Stir-fried Lettuce with Ginger and Hoisin

romaine is good for more than salads

My parents are a great source of cooking inspiration for me and whenever I visit them I fill up a few pages in my notebook with recipe ideas I can’t wait to work on. With each passing year, going home feels more and more different. More time has passed from the last time I really lived in Ohio, with my family, and sometimes I feel like I’ve changed so much while many parts of life there has stayed the same. A part of me feels like I’m 18 years old again when I step back into my childhood bedroom, but then I try widen my perspective a little to notice the ways life here has definitely changed. Like the way my parents cook for themselves now that they are empty nesters.

Dishes like salt and pepper ribs, shrimp paste marinated chicken wings, stir-fried lettuce, and mapo tofu eggplant make regular appearances at their dinner table now, all of which they had never made for me while growing up. So, it’s nice to see that they are also having some fun in the kitchen trying new things! It’s definitely a perk for me when I come home.

While I didn’t grow up eating stir-fried lettuce often, my parents have recently fallen in love with cooking it (they also added it to a wonton soup and it was lovely!) and inspired me to incorporate into my own weekly dinner rotation. Stir-fried lettuce is a very common preparation in Chinese cooking. Romaine might only seem appropriate in a salad situation, but when you cook it the texture of the leaves soften while maintaining a delightful crunch. It’s very similar to a Chinese vegetable called a-choy but unlike a-choy, you can find romaine lettuce pretty much everywhere. What I love about this recipe is that it takes almost no time to cook (ideal for weeknights) and at least in my part of world romaine lettuce is very affordable. When you stir-fry it with aromatics and some savory sauces you’ll feel like you’re eating a much more exciting vegetable than lettuce

Stir-fried Lettuce with Ginger and Hoisin

Serves 4

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1 1/2 lb 1 head of romaine lettuce 

3 tbsp olive oil, divided

1 shallot, thinly sliced

2” piece of ginger, cut into matchsticks

2 tbsp hoisin 

1 tbsp sriracha

2 tsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp coarse salt

1/4 tsp white pepper

1. Trim and discard the root end of the lettuce. Then cut the lettuce into 3-inch long pieces, separating the heartier ends of the lettuce from the leafier ends. Wash and rinse the greens (still keep heartier and leafy parts separate) and spin or pat dry.

2. In a large frying pan, heat 2 tbsp olive oil over medium high heat. Add the shallots and ginger and stir-fry until aromatic and starting to brown around the edges, about 2 minutes. Add the heartier ends of the lettuce, it will look like a lot of lettuce but it will cook down. Toss and stir-fry the lettuce with tongs until reduced in volume by half and the leaves are starting to wilt, 2 to 3 minutes. Add another tablespoon of olive oil and the leafier pieces of the lettuce. Toss and stir-fry the lettuce until the leaves are tender, 2 to 3 minutes. Add hoisin, sriracha, sesame oil, sugar, salt and white pepper and toss to combine and coat the lettuce.

3. Transfer the lettuce to a platter and top with green onions and sesame seeds.