An Easy Chinese Broccoli Recipe (2024)

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The Chinese broccoli is steamed and served with stir fried mushrooms and a scrumptious brown sauce. It’s a quick and delicious way to put plenty of veggies on your dinner table. {Vegetarian, Gluten-Free Adaptable}

Chinese broccoli (芥蓝, Gai Lan) is a leaf vegetable with big, thick, flat leaves and fat stems. It is one of the most popular and widely used leafy vegetables in Chinese and Asian cuisines. The vegetable has a bitter note and is slightly sweet. My favorite part about Gai Lan is its texture. The stalk has a crunchy texture like asparagus, only juicier. The leaves are meaty and soak up plenty of sauce once cooked.

One of the easiest ways to prepare Chinese broccoli is to blanch it, then serve it with oyster sauce. You can see that recipe here. When I developed the recipe below, I used a slightly different approach – steam the Chinese broccoli in a large skillet, then use the same skillet to prepare the mushroom sauce. This method shortens the cooking time and allows you to cook everything in one pan.

I made a simple brown sauce instead of the usual oyster sauce, so you can enjoy it even if you follow a vegetarian diet. Of course, if you miss the more complex notes of the oyster sauce, you can use a tablespoon of oyster sauce to replace one tablespoon of soy sauce in the recipe.

Cooking notes

1. Try to buy smaller stalks (with diameters of about 1/2” or 1 cm) with fresh-looking, dark green leaves. The smaller-sized stalks of Chinese broccoli have a tenderer texture.
2. If the stalks of Chinese broccoli are very thick, split the stalk in half lengthwise, so it will take less time to cook through the stalk without overcooking the leafy part.
3. Use a peeler to remove the tough surface of the stalk. It creates a better mouthfeel.

That’s it!

Try out this simple veggie dish next time you see Chinese broccoli at the grocery store. It is so good that I wouldn’t mind serving it as a main dish for a light dinner 🙂

More easy veggie dishes

• Chinese 4-Ingredient Fried Cabbage
• Garlic Spinach in Chicken Broth
• Cabbage Glass Noodles Stir Fry
• Fried Potato, Eggplant and Pepper in Garlic Sauce
• 3-Ingredient Garlic Broccoli Stir Fry

If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @omnivorescookbook on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.