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    Home » Recipes » Asian Recipes

    Chinese Stir-Fried Cabbage with Ginger Soy

    Sep 7, 2022 • Author: Joyce • 5 Comments • This post may contain affiliate links.

    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe
    5 from 3 votes

    A simple quick and easy Chinese stir-fried cabbage side dish made by caramelizing cabbage on high heat to give it a bit of char but still retains a crisp texture and then tossed with a sweet ginger soy sauce.

    Sweet Ginger Soy Fried Cabbage
    Table of Contents
    • Ingredients and Substitutions
    • How to Make Stir-Fried Cabbage
    • More Recipes You May Like
    • Recipe Card

    On its own, I find cabbage doesn't have a lot of flavors except for a bit of sweetness when cooked, so I like to add a bit of char to it, which I find really brings out the nutty flavor to cabbage.

    When cooked, cabbage has a natural sweetness to it, so I enhanced the sweetness a bit more with a sweet ginger soy sauce which brings everything together quite well with that extra char flavor.

    There is no meat in this dish, since I chose to make this into a simple vegetable side dish but if you want to make this into a meal you definitely can add some meat in - leftover meats especially work great with this stir-fried cabbage recipe.

    Ingredients and Substitutions

    Sweet Ginger Soy Fried Cabbage
    • Cabbage - I like to use the standard green cabbage for this recipe.
    • Ginger/Garlic/Onion - These three trio will give a lot of extra flavor to this dish and should not be omitted.
    • Dashi powder - this is an optional ingredient for this fried cabbage recipe. It adds a bit more salt, and a slight smoky umami flavor but is not required. Although I highly recommend buying a small jar if you do a lot of stir fries or fried noodle dishes. A teaspoon of this adds quite a bit of umami flavor for any kind of stir-fried and noodle dishes. You can find this at any Japanese, or Korean grocery store. You can also find dashi powder online if you cannot find it locally.
    • Maple Syrup - I like to use maple syrup because it's a touch less sweet and it's what I usually have on hand, but you can substitute this with honey as well.
    • Soy Sauce - I like to use regular soy sauce for this recipe, but you can substitute it with low-sodium soy sauce as well.
    • Butter - Adding butter gives this dish a bit more flavor but it also helps the cabbage char against the pan and gives it a nice caramelization to it.

    How to Make Stir-Fried Cabbage

    How I Like to Remove the Cores of Cabbages

    Personally, I find cutting cabbage to be a bit of a pain because of how tough it is to cut through and how wobbly it can be but once I get the core out - cutting it is a breeze.

    Sweet Ginger Soy Fried Cabbage

    To cut out the core, I like to first cut the cabbage in half. Once I cut it in half I cut an upside 'V' out of the bottom to remove the core. Once the core is out, I usually like to cut the cabbage halves in half again before slicing for smaller bite-sized cabbage leaves.

    Do You Really Need to Grate the Ginger?

    No, you don't have to grate the ginger, but if don't then you should keep the ginger intact in larger slices.

    Grating the ginger helps spread the ginger flavor into the cabbage and the sauce without biting into large chunks of ginger (which can be overpowering) while you are eating the cabbage.

    Sweet Ginger Soy Fried Cabbage

    Not everyone has a grater small enough to grate ginger though, so to work around that you can slice the ginger into large slices. That way, you can still brown the ginger in the beginning with the garlic to infuse the oils with ginger flavor and when you are finished cooking, you can easily fish out and discard the large ginger pieces.

    Caramelizing Cabbage Without Burning the Onions

    Caramelizing the cabbage and giving it a bit of char gives this dish a bit more flavor, but onions cook and burn a lot faster than cabbage so my workaround to charring the cabbage without burning the onions is to add the onions after the first round of cabbage charring. Don't worry, the onions will cook along with the cabbage during the cabbage's second round of charring. (There are 2 rounds if charring in total)

    Sweet Ginger Soy Fried Cabbage

    More Recipes You May Like

    • Easy Japchae (Korean Glass Noodles Stir Fry)
    • Easy Korean Cucumber Salad (Oi Muchim)
    • Pad Woon Sen (Thai Glass Noodle Stir Fry)
    • Lao Crispy Rice Salad (Nam Khao)

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    Recipe Card

    Close up for ginger soy stir-fried cabbage

    Chinese Stir-Fried Cabbage with Ginger Soy

    A simple quick and easy Chinese stir-fried cabbage side dish made by caramelizing cabbage on high heat to give it a bit of char but still retains a crisp texture and then tossed with a sweet ginger soy sauce.
    Print Pin Rate Save Recipe Saved!
    Course: Side
    Cuisine: Asian, Chinese, Fusion
    Prep Time: 15 minutes
    Cook Time: 7 minutes
    Total Time: 22 minutes
    4 Servings
    5 from 3 votes

    Recipe Notes

    • Grating the ginger helps spread the ginger flavor throughout the dish so that you don't bite into chunks of ginger (which can be very overpowering). If you can't grate the ginger, cut it into slices instead. Once you are done cooking, you can easily remove the ginger slices before serving the cabbage.

    Ingredients
     

    • ½ cabbage
    • 1 onion
    • 2 cloves garlic
    • 2 cm x 2cm ginger (grated)
    • ½ tablespoon butter

    Sauce

    • 1 teaspoon hondashi dashi powder (optional)
    • 1 teaspoon warm water (to dissolve the dashi powder)
    • 3 tablespoon soy sauce
    • 2 tablespoon maple syrup (or honey)
    Prevent your screen from going dark

    Instructions
     

    Preparation

    • Cut the cabbage in half, and then cut out the core by cutting an upside V around the cabbage core. Slice the cabbage into slices and set it aside for later.
      Alternatively, if you like larger pieces of cabbage, you can also hand shred them into small pieces as well instead of cutting it.
    • Thinly slice the onion into ¼ inch slices and set it aside
    • Peel the garlic and finely chop it and set it aside
    • Grate the ginger and set it aside (if you don't grate the ginger, cut them into slices instead, so you can remove them later before serving)

    Making the Sauce

    • In a small bowl combine warm water, maple syrup (or honey), soy sauce, and Hondashi dashi powder (optional) and set aside

    Putting It Together

    • In a large frying pan, add a bit of oil and ½ tablespoon of butter and set the stove to medium high heat
    • Add the garlic and ginger and brown it for approximately 1 minute until it is slightly brown and fragrant. Make sure to move it around so it doesn't burn
    • Add the cabbage into the frying pan and mix everything together.
      Flip the garlic and ginger from the bottom of the pan and set them on top of the cabbage so that they don't burn
    • Add the onions on top of the cabbage
    • Let the cabbage char in the pan by letting it cook and not touching it for about 1-2 minutes
    • Once 1-2 minutes pass, stir the cabbage around and mix the onions into it. Once it is well mixed, let it sit untouched again for another 1-2 minutes to let the onions and cabbage char again
    • Once the 1-2 minutes has passed again, add in the sauce and mix the cabbage well with the sauce and let the cabbage soften by letting it cook for another 1 minute
    • Turn off the heat and plate it and enjoy with rice or noodles.
      (If you used sliced ginger, remove the ginger slices)

    Nutrition

    Serving: 1cup | Calories: 89kcal | Carbohydrates: 17g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.4g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 4mg | Sodium: 550mg | Potassium: 310mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 156IU | Vitamin C: 44mg | Calcium: 70mg | Iron: 1mg

    *Nutritional information is calculated using online tools and is an estimate*

    Did you try this recipe?I'd love to hear from you! Let me know how it was and consider giving it a rating! Tag me on Instagram with @pupswithchopsticks to show me!
    Made with ♡ by Joyce | Pups with Chopsticks

    Disclaimer: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. While I appreciate the support - please try to buy your items locally if possible to support your local shops (chances are they are cheaper locally as well!)

    More Asian Recipes

    • Chinese Scrambled Eggs and Shrimp
    • Chinese Stir-Fried Ketchup Shrimp
    • Miso Butter
    • Canh Chua (Vietnamese Sweet and Sour Soup)

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Josie says

      January 10, 2023 at 6:33 pm

      5 stars
      This recipe is with simple ingredients, and of course, fast cooking and very healthy too. Recommended dish👍

      Reply
      • Joyce Lee says

        January 11, 2023 at 1:39 pm

        Hi Josie!

        I'm so happy you liked it!

        Reply
    2. Carol says

      September 07, 2022 at 1:33 pm

      These nutrition measurements don’t make sense. Serving 1g?
      I’d like to try this recipe but I can’t unless I know the nutrition facts. Specifically serving size, calories and carb count

      Reply
      • Joyce Lee says

        September 07, 2022 at 2:34 pm

        Hi Carol,
        Sorry about that, I didn't notice that error. I corrected it now. It's about 1 cup per serving and this recipe makes about 4 serving size (as a small side dish, not as a meal).
        Hope this helps, and hope you enjoy it!

        Reply
    3. Lee Thayer says

      May 03, 2019 at 6:48 pm

      5 stars
      I made this yesterday as a side dish withe stuffed fish, absolutely perfect fried cabbage, thank you Joyce, for the great recipe.

      Reply

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