sound of the noodle hitting the kitchen counter as you stretch out the noodles.   

Cooking time: 30 minutes 

Serves: 2 (or 1 big portion) 

Ingredients:  

For the pickled veggies:  

• 1/4 Chinese cabbage, cut into bite-sized pieces 
• 1 carrot, cut into small quarters 
• ½ cucumber, cut into small quarters 
• 60 ml rice vinegar 
• 1 tbsp sugar 
• 1/2 tbsp salt 

For the noodles:  

• ¼ tsp salt 
• 100 ml water (room temperature + extra, if needed) 
• 200 g flour 
• 100 ml vegetable oil 
• 2 stalks spring onion (the green part, sliced into rings) 
• 2 tsp chili powder 
• 1 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, finely ground 
• 2 tbsp soy sauce 

Steps:  

For the pickled veggies: 

1. Place the Chinese cabbage, carrots, and cucumber into a large, clean jar. 
2. Pour the rice vinegar, sugar and salt directly into the jar. 
3. Seal the jar tightly and shake well to help dissolve the sugar and salt as much as possible.
4. Refrigerate and let it sit for at least a few hours. The flavour improves after a day.

For the biang biang noodles: 

1. Dissolve the salt in the water. Place the flour in the bowl of your stand mixer and attach the dough hook. Set the mixer to low speed and slowly add the water in a thin stream along the edge of the bowl. Let it mix on low speed until a smooth, cohesive dough forms, this shouldn’t take longer than 5 minutes (if you don’t have a stand mixer, you can knead the dough by hand).
2. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead it by hand for 1 minute until it forms a smooth ball. Place the ball in a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap or a clean tea towel. Let it rise for 30 minutes.
3. Divide the dough ball into two equal parts and shape each part into a flat rectangle about 10x4 cm (with a thickness of approximately 6 mm, you can do this with your hands). Brush each piece with a thin layer of oil and place them on a plate. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in the fridge for 1 hour. Making a larger batch? The dough can stay in the fridge for up to 3 days, so you only need to shape and cook it into noodles in the following days.
4. Ready for your own hand-pulled noodles? First, bring a large pot of water to a boil so it’s ready when you want to cook the noodles.
5. Roll out the first dough piece (with a rolling pin or use your hands) so that both the length and width increase by about 5 cm. The longest side should be horizontal in front of you. Take the short sides between your thumb and fingers and gently stretch the dough out further in width. Take a chopstick and press it horizontally in the middle of the long rectangle, creating a visible groove (this will make it easier to halve the dough sheets later).
6. Now, stretch and slap the dough flat onto your work surface in an up-and-down motion (biang biang!). Continue doing this until your dough is about 1 meter long (or longer! Don’t worry if the dough strand breaks—just keep going with a shorter piece.
7. Now, gently tear the dough strand apart along the groove where the chopstick was. Start in the middle, tearing outwards but do not tear the ends, you want to create a large noodle ring. Repeat this process for the other dough pieces.
8. Cook the noodle rings in the boiling Keep an eye on the process and stir occasionally if needed. This will take about 2 minutes (until the noodles float to the top). Meanwhile, heat up the oil in a saucepan until the oil slightly begins to smoke. 
9. Drain the cooked biang biang Put a handful of the pickled veggies in a bowl and divide the noodles. Top with the sliced spring onions, chili powder and ground Sichuan peppercorns. Drizzle the hot oil over the noodles (watch out for splatters!) so the aromatics start sizzling.
10. Drizzle the soy sauce on top of the noodles, stir everything together and serve.