Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Rau Muong Xao Toi (Stir-Fried Water Spinach with Garlic)

I have a love-hate affair with rau muong (water spinach). I can't stand it because its cousin, the field bindweed, has taken up residence all over our backyard, but I love it because as a food, water spinach is just so healthy and delicious in every way. I love it in spiral strips in our bowls of bun rieu, but mostly, I love it sauteed with nothing but garlic and a little bit of fish sauce. My kids slurp these up.

Ingredients:
Water spinach, 1 pound
Garlic, 6 cloves minced or chopped
Fish sauce, 2-3 tablespoons
Oil for frying, 2 tablespoons



Wash the water spinach and cut off about 4-5 inches of the tougher parts of the stem, leaving the skinnier parts and the leaves behind. Let dry completely.

Heat up the oil in a wok to medium high heat and sautee the garlic to release the fragrance, about a minute.

Add in the water spinach and start stirring with a pair of tongs to evenly wilt the spinach. This will take about 3 minutes or so. Season with the fish sauce to taste and then remove, getting rid of the excess liquids left behind.

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20 comments:

  1. SinoSoulJune 2, 2009 at 2:53 PM

    or in Chinese: empty heart vegetables. I like to leave the leaves (no pun intended) and chop up the stalk, throw in some black beans, throw in chili peppers and stir fry that up.

    Thais also eat the same EXACT dish as well, tho seasoned additionally with lemon juice.

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  2. Ravenous CoupleJune 2, 2009 at 4:31 PM

    Love rau muong prepared this way! Great step by step post on how to make this.

    RavenousCouple: Cooking up Life

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  3. lisa (dandysugar)June 2, 2009 at 4:54 PM

    Yum, I love simple healthy dishes like this. Great photo!

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  4. shavedicesundaysJune 3, 2009 at 7:33 PM

    SinoSoul, that sounds good with the black beans too! Thanks for sharing.

    Ravenous Couple, thanks for stopping by and for the comment. Will visit your site soon.

    lisa, thanks, sometimes the simplest and healthiest dish are the tastiest too.

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  5. EatTravelEatJune 3, 2009 at 9:11 PM

    Simple and easy! We also like to cook our veggies this way too, but without the addition of fish sauce, and the addition of some water.

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  6. imjustatreeJune 4, 2009 at 11:25 PM

    looks good..will have to try this out...not sure if i've ever had water spinach before, let alone cooked veggies w/ fish sauce.

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  7. food-4totsJune 6, 2009 at 5:40 AM

    Spinach is our family's favourite. Normally I use blanching method to cook it. Some Chinese restaurants here use chicken stocks to braise w.spinach with century egg.

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  8. shavedicesundaysJune 9, 2009 at 9:28 AM

    ETE, yeah I use fish sauce in everything.

    HWMNBN, fish sauce is good. Very easy to do, try it.

    food-4tots, with century eggs? I've never had that before, sounds interesting.

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  9. MyCollegeKitchenJune 10, 2009 at 3:53 PM

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  10. MyCollegeKitchenJune 10, 2009 at 3:55 PM

    I love stir fried Rau Muong, I cook mine with soysauce and garlic. I've also seen different versions at Chinese restaurants, using fermented cubed tofus or shrimp paste as the cooking sauce. I love them all.

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  11. shavedicesundaysJune 13, 2009 at 9:30 AM

    MyCollegeKitchen, it definitely is versatile. I guess it tastes good with everything :)

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  12. tinysunblJune 15, 2009 at 3:22 PM

    Thanks so much for the recipe!

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  13. shavedicesundaysJune 23, 2009 at 8:40 AM

    To, you're very welcome!

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  14. JamesJune 23, 2009 at 12:22 PM

    Another empty check box on my "to cook" list... I love water spinach :)

    btw, your kids sound like great eaters! I was terrible at their age.

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  15. shavedicesundaysJune 27, 2009 at 10:25 AM

    James, yep we start them early and now they're tiny little things because they don't eat too much meat.

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  16. PaTanJuly 24, 2009 at 3:36 AM

    Fast, simple, easy, healthy and always delicious. Did you make a fire burn over the wok? Most of the time we did it in Thailand. Cos of heat up the oil in a wok to high heat, then when we add the water spinach...take care...it's fire burn. Just 2 minutes you get delicious and crispy stir fried water spinach.;)

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  17. shavedicesundaysJuly 25, 2009 at 12:35 PM

    Tan, no we don't do fireburn, but we do heat up the oil.

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  18. Tastes of HomeAugust 3, 2010 at 4:13 AM

    I love water spinach too...have not tried cooking with some fish sauce but will def try!

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  19. UnknownJanuary 18, 2011 at 11:39 AM

    Hi, I don't know how I ended up on your blog, I was looking for crab dip recipes on foodbuzz. I'm glad I found your blog. There's alot of Vietnamese recipes that I'd love to try.

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  20. californiaflameFebruary 23, 2011 at 9:23 AM

    AHA! So that's what this is! First time visitor, was looking for a hot pot recipe. Last week I was visiting a friend in Alhambra and always stop by one of the Asian markets on the way home. I like to pick out a totally unfamiliar vegetable or green each time and figure out how to cook it. Picked up something that looked sort of like spinach...(no English on the signs there, which makes it more fun)...got it home and tried a piece raw and indeed, it had the texture of spinach but a much milder flavor. I was planning to saute it with oil & garlic like regular spinach but then decided to do a hotpot as I also got some shaved chicken breast that trip I needed to use up. It was great! I left a few inches of stems on them and was pleasantly surprised they cooked down perfectly. New veggie to add to the list! And two new recipes to use with it. Thanks! Great photos & instructions, I'll be subscribing.
    Cheers!

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