Chinese Food

  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink
  3. Chinese Food

Ten Precious Vegetables

By Rhonda Parkinson, About.com

You will find many recipes using the phrase "ten precious" as the Chinese believe ten is a lucky number.

Serves 6 to 8 as a side dish, or 4 as a vegetarian main dish

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 4 Chinese dried black mushrooms
  • 1 block firm tofu
  • 1 cup mung bean sprouts
  • 1/2 cup canned bamboo shoots
  • 4 water chestnuts
  • 2 large carrots
  • 1 cube fermented bean curd
  • 1 teaspoon minced garlic
  • 1 rib celery
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • 6 tablespoons oil for stir-frying, or as needed
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, or as needed
  • 2 teaspoons granulated sugar, or as needed

Preparation:

Soften the dried mushrooms by soaking in hot water for 20 to 30 minutes. Squeeze out any excess water and chop. Drain the firm tofu and cut into cubes.

Rinse the mung bean sprouts and drain thoroughly. Rinse the bamboo shoots under warm running water, drain, and cut into 1-inch pieces. Peel and finely chop the water chestnuts. Peel the carrots and cut on the diagonal into 1-inch pieces. String the celery and cut into 1-inch slices on the diagonal. Mash the fermented bean curd with the minced garlic. Cut the red bell pepper in half, remove the seeds, and cut into cubes.

Heat the wok over medium-high to high heat. Add 3 tablespoons oil to the heated wok. When the oil is hot, stir-fry the dried mushrooms and remove from the wok. Stir-fry all the fresh vegetables separately, except for the mung bean sprouts. Add more oil to the wok as needed, and season the vegetables with salt and/or sugar as desired.

Add 1 tablespoon oil. When the oil is hot, add the mashed bean curd and garlic. Stir-fry until aromatic. Add the bean curd cubes. Add the cooked vegetables back into the wok. Stir in the mung bean sprouts. Stir-fry for 20 seconds. Allow to cool slightly before serving, or serve completely cooled.
User Reviews Write Review

Explore Chinese Food

About.com Special Features

Chinese Food

  1. Home
  2. Food & Drink
  3. Chinese Food
  4. Recipes by Ingredient
  5. Vegetables Recipes
  6. Ten Precious Vegetables Recipe - Chinese Vegetable Recipes - a Chinese Recipe for Ten Precious Vegetables

©2009 About.com, a part of The New York Times Company.

All rights reserved.