This Spicy Sichuan Cabbage recipe is a delicious, hot and sour stir-fry featuring crunchy napa cabbage, fiery red chiles, and bright green onion. The perfect 20-minute side dish for Chinese food at home!
This side dish was one of the dishes we tried in China.
This dish is beautiful and delicious.
Our guide in Beijing ordered lunch for us and it included Spicy Sichuan Cabbage.
Cabbage is a wildly popular vegetable in the winter months in China, and there’s a ton of different ways you can prepare it.
I love the variety of textures in the stem and leaves of Chinese (aka “Napa”) cabbage. The thick stems maintain their crunch, while the leaves soak up the sauce and practically melt in your mouth in this spicy Napa cabbage dish.
I absolutely adore spicy food, so I made sure to include lots of red chilies in this version I made at home. You can adjust the number of chilies to your liking, or just don’t eat them!
For a quick and easy meal, serve this cabbage with rice or some basic noodles.
I just boiled some udon noodles (I know, not very Chinese, but it’s what I had!), drained them, then tossed them in a mixture of sesame oil, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, and a splash of rice vinegar.
Sesame seeds make a lovely garnish if you happen to have some!
Here’s the Recipe!
Spicy Sichuan Cabbage Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 3 tablespoons oyster sauce - sub hoisin for vegetarian
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons Chinese black vinegar - or balsamic
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 6 cloves garlic - chopped
- 4 scallions - sliced into 1" pieces
- 8 dried small red chiles
- 4 cups chopped Chinese - Napa cabbage stems
- 2 cups chopped Chinese - Napa cabbage leaves
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch together with 2 tablespoons of water. Set aside.
- In another bowl, whisk the oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar, and balsamic vinegar.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a large wok or skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic, scallions and chilies; stir-fry for 60 seconds, until fragrant.
- Turn the heat up to high and add the cabbage stems. Saute for 2-3 minutes, until slightly softened. Add the cabbage leaves and prepared sauce; cook for 1 minute, tossing frequently.
- Stir the cornstarch mixture and add it to the pan. Stir fry for 1 minute until the sauce has thickened. Serve hot.
Nutrition
Please note that this recipe might also be spelled as: spicy Szechuan cabbage recipe, spicy Chinese cabbage recipe, Szechwan cabbage recipe or Chinese spicy cabbage recipe.
