Well, I didn’t set the smoke alarm off or burn my apartment to the ground. So, that’s a step in the right direction!

When I stumbled upon The Indigo Kitchen’s Unicorn Noodle (yes, you’ve read that right. First the Unicorn latte, now the Unicorn noodle, etc) I knew I had to give it a shot. It only requires THREE ingredients: Chinese glass noodles, red cabbage and lemon. It seemed fun and manageable, and as a rookie in the Kitchen, I thought trying to make this easy side dish might possibly inspire me to maybe potentially enjoy cooking. (Yep, it’s that bad.)

The concept is actually pretty simple:

• Boil some water and toss in cut up leaves of the purple cabbage (I cut up the cabbage and used about a quarter worth of it. I picked it apart and dropped in individual layers. Is this the right thing to do? I don’t know. But that’s what I did.)
• Cook the cabbage for around 5 minutes, you’ll see the water start turning purple (it’s working!!!)
• Then, drop in some of the noodles and watch as they start to turn from an off-white color to purple as they absorb the color of the cabbage. Cook them for 5-10 minutes but make sure that you turn the water off once you drop them in. (Fancy!)
• Pick the cabbage leaves out of the water (I totally improvised this step)
• Once the noodles have soaked for around 10 minutes and have both cooked and absorbed the color, drain the noodles
• Place the purple noodles in a bowl or on a dish and squeeze some of the fresh lemon juice onto portions of the noodles that you want to turn pink.
• Watch as the lemon juice turns the noodles from pink to purple (science!)

It’s really that simple! By the end, you’ll have a pretty pink and purple mix of noodles. I’ll be the first to admit that my Unicorn Noodles came out far less appealing than The Indigo Kitchen’s dish and other remakes I’ve seen, but it was a fun science experiment. I think my version came out better than, say, a random Starbucks barista’s failed attempt at the Pink Drink and Purple Drink, but getting the perfect blend of color without turning all of the noodles pink was a little difficult. After 10 minutes in the pot, the noodles ended up being a little mushy and sticky, but at least the lemon juice added a little taste to an otherwise tasteless meal. I also tossed some sea salt on top. I tried eating this as a solo dish with some broccoli on the side, but I would definitely recommend using this as a fun and fancy side that you can use to impress your friends. In my opinion: it’s definitely not a stand alone meal

Make sure you head on over to the Indigo Kitchen’s website and check out the recipe. The blogger behind the website, A.J., even breaks down the chemical reaction that happens when the acidic lemon juice hits the purple noodles. He also has a ton of other healthy and vegan recipes and his story is both interesting and inspiring. Check him out!