Sautéed Mountain Yam is cooked in the simplest manner, making the best of this unique ingredient. Raw mountain yam is slimy but when sliced and sautéed, the sliminess disappears and the texture is replaced by the pleasant soft crunchiness. (Watch the video)
If you are a vegetarian, use a vegan butter to sauté the yam.
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.
- 300-350g Chinese mountain yam (note 1)
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- Pepper (optional)
- Chives cut into short pieces (note 2)
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Peel mountain yam and slice it into 1cm/⅜" thick discs (note 3).
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Heat a large frying pan (note 4) over medium heat and melt the butter.
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Put the yam discs in the pan without overlapping.
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Cook for 2½ – 3 minutes until the bottom of the yam pieces are browned.
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Turn the yams over and cook further 2½ minutes until the bottom of the yams becomes browned.
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Sprinkle pepper (if using) over the yam and add soy sauce.
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Quickly turn the yam pieces over to coat both sides of the yam pieces with the soy sauce, then remove the pan from the heat (note 5).
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Pile the sautéed yams on a serving plate, scatter the chopped chives over it.
1. Chinese Mountain Yam is called ‘nagaimo’(長芋) in Japanese. It is best suited to today’s dish. But if you can find only a thin mountain yam or an odd-shaped yam such as, you can still use it by cutting it into batons.
See the post for more details about Mountain Yam varieties that are commonly used in Japanese cooking.
2. Instead of chives, you can use finely chopped green onion or roasted seaweed shreds (kizami nori).
3. The flesh of mountain yam is very slippery. I use a piece of kitchen paper to hold the peeled yam root. That stops the yam root slipping from your hand when holding it (see the step-by-step photo and the video).
4. I used a 23cm/9" frying pan that snuggly fit in all the yam pieces. If you only have a small pan, you’ll have to cook them in two batches.
5. You can even turn off the heat as soon as you add soy sauce because the residual heat of the pan continues to condense the soy sauce. Prolonged heating will burn the soy sauce and make it bitter.
6. Nutrition per serving, assuming 2 servings.
serving: 165g calories: 178kcal fat: 5.9g (9%) saturated fat: 3.7g (19%) trans fat: 0.2g polyunsaturated fat: 0.3g monounsaturated fat: 1.5g cholesterol: 15mg (5%) sodium: 503mg (21%) potassium: 779mg (22%) carbohydrates: 30g (10%) dietary fibre: 0.1g (0%) sugar: 0g protein: 3.3g vitamin a: 4% vitamin c: 0% calcium: 1.3% iron: 4.2