This Easy Roasted Cauliflower Stir-fry is inspired by a dish that we order at many restaurants around Beijing.
When we first arrived here, we immediately set to trying as many restaurants as we could. Many of the Hunan, Sichuan, and “jack-of-all-trades” restaurants (homestyle cooking with no exclusive regional cuisine) feature this “dry pot” (gan guo) dish of cauliflower, garlic, ginger, chilies, and fatty pork belly.
It’s a delicious dish that we can’t resist, no matter how many times we’ve had it. The slightly crispy, saucy, spicy cauliflower and pork are so good, you could just order that and a bowl of rice and be very very happy.
The one downside to the dish, however, is that it’s a bit oily. In order to really get that crispiness, Chinese chefs will use high heat and lots of oil. We came up with this method of roasting the cauliflower in the oven first, and then stir-frying, to achieve a similar effect with less oil.
Give this roasted cauliflower stir-fry try and you’ll know exactly what I mean!
Recipe Instructions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine the pork with the shaoxing wine or dry sherry, sesame oil, soy sauce, and cornstarch in a small bowl and set aside.
On a parchment-lined baking sheet, spread out the cauliflower in a single layer and drizzle with olive oil.
Season with salt and pepper and roast until crisp and golden, about 20 minutes. Stir the cauliflower halfway through baking.
Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in your wok over medium heat. Add the garlic, dried red chilies, and ginger, and cook for about 2 minutes, making sure they don’t burn. Turn up the heat to high, add the pork, and cook until browned.
Stir in the cauliflower (keep the heat on high), and cook for a minute.
Add the scallions, sesame oil, shaoxing wine, and the light soy sauce and dark soy sauce. Season with additional salt if needed.
Cover the lid and bring everything to a simmer. Uncover, give everything another stir, and you’re ready to plate.
Serve this roasted cauliflower stir-fry over rice!
Easy Roasted Cauliflower Stir-Fry
Ingredients
For the pork and marinade:
- ½ cup sliced lean pork
- 2 teaspoons shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- ½ teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon cornstarch
For the rest of the dish:
- One medium head of cauliflower (cut into florets)
- oil
- Salt and pepper
- 6 cloves garlic (coarsely chopped)
- 6 dried red chilies (halved)
- 6 slices ginger
- 2 scallions (cut into large pieces)
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons shaoxing wine (or dry sherry)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon dark soy sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Combine the pork with the marinade ingredients in a small bowl and set aside. On a parchment-lined baking sheet, spread out the cauliflower in a single layer and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and roast until crisp and golden, about 20 minutes. Stir the cauliflower halfway through baking.
- Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in your wok over medium heat. Add the garlic, chilies, and ginger, and cook for about 2 minutes, making sure they don’t burn. Turn up the heat to high, add the pork, and cook until browned.
- Stir in the cauliflower (keep the heat on high), and cook for a minute. Add the scallion, sesame oil, wine, and the soy sauces. Season with additional salt if needed. Cover the lid and bring everything to a simmer. Uncover, give everything another stir, and serve over rice!
I found you yesterday on Instagram through J Kenji Lopez-Alt, then immediately made this and one of your other recipes for dinner. So good! Everyone said this was a keeper. My son was born in China, so I am always looking for authentic Chinese food. (Now I need to look through your recipe list to see if you have one for the green beans we ate in every Chinese city we went to)
Yes, we do have, a couple of versions too. Just search for green beans on our site :-)
Just cooked it, and I loved it! Thanks a lot for this flavorful recipe. Even without pork it tastes delicious. I can’t wait to try more recipes from your website!
I am so glad you enjoyed it, Neva.
Hi! I’m planning to make this tonight. I notice in the text that you say this is made with pork belly in China, but the ingredients list “lean pork” I have both on hand, so either way will work, but I wondered if you have a preference, or if there’s a reason you’ve shifted to lean pork. Perhaps to address the oily/greasy factor you mentions? Thanks!
Hi Amanda, go with pork belly if you have both. If I didn’t have to worry about my overall health, I’d eat pork belly everyday :-)
Made this tonight with a couple of variations due to what I had on hand and what I needed to use up: used a pound of ground pork and added loosely chopped fresh spinach with the sauces. What a fantastically flavorful dish!! Loved it!
Yayyy! Love it!
Is there anything I can substitute for the dried red chiles? Laoganma, gochujang, crushed red pepper flakes etc. thanks!
Hi Dot, laoganma or crushed red pepper flakes.
I made this last night as a side dish. It was amazing! I didn’t have tried chilird, so I used fresh/frozen one I grew last summer.
Every receipt I’ve tried on your website has been excellent.
Thank you so much for sharing.
Sorry for the typos. Autocorrect gets crazy.
You are very welcome, Barbara, keep on cooking :-)
I spent 15 days in China last month (Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang) and had stir-fried cauliflower in all three places (including 4 mornings for breakfast in Shenyang). Interesting that it was similar in all three cities. I knew there had to be a way to make it at home. Trying it tonight for dinner and I can’t wait…cauliflower roasting in the oven as I type this. Nice that I had all of the ingredients at hand, too. Thanks so much for such clear directions and great pictures.
Hope it turned out to your liking, Annette!
Just made this for my family last night. Everyone loved it. Teen and his friend took it for lunch today. After I found the recipe (and your site) by searching for stir fried pork and cauliflower, I saw that your blog won the Saveur blog award. I can see why. Thanks.
Wow, Amy, thank you for your high praise! Hope you will try more of our recipes, we have so many great dishes.
Another great recipe from your site. I’m eager to try many more. I just happened to have leftover dumpling-mix so I made meatballs which I first deep-fried before adding to the wok, instead of the sliced pork. An unexpectedly delicious outcome!
Sounds awesome, Angela! I bet it’s really delicious.
Hi,
Thanks a lot for this wonderful recipe. I saw it this morning and made it for dinner with tofu instead of pork because we’re vegans. My son really loved it and so did I. Next time I’ll try the green beans/eggplant stir fry!
Btw: you have a new fan from The Netherlands!
Yeaaahhh! Love to hear that! Thank you so much, Helena!