Chinese Cabbage

cooking

Published

January 13, 2025

Chinese cabbage (大白菜) is the most common vegetable in northern China, and the essential ingredient in Chinese home cuisines.

Simplest Cooking

Wash before use.

With medium heat, it tastes starchy and watery. It feels like a boiled thing instead of stir-fried, but it’s okay to eat.
With high heat (with wok heated through and oil almost smoking), it tastes crunchy and more like a stir-fry. Be careful with the smoke! (Check out this video tip by Chef Wang Gang)

Stir-fry Cabbage with Vinegar (醋溜白菜): stir-fry cabbage chunks in high heat with garlic and dried chilli. The sauce contains vinegar (a lot), soy sauce, salt, sugar, and starch.
Braised Pork with Vermicelli (猪肉炖粉条): a classic northeastern Chinese dish, also popular in my hometown. Stir fry pork belly in soy sauce and Chinese spices, add water and braise adding vermicelli and Chinese cabbage chunks.
Cabbage and Tofu Casserole (白菜豆腐煲): a simple and healthy home-style dish. Fry tofu (and pork belly slices, optional), bring them to a casserole, add water and simmer.
Emperor Qianlong’s Cabbage (乾隆白菜): a classic dish from Beijing, used to be a court dish in Qing Dynasty. A cabbage (leaf) salad with the sesame paste (麻酱), vinegar and sesame oil.
Cabbage in Supreme Soup (上汤白菜): boiled cabbage thin slices with the so-called supreme soup. To make the soup, stir-fry preserved egg (the key for milky soup), lean pork, add water, spam and Shimeji mushroom and simmer.

Sukiyaki (すき焼き): Japanese hotpot. Fry the onion and spring onion, then add the sukiyaki sauce (soy sauce, sugar, sake, mirin, and water) and boil everything. Chinese cabbage is one of the vegetable choices in the hotpot.

Jeongol (전골): Korean hotpot. Add the Jeongol sauce (minced garlic, soy sauce, Korean red pepper flake or paste, fish sauce, soup soy sauce, sugar and water) and boil everything. Chinese cabbage is one of the vegetable choices in the hotpot.

Cabbage Meatball Soup (白菜丸子汤): boil the meatball if not. Stir fry the cabbage heart a bit. Add the cabbage leaves and cooked cabbage heart to the soup. Seasoning with only salt and white pepper, maybe a bit vinegar, but no soy sauce. This is one of my mom’s favourite.
Spicy and Sour Cabbage Heart Salad (酸辣拌白菜心): pickle the cabbage heart in salt for several hours, dry thoroughly and mixed with vinegar, sugar and small amount of soy sauce. fry dried chilli in sesame oil and pour on top. This dish is invented by Shangshi Kitchen featured in some of his videos: Napa Cabbage Recipes, Sweet Sour Napa Cabbage who all follow the similar logic.

Chinese cabbages are very cheap in China, especially during winter.
Can be found in British supermarkets in the UK. For example, they are named as Chinese leaves in Sainsbury’s.