Diversify your vegetable meals with Malabar spinach. It is one of the easiest blanched recipes that you can do in just 10 minutes or less with only a few simple ingredients. All you need are your Malabar spinach, minced garlic, shredded red pepper, and oyster sauce.
What Is Malabar Spinach?
Malabar spinach is also known as vine spinach, Ceylon spinach, or Basella alba. It is a soft-stemmed vine that grows thick heart-shaped leaves that are either reddish-purple or green. You can eat it raw or cook this for soups, salads, stir-fries, quiche, and fritters.
One thing that stands out about this vegetable is its slippery and slimy texture when eaten, similar to an okra. It has a citrusy and peppery taste when eaten raw, but after cooking it, it will have a similar taste to regular spinach. This vegetable is commonly found in Asian or Indian supermarkets wherein you can normally find the green variation.
Why eat Malabar spinach? It is nutrient-dense since it is an excellent source of vitamins A, B, and C, and other nutrients like folate and manganese. Plus, it is super easy to prepare and cooks fast. In this recipe, I only blanched the Malabar spinach before pouring the savory sauce on top – it’s that effortless!
How To Spice Up Your Malabar Spinach
My recipe provides you with the simplest ingredients for a quick and easy meal. However, you can always incorporate more ingredients for more nutrients, texture, and flavor. Add more seasonings, meat, or vegetables to your liking. Here are some tips and suggestions worth trying.
- Malabar spinach: Choose the ones with a bright green color without spots or damage.
- I prepared my Malabar spinach by washing it with water and removing the leaves from the stem. Then, I soaked it in water with a tablespoon of salt. In this way, it helps remove insect eggs and impurities.
- Another crucial step after this is blanching it for a minute. This is to partially cook the leaves without letting them wilt or become too soft. Remember, do not overblanch these or it will lose more nutrients and become too limp.
- Moreover, it will be cooked even further once you pour your piping hot sauce made with oil, minced garlic, shredded peppers, oyster sauce, and water. So if you overblanch it then pour this hot sauce over, all the more the texture will not be as appetizing since it has become too soggy.
- Minced garlic: Garlic enriches the dish with its nutty and pungent flavor. You can also use crispy fried garlic in the stir-fried step or as a topping. If you don’t have garlic but want the garlicky flavors, swap 1 clove of garlic with 1/8 tsp of garlic powder or 1/4 tsp of granulated garlic. In this way, you can still have the garlicky flavor without the bits of garlic.
- Shredded red peppers: Shredded bell peppers make the dish sweeter and fruitier. You can use orange, red, or yellow bell peppers and cut them into shreds. Alternatively, if you prefer something spicy, use chopped green or red chili peppers instead.
- Oyster sauce: Oyster sauce serves as the sauce base. It gives the dish a taste of soy sauce, brininess, and a hint of sweetness and caramel-like taste. You can substitute oyster sauce with hoisin sauce, teriyaki sauce, kecap manis, Worcestershire sauce with soy sauce and sugar, oyster-flavored sauce, or fish sauce if you don’t have oyster sauce.
- Mushrooms: Add more healthy ingredients like mushrooms to counter the green and earthy taste of Malabar spinach. Use shiitake, maitake, button, or oyster mushrooms. It is best to stir-fry this on high heat to allow the water from the mushrooms to evaporate.
- Protein: Should you decide to increase the protein content of this dish to serve as a main meal, you can add some meat like sliced beef or pork. For a vegetarian or vegan version, add extra firm tofu cubes or soy meat.
- Seasonings: Enhance the flavor with more seasonings like sesame oil, soy sauce, and bouillon powder or cubes. If you prefer a bit of sweetness, use sugar to counter the salty and green taste of the dish. For a thicker sauce, add a cornstarch slurry(1 tbsp of cornstarch and 2 tbsp of water) to the mix.
Prepare These Ingredients And Kitchenware
The only kitchenware needed is a wok or non-stick pan. This is needed for blanching and stir-frying. Aside from that, prepare your basic kitchen tools like mixing bowls, spatula, and measuring tools.
Here are the ingredients you need:
- 400g Malabar spinach
- Cleansing
- 1 tbsp of salt
- Water
- Blanching
- 1 tbsp of salt
- Water
- Oil
- Stir-Frying
- 1 tbsp Oil
- 20g of minced garlic
- 20g of shredded red pepper
- A drizzle of oyster sauce (adjust to taste)
- 1/2 cup of water
How To Cook Malabar Spinach With Oyster Sauce
As I have mentioned, cooking this Malabar spinach recipe requires three steps: cleaning, blanching, and stir-frying. For a full recipe guide on steps, watch my Instagram or TikTok tutorial videos. Don’t forget to tag @kitchenmisadventures and leave a comment for your thoughts and suggestions!
- Clean the Malabar spinach with water and snap off the leaves from the stem to separate each.
- Fill a bowl with water and add a tablespoon of salt. Soak the Malabar spinach for a few minutes. This is an important step to kill bacteria, bugs, and eggs still left on the leaves.
- Then, prepare a pan with water, 1 tablespoon of salt, and a bit of oil. Bring to a boil.
- Once it boils, blanch the Malabar spinach for one minute. Make sure not to overblanch to avoid wilting and losing nutrients.
- After 1 minute, transfer it to your desired serving plate. I suggest something heat-resistant since you will pour the hot sauce over it later.
- Chop your garlic and red peppers.
- After removing the water and spinach, heat the oil in the pan, about 1 tbsp of oil.
- Fry the minced garlic and shredded red pepper.
- Add oyster sauce and water. Adjust to taste.
- Allow it to boil until it reaches the desired thickness. For a thicker consistency, consider adding a cornstarch slurry (1 tbsp of cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp of water).
- Pour the sauce over the blanched Malabar spinach.
Healthy Malabar Spinach With Oyster Sauce
Ingredients
- 400 g Malabar spinach
Cleansing
- 1 tbsp of salt
- Water
Blanching
- 1 tbsp of salt
- Water
- 1 tsp Oil
Stir-Frying
- 1 tbsp Oil
- 20 g of minced garlic
- 20 g of shredded red pepper
- A drizzle of oyster sauce adjust to taste
- 1/2 cup of water
Instructions
- Clean the Malabar spinach with water and snap off the leaves from the stem to separate each.
- Fill a bowl with water and add a tablespoon of salt. Soak the Malabar spinach for a few minutes. This is an important step to kill bacteria, bugs, and eggs still left on the leaves.
- Then, prepare a pan with water, 1 tablespoon of salt, and a bit of oil. Bring to a boil.
- Once it boils, blanch the Malabar spinach for one minute. Make sure not to overblanch to avoid wilting and losing nutrients.
- After 1 minute, transfer it to your desired serving plate. I suggest something heat-resistant since you will pour the hot sauce over it later.
- Chop your garlic and red peppers.
- After removing the water and spinach, heat the oil in the pan, about 1 tbsp of oil.
- Fry the minced garlic and shredded red pepper.
- Add oyster sauce and water. Adjust to taste.
- Allow it to boil until it reaches the desired thickness. For a thicker consistency, consider adding a cornstarch slurry (1 tbsp of cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp of water).
- Pour the sauce over the blanched Malabar spinach.
