I like spicy food, though you’ve probably guessed it already through the name of the blog
Today, I want to share this recipe with you. This is not your typical boring vegetable dish, it’s bold, hot and satisfying. I guarantee you’ll fall in love with it.
Let me start by introducing the ingredients:
Besides cabbage, you’ll need dried chili pepper (for the heat), peppercorns (source of a numbing sensation), garlic and seasonings made by combining soy sauce, Chinese vinegar, sugar and salt.
With these ingredients and the cooking tips I am going to share below, it is really easy to make this well-known Szechuan recipe at home.
Tip one: Dried chili and peppercorn are easy to be burned, to avoid that, try adding them into cold oil before turning the heat and use low heat to sauté.
Tip two: After the cabbage has turned soft, pour the seasoning sauce in and do a quick stir fry (about one minute) under high heat to finish.
We call this spicy Szechuan cabbage stir fry “the rice finisher” in our house.
Because once start eating, it’s hard to put down the chopsticks. One bite after another, I can usually finish an entire bowl of rice in just a couple of minutes.
Recipe for spicy Szechuan cabbage stir-fry is at the end of this post, happy cooking!
- 1 medium head of green cabbage (about 1.5 pounds)
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 3 dired chili peppers, cut into small pieces with a kitchen scissor
- 1 teaspoon szechuan peppercorns
- Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- ½ tablespoon Chinese vinegar
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Halve the cabbage with a knife and remove the core; tear the leaves into 3-inch wide pieces with hand (I prefer leaving the stems out and only keep the tender leaves)
- Whisk together soy sauce, Chinese vinegar, sugar and salt in a small container, set aside.
- Pour oil into the pan, add in the dried chili pepper and szechuan peppercorns, turn to low heat and sauté a minute or until fragrant.
- Toss in the garlic and sauté until fragrant under low heat.
- Add in the cabbage and turn to medium heat, cook about 3 minutes or until soft.
- Give the sauce (previously set aside) a light stir before adding into the pan, stir to mix well, cook for a minute under high heat or until the seasoning's evenly distributed.
- Transfer to a plate and serve!
2. To avoid burning the peppercorns and chili peppers, add them in with cold oil and cook under low heat until fragrant.
3. After peppercorns and chili peppers have released their flavor into the oil, you can discard them at this step.
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25 comments
We made this for dinner today, just served it with some rice. And it was super delicious! So I wanted to say thank you for sharing this recipe! Even though it was “just cabbage”, it came out very flavourful and satisfying. Thank you again 🙂
You are very welcome! I am glad you guys liked it.
I am a blessed follower of Han. Every time she shares a recipe, I don’t at all hesitate to try it because Her methods are easy to execute. Love you!!
Hi Diana,
Thank you for your trust in me. It’s my pleasure to share easy-to-make recipes with you guys. You are the BEST!
Oh my God. This is Splendid!! Can’t stop myself from preparing it right now. Hopefully, I will make it the way it should be.
I am sure you will. Happy cooking! 🙂
Normally, I avoid spicy food but, on my mother’s wish I did it. Its aroma forced me to have a bite and after that I couldn’t control myself and ate half of the bowl myself in one go.. lolzzzz. Thanks for sharing it Han!
You’re very welcome 🙂
Going to try today as we got two heads of cabbage in farm shares. Thanks!
You’re welcome 🙂 Happy cooking!
Can I used szechuan sauce/chutney instead of peppercorn ?
What is a dired chili pepper? I asked at a Chinese grocery store and the laughed at me,
Hi Bertha,
Here’s a link from Amazon for dried chili pepper, hope this helps!
LOVELY. thank you! for my family: used 1/2 half purple cabbage (cooked first, as it is much harder/denser than the nappa cabbage) in addition to a half nappa, about 1 tsp of minced fresh ginger, some red pepper flakes (1/2 tsp?), about 2 tsp of go-chu-jang korean spicy sauce, a bit more soy sauce during cooking, 1 tsp shrimp paste, about 1 green onion’s worth of the white part of the green onion (at the end of cooking) + some red pepper flakes here and there.
Oops – also used 2 carrots, very finely sliced to align with cabbage slices, + 1/8 yellow onion in slivers, and a mini pinch of cumin seeds during sautee of onions and pepper
This is a great recipe. Easy to make and test so goood.
I love this simple yet delicious plate, thanks for sharing it… a question about the cabbage: I use Taiwan cabbage that has larger leaves and a sweeter taste: does your recipe your just regular green cabbage?
Just regular, but I think both would work!
I loved the recipe, my family devoured it! This may be a stupid question but can you infuse the oil with the peppercorns without crushing them? This was my first time using Szechuan peppercorn and they came whole. I did crush them for my first try but wanted to know if that was necessary. Thanks in advance and again for the great recipe
Crushing just helps the flavor to come out better, there’s also peppercorn oil available in the supermarket these days, I find that pretty convenient as well.
I’ve made this dish three or four times already; I can’t stop eating it once I’ve taken that first bite!!
I made this dish last night and plan to make it again today. Delicious! This is my first recipe from this blog. I can’t wait to try another. Thank you Emma for your recipes and inspiration.
Music to my ears! My pleasure!
I just made this and loved it. I added a little Szechuan pepper oil to spice it up a little more.. Will keep this one for sure.. Thanks.
Woohoo! Glad it’s a hit!