Let’s just say upfront that Korean-style glass noodles are amazing, and they’re also somewhat rare in the world of frozen food. So when we spotted the Trader Joe’s Japchae: Korean Sweet Potato Glass Noodles & Vegetable Stir Fry on our most recent TJ’s run, we knew right away that we needed to try it out. We excitedly plopped it into our cart, paid for it, and brought it back to the Freezer Meal Frenzy office for a taste test.
Heating this concoction is as simple as can be: Remove the cardboard sleeve, peel back a corner of the plastic wrap, then stick this in the microwave for three minutes. Give it a quick stir, then plop it back in for two more minutes. You can also cook this on the stovetop if you want to, but those microwave instructions are so simple that we couldn’t resist nuking this meal. (If you want to read the full cooking instructions straight off the back of the carton, check out our package scans at the bottom of this review.)
The first thing we noticed when we pulled this out of the microwave is that the glass noodles looked quite a bit less glassy than we were expecting. While they are clear-ish, they also kind of look like they are made out of silicone. They’re also far more rubbery in consistency than we’d like, and they have a fake flavor to them.
The real flavor, though, comes from a sweet brown-sugar soy sauce. Aside from the sweetness, we thought we detected a nuttiness to it, so we were surprised to see there was no peanut oil or any such thing included here. The sauce is really good, but it’s also scant; we think more of it would have really made the noodles pop.
Aside from the noodles and sauce, there’s a veggie blend that includes spinach, carrots, onions, and bell peppers. The spinach didn’t have a great flavor to it, and our reviewer had been eating a lot of fresh spinach before tasting this. It’s really hard to top fresh spinach with the stuff that comes in a frozen meal.
The best veggies in this dish are definitely the bell peppers, which taste both fresh and earthy. The carrots are just alright, and we could have done without the onions. We think of onions as something that enhances the flavor of other foods, and since there’s no meat or tofu or anything like that in this dish, the onions don’t really seem to be enhancing anything. Plus, they conflict with the sweet, nutty flavor of the sauce, so we’re not sure why they were included here.
For some reason, half of the container is considered a serving. If you stick with that amount, you’ll be looking at 190 calories and 560 mg of sodium. If you eat the full thing, though — which we’re pretty sure you’re going to do — those numbers grow to the much-less-appealing 380 calories and 1,120 mg of sodium. That doesn’t make this the unhealthiest meal we’ve ever reviewed, but this is certainly not made for calorie-counters or sodium-avoiders.
The Trader Joe’s Japchae: Korean Sweet Potato Glass Noodles & Vegetable Stir Fry is just alright. We think a more generous sauce portion could have really swung these in a more positive direction, but as is, this meal isn’t anything special. It’s not terrible, but it doesn’t live up to its true potential. That’s unfortunate, because we really would have loved to have an excuse to eat more glass noodles.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this frozen japchae, check out our package scan below.
