Mung bean sheets substitutes

The same ingredient in a different shape, and stocked in every Asian grocery and most large supermarkets. If the packet says mung bean starch or green bean vermicelli, you have the right thing.

Best for

Sichuan cold noodle salads, liangpi style dishes, spicy sesame and vinegar dressings, Korean and Chinese cold sides

Identical in flavour, which is to say almost none, and identical in that clean slippery quality. The only real difference is geometry: threads instead of wide ribbons, so you get a tangle you twirl rather than slabs you pick up, and the dressing coats more thoroughly because there is more surface area. That actually makes the dish taste stronger, so ease off the chilli oil slightly. Rinse them in cold water and toss with a teaspoon of oil so they do not knit into a solid clump.

The real answer, and it takes about twenty minutes for a plateful. Whisk the starch and water smooth, oil a metal pie tin or cake pan, ladle in enough to coat the bottom thinly, float it on a wide pan of simmering water, cover, and cook until the sheet turns from milky to clear and bubbles up. Lift the tin into cold water, peel the sheet off, oil it, stack, repeat.

Best for

liangpi, fen pi cold salads, authentic wide ribbon texture, when nothing is available locally

Genuinely the same product, and fresher and more tender than the dried sheets you buy. Two things to get right. Whisk again before every ladleful, because the starch settles fast and the later sheets come out thick and lumpy otherwise. And oil each finished sheet before stacking it, or they fuse into a single block. Potato starch gives a slightly chewier and cloudier sheet than mung bean starch, and both are fine.

The best hack for the wide ribbon shape when you have no starch sheets. Dip a sheet very briefly, lay it flat, brush with a little neutral oil, stack two or three, then cut into wide strips with a knife.

Best for

improvised liangpi, wide ribbon cold salads, getting the right mouthfeel and shape

Visually very close, translucent and wide, and pleasantly slippery. Where it differs is that rice paper is stickier and tackier than set mung bean starch, so it wants to glue itself into a lump, and it is softer and floppier rather than lightly springy. Oil is what makes it work, so be more generous than feels right. Dress and eat immediately, because after twenty minutes the strips soften into something gummy.

The easiest thing to find that already comes in wide ribbons. Buy the chilled fresh sheets or the pre-cut wide noodles, dunk them briefly to separate, then chill them hard.

Best for

cold sesame noodle salads, improvised liangpi, gluten-free versions, quick weeknight cold dishes

The right shape and a mild flavour that stays out of the dressing's way. But rice noodles are soft and tender with no bounce at all, so the dish loses the specific springy chew that makes fen pi satisfying, and they tear when you toss them. Refrigerated fresh rice noodles also go hard and crack, so warm them gently in hot water first, then chill. Handle them by folding, not stirring.

The flat, wide Korean or Chinese sweet potato starch noodles rather than the thin glass threads. Widely stocked and cheap, and they hold up to a heavy dressing.

Best for

spicy cold noodle salads, sesame paste dressings, dishes served properly cold

The chew is excellent, arguably better than the real thing, and the flat shape is right. Two differences to expect: they are greyer and more amber than the near-colourless mung bean sheet, so the plate looks darker, and they are considerably more elastic, so you chew each strand rather than having it slither apart. They also keep absorbing dressing, so add half the sauce, toss, then add the rest at the table.

The purely-supermarket answer. Boil fresh pasta sheets, shock them in ice water so they stay firm, cut into wide ribbons, and toss with a little oil to keep them separate.

Best for

cold sesame ribbon salads, when no Asian grocery is within reach

This is the least authentic option on the list and worth being honest about. The shape and the cool slippery quality are approximately there, but wheat pasta tastes distinctly of wheat and egg, it is opaque, and it goes chalky and stiff as it chills, so it does not have the yielding jelly-like quality of a starch sheet at all. The dish becomes a cold sesame pasta salad, which is nice, but it is a different plate of food. Undercook them slightly and ice them properly.