Singapore-inspired noodles with mixed sprouted beans

Anyone can throw together some good noodles. Although, a good sauce with your noodles can change everything form average to memorable. The sauce on this one is great and it gives it that flavour similar to the Singapore-style noodles on offer in Oriental restaurants in the UK. It's a great dressing to have under your belt for noodle dishes or Asian type salads of any kind as it has a really nice sweet and spicy kick.

Most dressings follow the simple structure of a combination of: oil, vinegar, sugar, salt, citrus and with oriental type dishes adding soy sauce or chilli works well.

I picked up the ingenious idea of adding tomato ketchup to this one after reading the amazingly talented Polly Tyrer in Leith's Baking Bible. I also added some manzanilla sherry too after falling in love with it since having it with tapas at Brindissa in Borough Market, London. It is much more subtle than adding harsh white wine vinegar. The adouki bean sprouts came about after coming across them in the store and wanting to try them as an alternative to the usual bean sprouts, but if bean sprouts are all you can find use them instead.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp vegetable oil
half of a pointed sweet red pepper
1 red chilli
1 small onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 small thumb sized piece of ginger
100g / 3.5 oz mushrooms (shitake work well)
200g / 7 oz adouki (and other mixed) organic bean sprouts
(other sprouts included lentil, chickpea & mung)
275g / 9 and half oz fresh egg noodles
4 spring onions
50g / 2 oz salted peanuts
salt & pepper for seasoning

For the Singapore dressing:
1 tbsp soft brown sugar
3 tbsp Japanese soy sauce
3 tbsp manzanilla sherry (sherry or wine vinegar if you can't get hold of this)
1 tbsp vegetable oil
100ml warm water
1 tbsp tomato puree or ketchup
Juice of half a lemon
salt & pepper for seasoning

Get all the prepping out of the way. De-seed and finely slice the pepper and chilli. Peel and finely slice the onion and garlic. Roughly chop the mushrooms. Peel the ginger and slice in to fine match-sticks. Finely chop the nuts. Top and tail and slice the spring onions into thin diagonal slices.

Put the noodles in a bowl of warm water to soak.

Make the Singapore dressing. Add all the ingredients into a small pan on a low heat and heat through for a few minutes (approx 3). Set aside.

Heat the tablespoon of vegetable oil in a large wok or similar type of pan. Cook the onions for 2 minutes until they begin to soften. Add the chilli, ginger and garlic. Cook for a further 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms, sprouted beans.

Stir together for 2 minutes more. Drain and add the noodles. Stir through with the other ingredients.

Remove from the heat and toss the dressing through the noodles. Add a little more seasoning of salt and black pepper. Scatter over the peanuts and spring onions. Serve with extra soy sauce and lemon quarters.