January 28, 2024

Stir-Fried Stem Lettuce Recipe with Peanuts

This stem lettuce recipe is the perfect combination of fresh, crisp, crunchy, savory, nutty, and spicy goodness. If you haven’t had stem lettuce (aka celtuce) before, you’re in for a treat. It tastes like cucumbers more cookable nutty cousin. Delicious! This recipe is easy to make, and the perfect side dish. So prepare your skillet or wok, peel your stem lettuce, and get ready to devour your veg.

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All About Stem Lettuce

Stem lettuce (also called celtuce, AA Choy, wosun, and Chinese lettuce) isn’t exactly what you think of when you think of lettuce. It has only a few small and unimpressive leaves topping a strange looking hefty green stalk. They kind of remind me of wonky looking mini palm trees. But you’re not eating stem lettuce for the lettuce- it’s all in the stem (but you can of course still eat the lettuce). After you peel off the skin, the stem lettuce is fresh, juicy, and crunchy. It tastes like a mix between celery, cucumbers, and a delicious light nutty flavor. It can be eaten raw or lightly cooked, in soups, stir-fries, salads, or pickles. Some people have used it as a gluten-free pasta substitute, similar to zucchini noodles. I am a relatively new stem lettuce consumer, but at the moment it is absolutely my favorite vegetable. Nutritionally, stem lettuce is low in calories and contains virtually no fat. It also boasts generous amounts of iron, calcium, manganese, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, vitamin C, and B vitamins. Stem lettuce should be eaten fairly quickly after bringing it home. In order to lengthen your storage a little, remove the leaves from the stalks. Place the stalks in an air-tight container or bag and store in the crisper drawer for about a week.

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How to Make This Stem Lettuce Recipe

The beautiful thing about this stem lettuce stir fry is its simplicity. You can make it in just a few minutes with a couple simple steps, and serve it alongside the rest of your meal for some added delicious vegetable crunch. The first step is to prepare your vegetables. Thinly slice the shallots and mince the garlic. To prepare the stem lettuce start by cutting the leaves off of the stalk. If your leaves are in bad shape you don’t need to use them, but if they’re looking good roughly chop them and set them to the side. Next use a vegetable peeler to remove the outer layer of the stalk. As you peel you’ll see that underneath the fibrous layer there’s a light green layer that is more translucent. That is the bit we’re going to want to eat. You’ll also want to chop off the bottom where it is likely dried out. We’re going to cut the stem lettuce stalk into matchstick shaped pieces. The trick in this is we’re going to start by cutting the stalk in diagonal slices. By cutting it on the diagonal you reduce the chance that your stem lettuce will be fibrous. Once you cut slices on the diagonal you can cut those slices into thin strips.

Now that we’ve done most of the work, we can get started with the cooking. Heat a little bit of oil in a large skillet. To that oil we’re going to add our garlic and shallots, as well as some Szechuan peppercorn for that signature mouth numbing quality. Give it a cook to allow the shallots to soften before turning the heat high to blister your stem lettuce along with some soy sauce and black vinegar. It just needs a couple minutes on that really high heat. After that you can transfer it to the dish you will be serving in and top it with chopped peanuts. For a delicious but satisfying meal serve this sauteed stem lettuce recipe along with some boiled rice and roasted tofu.

Stir-Fried Stem Lettuce Recipe with Peanuts

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 18 minutes

Stir-Fried Stem Lettuce Recipe with Peanuts

Ingredients

2 large stem lettuce (celtuce)
1 large shallot
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp. neutral flavored oil
1/2 tsp. ground Szechuan peppercorn
3 tbsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. black vinegar
2 tbsp. roasted peanuts, roughly chopped
Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions

Start by preparing your vegetables. Chop the leaves off the stem lettuce and roughly cut them. Peel the stalk, and cut into thin slices on a diagonal. Cut those thin slices into slices to achieve a julienne (match sticks). Thinly slice the shallots, and mince the garlic.
Heat the oil in a large skillet to medium heat. Add the garlic, shallots, and Szechuan peppercorn and cook for a few minutes until the shallots have softened. Turn the heat to high, and add the stem lettuce (both the match sticks and the leaves), soy sauce, and black vinegar. Cook for about three minutes, stirring as you cook. Remove from the heat, add salt and pepper to taste, and top with the chopped peanuts.

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