Briefly blanched lettuce topped with a tasty, sticky sauce, iceberg lettuce with oyster sauce is a classic Chinese dish that gives plain vegetable an appetizing tone.
What do you associate with lettuce? I guess most of you would say a refreshing, healthy bowl of salad. Do you know it’s also very nice when cooked and served with Chinese oyster sauce? Today I’d like to introduce one of the most popular Chinese vegetable dishes: Iceberg lettuce with oyster sauce (蚝油生菜).
Two simple steps to cook it
Some people wrongly assume that lettuce with oyster sauce is a stir-fry dish. In fact, it’s blanched iceberg lettuce leaves topped with a warm sauce. So it’s super simple to cook.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil. Briefly blanch the lettuce leaves (torn by hands into pieces) then transfer to a serving plate.
- Fry sliced garlic in oil then add the sauce which consists of oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, cornstarch, sugar & water. Pour it over the lettuce. Done!
Keep the lettuce crunchy
Timing is crucial when blanching lettuce leaves. Nothing is worse than a plate of soggy lettuce. So make sure you keep some of its crunchiness. To achieve the best result, follow these tips:
- Turn off the heat when you put the lettuce leaves into boiling water. Cover the pot immediately.
- Leave it to sit for no more than a minute then drain immediately. If you are blanching a smaller amount of lettuce, reduce the time accordingly.
Oyster sauce can be vegetarian
Now what you’ve got is lettuce pieces that are wilted but still a bit crunchy. Next, prepare the tasty, smooth and shiny sauce. The main condiment is oyster sauce, a versatile Cantonese sauce which gives a wonderful flavour to plain vegetables.
Obviously, this lettuce with oyster sauce dish can not be considered as vegetarian since it contains oyster extracts. But I’ve got good news! If you wish, use vegetarian oyster flavoured sauce instead. It’s made from the essence of shiitake mushrooms and tastes nice too.
Garlic provides another key flavour. Use thinly sliced pieces if you fancy a nice look, or crush the garlic if you’d like to enhance the garlicky taste. But no matter what, be generous with it!
Cook with other vegetables
This classic lettuce with oyster sauce demonstrates how you can cook vegetables in a very simple yet delicious way. Iceberg lettuce is used in the traditional version, but I found romaine lettuce works very well too.
In fact, you can blanch other vegetables, such as broccoli, asparagus, snow peas, pak choi, then serve with the same sauce. Be aware that you would need to adjust the amount of time required for blanching different vegetables. For example, it takes 3-4 mins to cook through broccoli in boiling water.
Other tasty vegetable dishes
If you love vegetables as much as I do, check out other recipes which use vegetable as the star ingredient. They are all very simple to cook, but full of goodness and great flavours.
Iceberg lettuce with oyster sauce (蚝油生菜)
Ingredients
- 1 head iceberg lettuce - about 500g/18oz, see note 1
- 1½ tablespoon oyster sauce - see note 2
- ½ teaspoon dark soy sauce
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon cornstarch
- 3 tablespoon water
- ½ tablespoon cooking oil
- 4 cloves garlic, sliced
Instructions
- Wash the iceberg lettuce then tear it into big pieces by hand.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Turn off the heat and add the lettuce. Cover with a lid. After 1 minute, drain well then transfer to a plate.
- Mix oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch and water.
- In a pan, fry garlic in oil over medium heat. Once the garlic slightly browns, add the sauce. Stir until thickened.
- Pour the sauce onto the lettuce. Serve immediately.
NOTES
NUTRITION DISCLOSURE: Nutritional information on this website is provided as a courtesy to readers. It should be considered estimates. Please use your own brand nutritional values or your preferred nutrition calculator to double check against our estimates.
A childhood favourite! So easy and tasty. One of our go to veggie side dishes
Tried this yesterday. Lovely dish. Thank you
Glad you’ve enjoyed it!
Lee Kum Kee has different kinds of oyster sauce, though, and the different kinds taste very different. The “Premium” oyster sauce with the picture of the man and woman in a boat is the best kind, unfortunately, it’s also the most expensive.
Going to try the lettuce tonight.
I made it and it was delicious. It’s such a treat to find something for which I always have the ingredients, is simple, and that I could have been cooking forever but never realized. This is a truly great recipe for me to add to my repertoire.
My husband wouldn’t even try it! Just the idea of cooked lettuce freaked him out. More for me.
I had trouble straining the lettuce. I need to find a way to get more of the water off. The residual water on the lettuce made the sauce watery. I might try different ways to get more water off, like fishing the lettuce out with tongs and then draining in the colander, or maybe giving the lettuce a turn in the salad spinner. I don’t want it to be too dry, though, because having a little bit of water would be good.
Anyway, I’m really excited to have found this recipe, thanks.
My pleasure Ann! I usually toss the lettuce in the colander with a pair of chopsticks to remove any excess water.
Thanks for sharing your experience with oyster sauce.
Love your recipes! I always loved asian food but never tried to make it at home, so now I am planning to buy all the ingredients (or most of it) I need for all your recipes 🙂 Can you suggest me a good oyster sause brand? As I’ve read different opinions on different ones, I want to make sure I buy a decent one. Thank you!
Hi Simona! Very happy to know you find my recipes inspiring. Lee Kum Kee is a good brand for oyster sauce as the founder of this brand invented this particular sauce.
I just discovered your wonderful site today and I’ve saved a bunch of recipes already. I really like eggplant (aubergine) and one recipe I would enjoy replicating is called “Salt & Pepper Eggplant” and is described as
Eggplant lightly battered then wok tossed with garlic, onions and peppers. If you could give e the secret to this I would appreciate it greatly! Thanks! – Jim
Hi James! Thank you very much for your appreciation of my work. The “Salt & Pepper Eggplant” that I’ve had in Chinese restaurant is very similar to the classic dish of “Salt & Pepper pork”: chopped eggplant pieces battered with egg and flour, then deep fried and simply served with salted Sichuan pepper powder (椒盐, Jiaoyan). Of course the version you described sounds delicious too!
If you are interested, check out my recipe of “Stir-fried aubergine in plum sauce” . It doesn’t involve deep frying but it’s very nice too.
What can I substitute for dark soy sauce? Can I use u sweet soy sauce and omit the sugar? Thanks.
Yes it’s absolutely OK to use sweet soy sauce and omit the sugar. The finished taste might be slightly different, but I’m sure it will be very nice too.
How is this SO GOOD??! I went for chinese with friends the other night, and they ordered this dish- but i am vegetarian and i did not have any but was so envious as they exclaimed how fantastic it was. I found your recipe and just made it today with vegetarian oyster sauce and ate it with some plain rice to catch the extra bits of sauce. So easy!
That’s great news! Tasty dish doesn’t have to be complicated. Have a great day!
We loved this. It is absolutely delicious. I am making it again tomorrow ?
Wonderful! Have a yummy day!