Get to know some asian vegetables commonly used in chinese soups and chinese cooking.

Many of these asian greens are commonly regarded as chinese vegetables.

I consulted many reference books while researching and writing for these pages and find them quite difficult to understand and it took me a while to re-write it in a way I could understand and appreciate.

As much as possible, vegetable pictures are posted. Some of the pictures are taken by me. Alas, I am a very amateurish photographer so I had to rely on friends I met on the web and at flickr.

I hope this list becomes a good starting point for many who are interested in chinese cooking to get to know some common asian vegetables.

I will use the Cantonese names of the asian vegetables if I think they are more well known than the mandarin names. A good example is bok choy. I will also include the mandarin name as transliterated in hanyu pinyin.

One day I will include the chinese characters. (^-_^)

Preparing asian vegetables with bare hands

I started helping out in the kitchen when I was fairly young. My grandmother did not like the idea of me holding a knife. So, I was shown how to pluck and pinch green leafy vegetables into bite-sized pieces by hand.

I was often directed to a corner of the kitchen floor with a bunch of vegetables for "cutting" and a stack of newspapers to lay on the floor to catch the sand and dirt from the vegetables. A red round plastic strainer for placing the vegetables before washing complete my arsenal.

I spent many happy hours preparing these asian vegetables. It felt good to be a part of the effort to prepare the family dinner.

I missed those days!

One of these days I will take videos of how to prepare vegetables by hand and post them here...when I finally learnt how to take and edit video clips.

Now for the asian vegetables glossary.

This is a growing list. Do come back often to check for new content.

Green leafy Vegetables

Bok Choy

Also known as chinese white cabbage, pak choy (another transliteration of the cantonese), bai cai (mandarin 白菜) and chinese chard.

A typical chinese white cabbage has milky white stems with dark green leaves.

Chinese Lettuce

Photo source: Geoff604 at flickr

Chinese lettuce is also known as sang choy in Cantonese and sheng cai in mandarin. The lettuce is a very "old" vegetable in China. It has been cultivated for more than a thousand years.

Chinese Spinach

Also known as amaranth, yeen choy (cantonese), xian cai 苋菜 (mandarin). The leaves may be light green with a roundish shape or dark green with deep red veins in the centre. There is a variety with dark green leaves, narrow with pointed tips.

Choy Sum

Photo source: FotoosVanRobin at flickr

Choy sum is also known as the chinese flowering cabbage, cai xin ((菜心 in mandarin), yow choy, and yow choy sum (those with yellow flowers).

Chrysanthemum Leaves

Chrysanthemum leaves is also known as tong ho or tang ho. Not all leaves from the chrysanthemum can be eaten, only the tender leaves of the garland chrysanthemum.

Read more at the Chrysanthemum Leaves Page

Napa Cabbage

The napa cabbage is also known as the celery cabbage and the peking cabbage (北京白菜). The scientific name is brassica pekinensis. So named as it is grown in Peking (the old name of Beijing, the capital of China). It should not be mistaken with the common green cabbage (Brassica oleracea) which is round.

Water Spinach

Water spinach (空心菜) is related to the common morning glory which is a very common wild plant with purple, pink or white flowers. I used to see these purple flowers growing on fences near our old house. My parents told me that they can be eaten but we have never tried it.

Read more at the Water Spinach/Kang Kong Page

Tubers and Roots

Daikon

Photo source: Chris 73 at Wikipedia

Daikon (白萝卜 bai luo bo) is the japanese name for the big white radish. It is called "luo bo" in mandarin hanyu pinyin, and "lo bak" in Cantonese. It is a tuber that looks like the carrot, except it is whitish in colour. In fact, the carrot is known as "hong luo bo" which means "red radish".

Lotus Root

Photo source: yewenyi on flickr

Lotus root (莲藕) is the root portion of the lotus plant. The plant grows in ponds with the flowers, stems and leaves above the water and the roots below the water.

Sprouts & Shoots

Bean sprouts

Photo source: Stefan Eberlein at wikimedia

Bean sprouts is a generic term for sprouts from any kind of beans. However in Chinese cuisine, it generally refers to either the mung bean sprouts or the soy bean sprouts.

Asian vegetables Get to know them