Here’s one of the simplest, tastiest vegetable stirfries you can do in less than five minutes. Wash and dry some fresh tatsoi, here roughly 4 inches in length, and cut in two or three. Slice several fresh shiitake mushrooms and some onions. Heat a wok over high heat, add some peanut or vegetable oil, saute the onions for a few seconds, followed by the mushrooms, add some oyster sauce or alternatively some soy sauce and xiaoshing rice wine, then the tatsoi and toss for a little longer until the leaves are just wilting. Season with some salt and pepper if necessary and serve with a nice bowl of white rice. Fresh, simple, easy. You can do this with any number of greens like pechay, spinach, etc. The mushrooms bring a pseudo meatiness so the absence of a protein is not obvious. Yum.
17 Responses
Easy, simple,delicious and healthy dish like this makes life easier. Thanks MM for all your great ideas!
Thank you MM for introducing new produce. I have never heard of this vegetable until your post. This will probably be good also made into salad.
Wow! This is really mouth watering. I have never heard of this vegetable. Thanks for sharing this to us.
is tatsoi similar to bokchoy?
Here’s another link to some tatsoi leaves for reference…
It’s rather curious how our vegetables (and herbs) seem to have a chinese ring to their names: tatsoi, takway, kangkong, petchay, talong, sitao, batao, wansoy, kuchay, luya… =)
The vegetable looks familiar, but I didn’t know it was called TATSOI … Your dish looks very appetizing!
been seeing a lot of this veggie here and i have been calling it ‘baby pechay’ he.he.he. never thought it is called something else…now, i will start calling it by its real name tatsoi..thanks mm.
Like kcmc, I didn’t know they were called tatsoi either. This sounds and looks yummy! I’ve been using the same ingredients for my stirfries, but I use togue/bean sprouts instead of tatsoi and other leafy vegetables. And I do sub meat with mushrooms every so often, but most of the time I go for chicken or beef strips.
We are geographically close to China and a congenial target for its population overflow if not for the mercantile instincts of its inhabitants even long before the arrival of Western colonists. It’s not surprising at all to find then their influence on our food culture. Dou/Tau , their word for (soy)bean, for example, can be heard in our own batao, sitao, gualantao, tokwa, taosi, etc. and cai, their word for leafy vegetable find its way into our pechay, kinchay, and Papa Ethan’s unchay and kuchay, etc.
As to talong, I do not know. Its equivalent in Mandarin is qiezi. Its enunciation is often coached out of people posing for photographs to elicit a facial expression similar to a smile.
Wow, this is one of those uncomplicated stirfries but very satisfying—almost a comfort food!
am bad pero if I need to put protein what would be best?
Britelite…protein add ons…say for instance 1 pound thinly sliced beef or pork(cut across the grain) marinated in a touch of sesame oil, salt/pepper, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1 tbsp. cornstarch (not much), a touch of dry sherry or rice wine, 1 1/2 tsp. ginger juice (optional), 1 tsp. sugar, 1 eggwhite. Mix that all up real good! Let it sit for about 30 minutes in the cooler. When ready to cook, heat up your wok till hot, add oil and whn it is smoking hot, stir fry the meat for about 3 minutes. Remove from wok and then stir fry your vegetables. When done, add the meat and give it a quick stir fry. Another protein…thinly sliced chicken breast marinated as above. If you are vegetarian….deep fried tofu!
Wow I have seen them in the chinese market in LA… I should try them…
This is just the sort of quick Asian-style stir fry I like to make when we need veg quick! Yummy!
that sounds like a very good side dish. thanks for adding the substitutions for tatsoi, because i don’t think i’ll ever find that here in germany :)
Can also be topped with slices of fried tofu.