Prep and cook: 30 minutes or less

4/2/23: I really liked this flavorful stir fry celtuce served as a side dish. Hope you like this simple recipe. Enson market in Orlando had fresh celtuce stocked up for $1.99 per pound. I bought three big celtuce stems to stir fry.

These are Purple Tower celtuce variety that I am cooking with today. Celtuce is also known as Chinese lettuce, asparagus lettuce, stem lettuce. Culinary uses for celtuce dated back in the Hans dynasty in China. It’s a vegetable great for stir frying, pickling, or added in soups.

Ingredients:

• 3 large celtuce stems
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 cup scallions
• 1 Tbsp minced ginger
• 2 Tbsp sweet Thai chili sauce
• 2 Tbsp Sweet Soy Sauce
• 1/2 Tbsp corn starch
• 1/2 Tbsp water
• 1/8th tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp lemongrass powder
• 1 Tbsp oil

Direction:

1.. Cut off the celtuce tips. Strip and peel the celtuce skin off the stem with a knife or peeler. Cup the stem into 3-inches long segments. Then cut the pieces into thin strips.

2. Place the celtuce strips into a bowl and mix with 1 teaspoon of kosher salt. Rub it evenly. The salt helps release the water from the celtuce so it does become too watery when stir frying and also helps absorb some flavors later. Let the celtuce aside and prep the stir fry sauce. Chop the scallion, slice the garlic, and minced the ginger.

Stir fry sauce:

• 2 Tbsp Sweet Thai Chili sauce
• 2 Tbsp Sweet Soy Sauce
• 1/2 Tbsp corn starch
• 1/2 Tbsp water
• 1/2 tsp lemongrass
• 1/8th tsp pepper

3. Heat up wok with 1 Tbsp oil. Toss in the garlic and ginger. Stir until it smells roasted.

4. Quickly toss in the celtuce. (Discard any salty water that it releases.) Stir fry for about two minutes.

5. Add in the sauce and stir fry for one minute.

6. Toss in the scallions and stir fry for a minute on high heat. Turn off heat. Serve as a side dish with rice.