Stir-Fried Romaine Lettuce with Garlic Chili | Wok Wednesdays

This Stir-Fried Lettuce with Garlic Chili pretty much caused me to eat an entire head of romaine lettuce in one sitting. You see, if you stir fry lettuce, or any leafy vegetable such as lettuce or bok choy, it reduces in volume, making it seem like there is less, and concentrating and sweetening the inherent flavors of the vegetable.

If you add garlic, jalapeño, and and a simple sauce of shaoxing wine, soy sauce, and chicken broth, you end up with a pretty amazing tender crisp dish that you had no idea would be so tasty.


This bowl contains a one pound head of sliced romaine. Pretty cool how it reduces, right?

I've recently realized that Chinese food does not include too many raw foods. Most Chinese food is either steamed or stir-fried. Why not lettuce?

Lettuce also has significance related to the Chinese New Year, which is coming up. The Chinese New Year feast includes meaningful foods, and lettuce is one of them. In Cantonese, it actually means "growing money" (Grace Young).

Other meaningful foods include shrimp (happiness and laughter), eggs (fertility), mushrooms (growing fortunes), and scallions (intelligence), plus many others.

I'll take any luck I can get!

This stir-fried lettuce dish is actually a great alternative to salad during the winter months. Right? It's warming, really tasty, and the garlic and jalapeño add such a wonderful flavor to the dish.

Ingredients include romaine. garlic, jalapeño, a tiny bit of chicken broth, Shao Hsing rice wine, soy sauce, salt, and white pepper. That's it. It's amazing how the flavors come together.

Oh, by the way, for Chinese New Year, hard liquor symbolizes longevity. I'm on board with that. Check out the cocktail section of my recipe index.

While I've agreed not to post the actual recipe for this dish, you can find it on page 195 of Stir Frying to the Sky's Edge by Grace Young. If you'd like to join the Wok Wednesday fun, check out our recipe schedule.


You can also find the recipe here.