Stir-fried Romaine with Chili and Garlic

Stir-fried romaine lettuce?

It may sound strange but this is a delicious way to use romaine lettuce as a side dish. The romaine is quickly stir-fried over very high heat with garlic, chili and a touch of Sichuan peppercorn. The resulting lettuce is smoky, garlicky, spicy and still crunchy. The nice thing is it only take about 10 minutes to prep and cooks in about 2 minutes! You should definitely give this dish a try.

The trick to making this dish successful is cooking it over the highest heat possible. The licks of flame and slight char you achieve while cooking this way will add a pleasant smoky flavor to the dish. A wok burner is preferred but you can get very good results on a home stove. The trick is to get a heavy, wide sauté pan preheated over very high heat before cooking. This will “pre-load” the pan with heat so that it does not cool down as soon as you add the lettuce. Cook hot and fast and you will be rewarded with a really delicious side dish that you can put together any day of the week.

Goes well with:

• Stir-fried Shredded Pork with Hot Peppers
• Steamed short grain rice

Stir-fried Romaine with Chili and Garlic

Ian Benites

A quick and delicious side dish that won't take more than 15 minutes to prepare.

5 from 2 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 minute min

Course Side Dish

Servings 1

Ingredients

  

• 2 Tbsp neutral flavored cooking oil (canola, peanut, vegetable…tc.)
• 5 grams seeded, medium-hot dry red chili (such as heaven-facing chili) about 15 chilies
• 1 gram Sichuan peppercorn, red or green (optional) 1 teaspoon
• 35 grams fresh garlic 9 cloves
• 300 grams romaine lettuce about 2 heads
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 pinch salt and sugar

Instructions

 

• Cut the dry chilis in half using scissors or a knife. Combine chilis with the Sichuan peppercorns.
  
• Roughly chop the garlic.
  
• Wash the romaine lettuce with cold water and cut heads into 1.5 inch sections. Discard stem.
  
• Get a wok or large saute pan very hot over high heat and add the oil. I am using a high powered wok burner in these photographs. If you are cooking this on a standard indoor stove, cut the recipe and cook it in two batches. This will allow the pan to stay very hot while stir-frying.
• When oil just starts to smoke add the dry chili and peppercorns.
  
• Immediately add the garlic after chili and pepper. Cook for a few seconds.
  
• While the heat is still on high, add the romaine lettuce.
  
• Stir-fry over very high heat for about 20-30 seconds, until romaine gets a little charred and barely starts to wilt.
  
• Add the soy sauce, the pinch of salt and pinch of sugar. Stir fry 10 more seconds over very high heat.
  
• Romaine should be done by now. It should be lightly charred and wilted but still have some texture. Add a touch more salt to taste if necessary.