Chinese olive vegetable is a condiment made of olives, preserved mustard vegetables, salt, and oil. It contains a very high amount of umami flavor and is most commonly used in fried rice, stir-fries, or as a condiment (it's especially good mixed in with congee).
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How Do You Use It?
Chinese olive vegetable is slightly salty and has a deep earthy olive flavor. It contains an abundant amount of umami-ness and is very delicious. Since they are not as salty as regular olives, they can be used in larger amounts to flavor dishes. With that being said, they also taste nothing like olives as well.
You use this like any other condiment, both the oil and the leaves. When you are using them in stir-fries or fried rice, use your cooking utensil to break it up since it is prone to clump together. Occasionally you will find olive pits in the jars - remove them if you see them.
Where Can I Buy Chinese Olive Vegetable?
You find these in most Asian grocery stores in a plastic or glass jar in the aisles.
Alternatively, you can also find these online as well:
How To Store It
Once opened, you can store Chinese olive vegetables in the cool and dry pantry for 4-6 months but check the expiry date as well.
Recipes That Use Chinese Olive Vegetable
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Caroline says
Eating Olive Vagetable is it good for health?
Joyce Lee says
Hi Caroline!
I'm not sure if it's healthy since it is quite salty and it is also stored in oil, but it definitely gives all your dishes a flavour boost from the umami.
PattyCakes says
Thank you SO much for this article!! I was researching a lot for this because I'm pregnant and I'm craving it. So my question is, is it safe to eat this when pregnant?
Joyce Lee says
Hi PattyCakes!
This is really addictive stuff right? Hmmm, I am not sure if it's safe to eat during pregnancy and congrats!! 🙂
Mary Wong says
Photo of Chinese olive vegetable
Ethan says
Love this stuff, my wife's friend gave us some when we visted her(her and my wife are from neighboring provinces) and my wife never seen this before and we can't get enough of this
Joyce says
Yes! I am so addicted to this stuff too! It's incredibly tasty right? I swear there are weeks where I put this on everything, scrambled eggs, fried rice, stir fries heehee
Loges says
Im keen to make my own without any of the preservatives that are used. Can you please give me a recipe? Thanks heaps
Joyce says
I have actually not looked into making my own from scratch before but you have caught my curiosity now! 🙂 I have always just bought it but I definitely will need to look into making it from scratch. I'll let you know if I can come up with anything close! 🙂
Aniruddh says
The Netflix show 'flavorful origins' has a segment on this - including a basic recipe.
Joyce says
No way! I need to watch this!! Thanks so much Aniruddh for letting me know!! 😀 I'm so excited about this!
Deb Dabinet says
Took us weeks to track this down in Cairns, but was absolutely worth the effort. Tons of yummy fried rice and trying the beans next! Thanks so much for the information. Great site.
Joyce says
Oh yay! Isn't it absolutely amazing in fried rice? It gives such a nice umami well rounded flavor to it without being overly salt! I love this stuff! 🙂 I'm happy I can help!