A simple and easy-to-make Chinese stir-fried long beans with minced pork and Chinese olive vegetables. Flavorful, quick, and goes great mixed with rice for a quick meal.

Table of Contents
Chinese long beans (which are also known as yard long beans, snake beans, and asparagus beans) are delicious, especially when stir-fried with minced pork and seasoned with preserved olive vegetables. It's a classic recipe, easy to put together, and can be made as a quick meal when eaten with white rice.
What really makes this recipe extra delicious is the umami flavor which is naturally added in by using preserved olive vegetables to dry fry the yardlong beans. Did I mention they are quick to make as well?
If you have extra leftover Chinese yard beans, you can also try my Thai Basil Chicken (Pad Krapow Gai) recipe, which uses diced or ground chicken, yardlong beans, Thai basil and fish sauce.
What Does Dry-Fried Mean?
Dry fried is just a fancy way of saying stir fry in a pan with REALLY hot oil on high heat. The method is similar to deep-frying without excessive oil. Since the wok is really hot, it cooks the food really fast.
When you are dry frying, you need to remember to work fast and always keep the food moving so that it doesn't burn. You also always want to work with small bite-sized pieces as well.
I like to start off my dry frying by browning some ginger and garlic to flavor the hot oil before adding in the veggies or meat.
Are Long Beans the Same as Green Beans?
The main difference between long beans and green beans is the texture and the length of the bean. Long beans can grow upwards to 2 feet long, whereas green beans stay around 3-4 inches.
Green beans are also a lot more tender, crispier, and have a crunch to them, especially when eaten raw, whereas long beans have a tougher exterior and are chewier when eaten raw.
When cooked, long beans have a slightly sweeter flavor than green beans, which have a more green flavor.
That being said, for this recipe, you can still substitute long beans with green beans if you are having a hard time finding them.
Ingredients
- Chinese Yardlong Beans - Although yardlong beans have a different texture than green beans, you can still easily substitute them with green beans if you cannot find them at the Asian grocers.
- Chinese Cooking Wine - You can use both Chinese cooking rice wine and Shaoxing wine for this recipe, which you can get from an Asian grocery store or online. If you cannot find it, you can substitute it with dry sherry.
- White Pepper - If you cannot find white pepper, omit it from the recipe. Do not substitute it with black pepper. Black pepper is much stronger in flavor and will overpower this dish.
- Chinese Olive Vegetables - this is an umami-packed condiment made from olives, mustard vegetables, oils, and salt. It tastes very different than the typical olives and is usually found in any Asian grocery store by the pickled ingredients.
How to Cook Chinese Long Beans
Preparation
- If you are using Chinese yardlong beans for this recipe, you will have to cut them up into smaller pieces so that they are easier to cook and eat.
Cut off the tips and discard them, chop the rest of the beans up into 2-inch-length pieces.
- Marinate the ground pork and set it aside.
- Finely mince the garlic and ginger and set it aside
- In a wok, set your stove to high heat and add about 3 tablespoons of oil and wait for it to get really hot.
Cooking Everything Together
- Add in the ginger first to brown it, once it gets golden brown, add in the garlic and brown for a few seconds.
- Add in your ground pork and stir fry it. Use your spatula to break up the pork into small pieces. You want to cook it until it is brown, so if water starts to come out of the pork, continue to cook it until all the water evaporates. Add in the dark soy at the end and mix it into the pork
- Remove the pork onto a clean plate and reheat the wok again with some oil
- Add the yardlong beans and stir fry them until they are blistered.
- Add in soy sauce and the cooked minced pork and olive vegetables and stir fry it for a few minutes
- Serve with some white rice and enjoy!
FAQs
I have tried parboiling and cooking them directly in the pan and there wasn't a big difference, so I do not parboil beans whenever I stir fry them to save some time and to keep the greens crisper.
Some Recipes You May Like
- Roasted Okra
- Sweet Ginger Soy Fried Cabbage
- Honey Glazed Pan-Fried Brussels Sprout
- Charred Lemon Garlic Edamame
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Recipe Card
Dry-Fried Long Beans and Minced Pork with Olive Vegetables
Recipe Notes
- You can substitute green beans for yardlong beans
Ingredients
- 1 bundle yardlong beans (Chinese long beans)
Ground Pork Marinade
- 1 lb ground pork
- ½ tablespoon white pepper
- 1 tablespoon Chinese rice cooking wine
- 1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
Sauce Ingredients
- 1 ½ tablespoons Chinese olive vegetable
- 1 tablespoons soy sauce
- ½ tablespoon dark soy sauce
- 2 cloves garlic (finely minced)
- 3 slices ginger
Instructions
Preparation
- In a medium bowl, marinate the ground pork with 1½ tablespoons of soy sauce, white pepper, cooking wine and mix well and set aside.
- Wash the beans under cold water and cut off the ends and discard them.Chop the beans up into bite-sized pieces, I like to cut them into 1-2 inch length pieces.
- Finely mince the garlic and slice the ginger and set it aside.
Cooking the Chinese yardlong beans
- In a wok or frying pan, set the stove to high heat and add about 3 tablespoons of oil
- Once the oil is hot, add in the ginger and toast it until it has turned golden. (approximately 1-2 minutes)
- Add in the garlic and brown for 30 seconds
- Add in the ground pork and break it apart while cooking it. Cook it until it is fully cooked and brown (approximately 10-15 minutes) If water comes out of the pork, keep cooking it until all the water has evaporated and the pork has a chance to brown.
- When the pork is done, stir in the dark soy sauce remove the pork from the wok onto a clean plate and set it aside for later. You can also remove the ginger slices as well and discard them.
- Re-heat the wok or frying pan to high heat with 1-2 tablespoons of oil.
- Once the oil is hot, add in the beans (be careful if your beans are wet they may splatter)
- Spread out the beans so they get as much surface area to touch the pan as possible so that they can blister more quickly. Cook for approximately 5 minutes until they are blistered and soft.
- Add in 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and continue to stir fry for 20 seconds
- Add back in the cooked pork and add the olive vegetables as well. Stir fry for a few more minutes and plate it.
- Serve hot with a side of rice or noodles
Nutrition
*Nutritional information is calculated using online tools and is an estimate*
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Juventia says
Such a good post Joyce. I learned a lot. Never knew that you have to remove the meat first before putting the veggies in to cook the veggies faster. I will try that for my next stir-frying session.
Joyce says
Thanks Juventia! 🙂 Aye, with most quick Asian stir fries you usually flash fry the meat first and by removing the meat after flash frying it, it allows the pan to get really hot again so you can quickly cook the veggies! 🙂 I'm glad I can help! 🙂
Josie says
This DRY-FRIED LONG BEANS AND MINCED PORK WITH OLIVE VEGETABLES dish is healthy with veg. beans and olive oil. Very tasty and easy to cook for dinner especially when I don't have much time after work. Thanks to bring it up. ):
Joyce says
Happy I can help! 🙂
cookilicious says
Wow that looks so good. Would like to make a vegetarian version of this recipe for dinner soon. Thanks for sharing.
Maggie says
Looks so good. Love green beans. Pinning for later.
Tara says
Yum! Such a wonderful weeknight meal. My family would love this. Thanks for including the difference between par-boiled beans and breaking down the steps.
Joyce says
I honestly couldn't tell the difference! So I'm not sure if it's really worth dirtying up more dishes for! 😀
Anjali says
I'm so intrigued by the olive vegetables! They sound delicious!
Sarah Newman says
OMG those beans look incredible! I didn't know what dry frying meant - thanks for explaining!