Chinese Greens Stir-fry

My Chinese Greens Stir-fry is made with Chinese mustard greens and strips of aburaage. Instead of adding garlic and ginger, which is used in many Chinese stir-fry dishes, I used a very small amount of dashi-based seasoning. This is what gives this dish a more authentic Japanese flavour.

Today’s dish is very quick to cook just like most stir-fry dishes. It is a perfect side dish when you need one more item to compete your meal.  Chinese greens and tofu products are a good match too.

I just realised that I already posted a similar dish, Stir-fried Choy Sum with Deep-fried Tofu. The ingredients used in this recipe and today’s recipe are easily interchangeable.

What is in My Chinese Greens Stir-fry

The main ingredient is Chinese mustard greens, but I added sliced aburaage pieces to give a different dimension to the flavour and texture. Aburaage also goes well with the dashi-based flavour.

• A bunch of Chinese mustard greens (gai choy, 芥菜 )
• 2 sheets of aburaage, cut into 1cm/⅜” wide strips.
• Oil
• Shiro dashi
• Light soy sauce or normal soy sauce

In Japan, you can buy a bottle of vegetarian shiro dashi for vegetarian dishes, but not in Sydney. If you can find it, use vegetarian shiro dashi to make today’s dish vegetarian.

Alternatively, you can replace shiro dashi and soy sauce with konbu tsuyu (昆布つゆ), which is a vegetarian version of condensed Japanese noodle soup base.

The konbu tsuyu that I bought from the Asian grocery store close by (photo below) was very sweet and I needed to change the proportion of shiro dashi and soy sauce to make it a similar taste. I included the details of how to do this in the notes section of the recipe card.

How to Make My Chinese Greens Stir-fry

Stir-fry is fundamentally a three-step cooking process – chop, cook, and season. Today’s stir-fry is no exception.

1. Cut the mustard green leaves into 5-7cm/2-2¾” long pieces. Separate the thick stalk portions from the soft leaf portions.
2. Stir-fry the stalk pieces first, then add the leaves.
3. When the leaves start wilting, add aburaage strips.
4. When the mustard leaves are all wilted, turn the heat off.
5. Add shiro dashi and soy sauce, then mix quickly.

I gave a wide range of the length you need to chop the mustard greens to because it really doesn’t matter much as long as they are not too short or too long.

Each stem of Chinese mustard greens is short but often thick. Each leaf grows out of it in a staggered way from the bottom of the stem.

When preparing the Chinese mustard leaves, I remove the leaves off the stems, leaving the inner most short leaf attached to the stem.

The seasoning evaporates quickly because of the residual heat of the pan. So, you need to mix very fast to evenly spread the flavour over the vegetables.

Chinese Mustard Greens Stir-fry is a quick and easy side dish, and very tasty. It tastes good even if the dish is not hot, which makes it perfect for a bento box.

Yumiko

5 from 1 vote

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Chinese Greens Stir-fry

Prep Time

5 mins

Cook Time

5 mins

Total Time

10 mins

 

My Chinese Greens Stir-fry is made of Chinese mustard greens and strips of aburaage. Instead of adding garlic and ginger, which are used in most Chinese stir-fry, I use a very small amount of dashi-based seasoning, which gives this dish a more authentic Japanese flavour.

Don't forget to see the section 'MEAL IDEAS' below the recipe card! It gives you a list of dishes that I have already posted and this recipe that can make up a complete meal. I hope it is of help to you.

Recipe Type: Side

Cuisine: Japanese

Keyword: chinese mustard greens recipe, Chinese stir-fry, gai choy recipe, Japanese stir-fry, stir-fry recipe

Serves: 2

Author: Yumiko

Ingredients (tbsp=15ml, cup=250ml)

• 250g/8.9oz Chinese mustard greens (gai choy, note 1)
• 2 sheets aburaage
• 2 cups boiling water
• 1 tbsp oil
• 2 tsp shiro dashi (note 2)
• 1 tsp light soy sauce (or normal soy sauce)

Instructions

1. Remove the leaves from each stem of the Chinese mustard greens, leaving the innermost small leaf attached to the short stem. If the stem is thick, halve it vertically.

2. Cut each leaf into 5-7cm/2-2¾" long, grouping the thin leaf portions and the thick stalk portions separately.

3. Pour 2 cups of boiling water over aburaage to remove excess oil, then squeeze water out. Cut aburaage crosswise into 1cm/⅜" wide strips.

4. Add oil to a frying pan over high heat and stir-fry the stalks of the Chinese mustard greens for about 1 minute until the outside of the leaves starts browning.

5. Add the leaves to the pan and continue to stir-fry until about half of the leaves start wilting.

6. Add aburaage strips to the pan and stir.

7. When all the leaves are wilted, turn the heat off.

8. Add shiro dashi and soy sauce to the pan and mix well quickly (note 3).

9. Serve in a large plate to share or individually.

Recipe Notes

1. Gai choy has a peppery, pungent taste, but not as strong as mustard greens. The taste of young gai choi is even milder.

You can substitute gai choy with other Chinese greens, such as choy sum, that do not have a strong flavour. If the ingredient has a dominant flavour, the seasoning of today’s stir-fry may be lost.

2. If you are a vegetarian, you can use vegetarian shiro dashi if you can buy it (I haven’t seen it yet where I live).

Alternatively, you can buy a konbu tsuyu that is more accessible (see the photo in the post). Konbu tsuyu is a vegetarian version of condensed Japanese noodle soup base. If your konbu tsuyu is very sweet (which is often the case) you have to replace 2 teaspoons of shiro dashi with 1 teaspoon konbu tsuyu and increase the soy sauce to 2 teaspoons.

3. Even if the heat is turned off, the seasoning liquid evaporates very quickly because the quantity is so small and the frying pan is still quite hot. If you don’t mix well, the flavour will not be evenly spread.

4. Nutrition per serving.

serving: 163g calories: 174kcal fat: 13g (20%) saturated fat: 1.3g (7%) trans fat: 0.1g polyunsaturated fat: 4.5g monounsaturated fat: 6.4g cholesterol: 0mg (0%) sodium: 211mg (9%) potassium: 533mg (15%) carbohydrates: 8.5g (3%) dietary fibre: 5.1g (20%) sugar: 2.4g protein: 9.1g vitamin a: 76% vitamin c: 146% calcium: 119% iron: 19%