Watercress (西洋菜,sai yeung choi in Cantonese or xī yáng cài in Mandarin), is a super healthy vegetable. It’s often overlooked at the market, because people don’t know how to prepare it. But making this stir-fried watercress at home is an easy, delicious, and healthy way to change up the vegetables on your dinner table.
A Healthy Vegetable That Deserves a Spot on the Table
Watercress is rich in vitamin C, calcium, iron phosphate and vitamin E. It’s one of our favorite healthy leafy green vegetables, and we enjoy it most often stir-fried simply with fresh ginger and garlic.
Watercress is generally sold in small bunches, usually in a container of shallow water. Watercress grows well alongside running water. We used to pick it in the wild when I was growing up in upstate New York! If you’re not stumbling upon it in the wild though, it usually runs anywhere from $1-2 per bunch.
More Than a Salad Green!
The only problem with watercress is that most people don’t know what to do with it other than throw it in a salad.
We’ve made Watercress Pork Bone Soup, which is a delicious way to enjoy this spicy, peppery, and slightly bitter green vegetable during the colder months.
But now that it’s spring and summer is around the corner, this stir-fried watercress is a great side and simple dish to add to your list of go-to vegetable recipes.
Stir-fried Watercress: Recipe Instructions
Place your wok over medium high heat, and add the oil, spreading it around to coat the surface of the wok.
Add the fresh ginger, letting it caramelize and infuse the oil. Take care not to let it burn. Add the minced garlic, and give it a stir. Immediately add the watercress (if you wait too long, your garlic could burn). Turn the heat up to high.
Stir-fry the watercress for 20 seconds to evenly distribute the ginger, garlic and oil. Once mixed, move all of the watercress to the center of the wok in a small pile, and cover the wok.
After 45 seconds, uncover the wok. There should be plenty of steam at this point. Use a circular stirring motion to drag the pile of watercress and some of the liquid around the sides of the superheated wok.
Stirring the watercress against the hottest and driest part of the wok will generate that wok hay flavor. Gather the watercress back in the middle of the wok. To give you an idea of the cooking time, this step should take no more than 20 seconds.
While you wait for the sides of the wok to reheat, add the white pepper, sugar, salt, sesame oil and MSG. (MSG is a totally optional—and often controversial—ingredient. Read more about our perspective on MSG.)
. (A quick note on the spices: we list MSG as optional because many people shy away from it, but it’s a tasty addition to leafy green vegetables that really gives you that restaurant flavor. Use it per your own tastes and perspectives!)
Stir-fry the mixture again to mix in the seasonings, once more stirring the watercress and the liquid so it hits the sides of the wok to generate more wok hay.
Use your wok spatula to scoop the stir-fried watercress onto a shallow rimmed bowl, making sure to get the remaining liquid, as it’s super-infused with garlic, ginger, and those vitamins from the watercress.
Serve as a side dish or just with some white rice as a super light vegan meal.
Stir-fried Watercress: A Healthy Leafy Green Vegetable
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger (finely julienned)
- 3 cloves garlic (finely minced)
- 2 bunches watercress (about 1 pound/450g, washed thoroughly)
- ⅛ teaspoon white pepper
- ⅛ teaspoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon sesame oil
- ¼ teaspoon MSG (VERY optional!)
Instructions
- Place your wok over medium high heat, and add the oil, spreading it around to coat the surface of the wok.
- Add the ginger, letting it caramelize and infuse the oil. Take care not to let it burn. Add the minced garlic, and give it a stir. Immediately add the watercress (if you wait too long, your garlic could burn). Turn the heat up to high.
- Stir-fry the watercress for 20 seconds to evenly distribute the ginger, garlic and oil. Once mixed, move all of the watercress to the center of the wok in a small pile, and cover the wok.
- After 45 seconds, uncover the wok. There should be plenty of steam at this point. Use a circular stirring motion to drag the pile of watercress and some of the liquid around the sides of the superheated wok. Stirring the watercress against the hottest and driest part of the wok will generate that wok hay flavor. Gather the watercress back in the middle of the wok. To give you an idea of the cooking time, this step should take no more than 20 seconds.
- While you wait for the sides of the wok to reheat, add the white pepper, sugar, salt, sesame oil and MSG, if using. (A quick note on the spices: we list MSG as optional because many people shy away from it, but it’s a tasty addition to leafy green vegetables that really gives you that restaurant flavor. Use it per your own tastes and perspectives!)
- Stir-fry the mixture again to mix in the seasonings, once more stirring the watercress and the liquid so it hits the sides of the wok to generate more wok hay.
- Use your wok spatula to scoop the watercress onto a shallow rimmed bowl, making sure to get the remaining liquid, as it’s super-infused with garlic, ginger, and those vitamins from the watercress. Serve as a side dish or just with some white rice as a super light vegan meal.
nutrition facts
MSG in the recipe? Really??
Hi Max, yep really. We seldom use MSG and whenever we list it in our recipes it’s always optional. When you get stir-fried greens in the restaurant, the MSG really kicks up the flavor (along with the wok hei flavor from the high heat). It does make a difference, and sometimes we’ll throw in a pinch at home.
So delicious! So simple and good served hot or cold. I like that I can prepare it ahead of time before doing more time sensitive dishes and add it to complete a meal. :)
Hi Jennie, sounds like you know how to plan your meals. It’s all about preparation to ensure everything comes together quickly.
Can I use frozen bag for this?
Hi Patricia, you can use frozen watercress but like all frozen vegetables, they are best for soups and stews, and not ideal for stir-fries. That said, your watercress will be more watery and softer than fresh but still better than not having it. Happy cooking!
I like your recipes very much and recently i tried your Chinese cabbage stir fry which came up excellent. What I like about your recipes is the effort you put in to write it meticulously and with precise detail esp. the processes that even a beginner could learn cooking easily with greater understanding and the joy to see that her/his hard work pays. Thank you so much for your humility and generosity.
Thank you so much for your lovely comment, Irene.
Looks good , id throw in a bunch of scallions or chives also , and maybe use soy sauce/shredded kelp or marmite (lol) instead of synthetic msg , and maybe a tablespoon of white wine and 2 of chicken bone broth at almost the end .
Ho Seast, thanks for the suggestions!
Love love love all dark green leafy vegetables! And I love that you’re posting preparations for each of them. Over here in England, we do not get too many different ones, at least not where I live, but watercress is ubiquitous. Imho, a good stir-fried leafy green vegetable goes with just anything, even with a non-Chinese main dish. :)
Totally agree, Karin! I wish people would eat more leafy green stir-fries, because they’d eat a lot more veggies than just salads.
I love watercress but right now I have a huge amount of baby kale from our CSA. I think I’ll try this preparation.
hi Karen, the kale will definitely be tasty using the same recipe. Happy cooking!
I really like this style, it is simple and easy to prepare. However, I often add pork or beef to mix with the vegetables to make my dishes more flavoured and tasty. :)
Hi Natalie, good suggestion! Adding a protein like pork, beef or chicken is a great addition and makes a nice one plate meal :)
Thanks for putting this great vegetable in the spotlight. Maybe also a recipe with watercress and white fermented bean curd, a great combination. No need to apologize about the msg — it is a great addition to some vegetable dishes notwithstanding widespread prejudices without any basis in science.
Hi jack, yes, white fermented bean curd is a great way to make stir fried watercress!
Wow, are you kidding about the “baseless science” on MSG? Check out what the GOVERNMENT WEBSITE has to say about it at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5938543/ – Extensive use of monosodium glutamate: A threat to public health? There’s all kinds of negatives in there about it. I used to have a bad reaction after eating anything with it and so had to cut it out completely. My grandmother was told to stay away from MSG, among other things, by her doctor when it was diagnosed that she had breast cancer. It sounds like you’re the one who needs to do a little research.
Excuse me, what he said was “without any basis in science.”
Hi JM, thanks for providing that info. Even with reports like the one you list, MSG is used quite widely in many processed foods, sauces and seasonings. As we say here at thewoksoflife, MSG is always optional depending upon each person’s preferences. Some consume it without ill effects while others have adverse reactions.
Absolutely Bill, but jack was insinuating that it’s all in people’s heads and said there’s no studies out there to support that MSG could have any adverse effects on health which is untrue. Obviously having it occasionally won’t hurt you, for the average healthy individual, but the studies do show that long term use can have detrimental effects for some and to lead anyone into thinking otherwise is irresponsible.
Here’s a more thoughtful and comprehensive overview of the science, as opposed to a few outraged sentences and a link to a study with no real context: https://www.seriouseats.com/2019/01/ask-the-food-lab-the-truth-about-msg.html . TL:DR – Most studies have involved massive amounts of MSG. This happens a lot in studies, and results in any number of new foods being hailed as miracle foods or unfairly demonized. It’s constant source of misinformation in the media when stories appear saying that anew berry from South America cuts your cancer risk in half or that some new fertilizer contains a chemical that raises your risk of cancer by some astronomical number. Yes, when being exposed to something like 100 times the normal serving, certain properties, good and/or bad, are over-represented. Also worth noting, MSG is simply a concentrated form of something that we eat all the time. If MSG is a threat to public health then Parmesan cheese iss right behind it because it is packed with glutamate. As Bill said, temper your outrage with his point that it is always listed as “optional”. No one is making you eat the stuff or telling you that you MUST eat it.
I love watercress! I like to add a giant bunch to miso soup. It’s also great stir-fried with clams in black bean sauce. Whenever I eat it though, I always hear my mom’s voice in my head, warning me not to gorge on it (as I tend to do) because of its inherent “cooling” properties ;)
Hi Lily, great suggestions for using watercress. You’re right that this vegetable has cooling properties, so it’s a good choice for a side when having fried foods.