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Introducing a super-fast and easy Chinese greens recipe that helps you prepare many types of green leafy vegetables. All you need is four ingredients and 10 minutes to serve a delicious and healthy side dish with your Chinese dinner. {Vegan, Gluten-Free Adaptable}

An Easy Chinese Greens Recipe

5 from 4 votes
Introducing a super-fast and easy Chinese greens recipe that helps you prepare many types of green leafy vegetables. All you need is four ingredients and 10 minutes to serve a delicious and healthy side dish with your Chinese dinner. {Vegan, Gluten-Free Adaptable}
You can use tamari to replace light soy sauce to make this dish gluten-free.
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Course: Side
Cuisine: Chinese
Keyword: homestyle
Servings: 2 to 4 servings
Author: Maggie Zhu

Ingredients

  • Pinch of salt and vegetable oil , to blanch greens (Optional)
  • 1 small batch (about 4 cups / 300 g) Chinese greens or other vegetables (yu choy, baby bok choy, choy sum, spinach, Chinese broccoli, broccoli, and more) , tough ends removed and cut to bite-size pieces if needed (*Footnote 1)
  • 2 tablespoons peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
  • 4 cloves garlic , coarsely chopped
  • 1 tablespoon light soy sauce (or soy sauce)

Instructions

  • Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add a pinch of salt and several drops of vegetable oil so that the blanched vegetables will look greener (optional), stir to mix well.
  • Add the vegetables. Blanch until just cooked through and still crisp. It takes 1 minute or so to cook tender vegetables such as spinach, baby bok choy, yu choy, chard, and choy sum. It takes 2 to 3 minutes for Chinese broccoli, broccoli, and broccolini.
  • Once the vegetables are done, immediately rinse them with cold tap water to stop cooking. Stop once the vegetables have cooled to a warm temperature and not completely cold. Drain, gently squeezing out as much water as you can, then set aside in a strainer to dry further. If you plan to serve them immediately, you can use paper towels to pat the vegetables dry.
  • When you’re ready to serve, plate the blanched vegetables with minimal overlapping. (*Footnote 2)
  • Heat the oil in a small saucepan or skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add the garlic, stirring constantly until the edges of the garlic turns golden (*Footnote 3). Then immediately pour the hot oil with the garlic over the plated vegetables.
  • Drizzle soy sauce on top of vegetables and serve immediately as a side dish.

Notes

  1. For Chinese greens such as yu choy, choy sum or Chinese broccoli, cut and discard the tough ends. You can peel off the larger leaves but keep the whole stem for a nice presentation. For Chinese broccoli, you should also use a knife to peel off the tough skin from the lower stem for a better texture (like the ones in this post). For cauliflower and broccoli, cut to bite-size florets.
  2. You should always drizzle the garlic oil and soy sauce right before you serve the dish. Soy sauce contains salt, and if you add it too early, the greens will lose water and the sauce in the dish will be diluted.
  3. The garlic will continue to cook in the hot oil’s residual heat, even after you pour the oil over the vegetables. It’s important to cook the garlic only until golden, and it’s totally OK if the garlic doesn’t brown evenly.

Nutrition

Serving: 1serving, Calories: 76kcal, Carbohydrates: 2.9g, Protein: 1.6g, Fat: 6.9g, Saturated Fat: 1.2g, Sodium: 275mg, Potassium: 210mg, Fiber: 0.8g, Sugar: 1g, Calcium: 85mg, Iron: 1mg