(Chinese recipes, prepare authentic Chinese food now!)
Vegetables are healthy and great, but they are boring and hard to cook. Unlike protein (such as meat or fish), vegetables don’t have much flavor. In Chinese cooking, the key to cooking vegetable dishes lies in the creative use of side ingredients and sauces to bring out the taste and texture of vegetables.
Chinese love leafy greens: choy sum, kai lan, bok choy, gai choy, etc. In everyday Chinese meal, there is always a vegetable dish to complement other main dishes.
In Chinese or Cantonese restaurants, Chinese vegetables are often served two ways: brown sauce (flavored with oyster sauce) or white sauce–a cooking style I am sharing with you today.
I used choy sum (菜心/油菜心) for this recipe–a very typical Chinese vegetable that you can get in any Asian stores. Choy sum is great with oyster sauce, but an occasional white sauce is awesome, too.
If you love Chinese recipes and wish to learn more about cooking vegetables, do master this Chinese vegetable recipe as it’s very versatile and goes well with most Chinese leafy greens.
Here is my recipe for choy sum with white sauce. Bon appetit!
How Many Calories Per Serving?
This recipe is only 96 calories per serving.
Recipe: Chinese Vegetable (Choy Sum) with White Sauce
In Chinese or Cantonese restaurants, Chinese vegetables (choy sum) are often served two ways: brown sauce or white sauce--a recipe I am sharing with you today.
Ingredients
Ingredients:
- 6-8 oz. choy sum or Chinese leafy greens
- Some canned button mushrooms, sliced
- Some sliced carrots
- 6 medium-sized shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 1 inch ginger, peeled and sliced thinly
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
White Sauce:
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon fish sauce to taste
- 1/2 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
- 6 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon shaoxing wine
- 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
Directions
- 1Rinse the vegetables with water and drain the water dry. Mix the white sauce ingredients and set aside.
- 2Heat up a wok and add the cooking oil until it's smoking hot. Add ginger, stir-fry until light brown or aromatic. Add mushrooms and shrimp and do a few quick stir until the shrimps become half-cooked. Add vegetables into the wok and stir quickly. Transfer the white sauce mixture into the wok and continue to stir-fry until the sauce thickens. By then, the vegetables should be perfectly cooked, but not overcooked.
- 3Dish out and serve immediately.
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Chiaki
Like most Asian Americans in Oakland, CA, I spent most of my time in Chinatown. Now, Chinatown is gone (just a place where white kids play anime dress-up because Japan=China=Fantasy Cartoon Elf Land). I left for SoCal because of gentrification (which started here a year later), and there used to be a vegetables-in-white-sauce dish I used to get whenever I ate there. Those and Cantonese-style BAKED pork buns are the foods I miss the most.
I forgot to get fish sauce, but I just made the dish sans that. I’ll add fish sauce to the leftovers tomorrow. It was incredible, and I thank you for the recipie.
I see some comments about wanting vegetarian or variation in ingredients. The Chinatown Oakland dish has choy sam, western broccoli, carrots, snow peas, mushrooms. I don’t think cornstarch was used in the sauce–I originally thought it was a broth.
I’m not familiar with how to substitute for fish sauce (I grew up on Japanese and Italian cooking, tonight was my first time using fish sauce in a recipie).
Rasa Malaysia
Hi Chiaki, I am so happy you enjoyed my choy sum recipe. :)
Michele
Just finished cooking this and it was fabulous. Very authentic flavour, pretty too. I know I’ll make this over and over again.
Rasa Malaysia
Awesome! I am glad you love this Chinese vegetables recipe. :)
Edna Oneal
Wow. It looks delicious. I love vegetable side dishes. So, I will try to make these very soon. Your recipe will help me. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
Calvin
Hi there, is there a reason you omitted smashed or minced garlic here?
Absolutely love your work in your tremendous blog! Thanks for sharing your recipes with all of us.
Kristi
I cooked this today and it was very good. I didn’t have the wine so I skipped and our store only had Napa cabbage ( not sure if it is a Chinese vegetable) will make this again!
Diana
Thanks for the recipe! I’ve been looking for a recipe with the white sauce.
Jenn
Is this recipe for 1 serving? Can’t wait to try it!