Healthy Chinese style green vegetables stir fry—water spinach.
Water spinach also known as Chinese water spinach, rive spinach is the most popular leafy greens in hot summer days. It has long leaves and hollow stems so we name it “空(kōng)心(xīn)菜(cài)”, literally translated as hallow heart vegetable. It is grown in water or damp soil. The tender leave usually has a sweet and mild taste. Usually break the steam into 2 inch pieces along with the leaves. It can be used as a simple garlic stir fry or in stews and noodles.
We do not need too much condiments in this recipe other than garlic and dried chili peppers. When frying leafy vegetables, cooks usually work hard to reduce the cooking time. So firstly we need to heat up the wok and then add oil to heat. Try to move the vegetables around the wok so they can be heated by the hotness of the entire wok. We call the hotness of the wok “锅气”.
If you are familiar with Chinese style food planning and preparing, you may noticed that we promote a balance diet. My summer meal plan is one meat dish (fish, chicken, pork, beef and lamb) + one salad or vegetarian dish + one green vegetable stir fry + soup in winter or cool drink in summer. We eat water spinach twice per week because I love it but my husband loves edible amaranth. Heathy water spinach stir-fried with garlic. Chinese cooking has a different theory from western cuisine. We emphasize on the table balance other than balance of a single dish. So stir-fried leaf vegetable is an essential part of a classic Chinese meal.
- 250 g water spinach
- 2 garlic cloves , sliced
- 2 dried chili peppers cut into small sections;
- 2 tbsp. vegetable cooking oil
- 1/4 tsp. Sichuan peppercorn
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Discard the tough stems and keep the tender parts. Then break the water spinach into 10cm length sections. Wash carefully and drain.
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Heat oil in wok over highest fire, add dried chili pepper and heat until they turn dark red. Add garlic, fry for a short time (around 5-8 seconds). Add water spinach and salt, quickly fry for no more than 20 seconds until all of the vegetables get seared evenly. Add salt and mix well.
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Serve immediately. After around 8-10 minutes, the vegetables become dark due to oxidation process. So this should be the last to make dish if you are preparing a large meal.
Try to eat the vegetables within 15 minutes; otherwise, both color and taste will be destroyed.
This is my favorite Chinese vegetables. So simple to make but so tasty! I love it!
Me too! I am always eating water spinach or just on the way of purchasing some.
I always wondered what goes into a simple Chinese vegetable stir fry. I tried googling it once and came up with gazillions of useless hits. This is wonderful. This is exactly what I was looking for. I often make an Asian meat dish then scrabble around at the last minute for a side dish, I don’t know many Chinese side dishes that are easy to make for mid week meals. This is super! Thank you!
Hi Nagi,
This is an ideal side dish for me. Stir frying one vegetable dish is a must for me because of the nutrition balance. Glad to know that it helps and you like this too.
I love spinach! I love the idea of stir frying spinach with garlic and chili peppers. Yum!
Hi Julia, stir frying green vegetables with garlic and chili peppers is kind of childhood memory to me. Thanks for your sweet comment.
This looks so fresh and easy! I love the vibrant green color and simple flavors- pinned!
Thanks Sherri for stopping by and the sweet comment.
The local Chinese supermarket had some fresh Water Spinach today and as I was doing Atlantic Salmon I thought that it would go well with it. I used your recipe and it was delicious, thank you. I will certainly be doing it over and over again.
Thanks for your post. I was just given some Chinese Spinach. I fixed it like you said. So delicious. Now i am going to grow my own.
Hi Peterson,
Water spinach is just in season in China now. I cook it in almost every two days. It grows super fast in summer. Good luck and I hope you can enjoy them in the next summer.
My husband and i, make it a point to meet up in a chinese Dim Sum for lunch once in awhile in our daily busy day from work, the chinese water spinach in garlic and the Choy Sum in oyster sauce or chinese baby bok choy is a must for us! We both love easy chinese veggies steamed or stir fried. I will definitely try your recipe so made it easy and iml sure it will taste very good. Tnx for sharing your recipe.
Hi, Shirly
Thank you for your kind comments. Chinese veggies stir fried are necessary on our every daily meal. Hope you can make it successfully and share your result to me by then. ?
Thanks for this recipe. I tried this and it came out very tasty.
Thanks. We are just starting to eat water spinach here in China now too.
Hi, I miss where you add the sichuan peppercorns…At the same time as the dried chili’s? And do you then discard them? Thx, Ini
No, no need to discard them, just don’t eat them!