Quick and Simple Stir-Fried Water Spinach with Garlic for a Rustic Dish from the Mekong Delta

How to Cook Stir-fried Water Spinach with Garlic

• 1

  Prepare the Ingredients

  Water spinach usually grows wild in gardens, so it is rarely treated with pesticides. Therefore, after buying water spinach or picking it from the garden, wash it with water several times to clean off the soil and then let it drain.

  Depending on your preference, you can adjust the amount of garlic used. For garlic, you just need to crush it and then chop it finely or slice it as desired.

  Tip: Before making stir-fried water spinach with garlic, gently crush the water spinach to make it tastier when cooked and not feel grainy when eating.

  

  
• 2

  Stir-fry water spinach

  You place a pan on the stove, wait for the pan to heat up, then add 1 tablespoon of cooking oil. When the oil is hot, add garlic to sauté until fragrant.

  Tip: Don’t wait until the oil is boiling to add the garlic, as overheated oil will cause the garlic to burn quickly and make the dish less delicious.

  When the garlic turns slightly golden and fragrant, add all the water spinach, using chopsticks to stir evenly so that the spinach absorbs the oil and looks beautiful. Stir-fry until the spinach wilts a little, then season with 1 tablespoon of fish sauce and 1/2 teaspoon of monosodium glutamate.

  For the taste preference of people from the Mekong Delta, you can add an additional 1/2 teaspoon of sugar; however, if you don’t like it, you can skip this step.

  Stir-fry the spinach for about another 5 minutes until cooked and seasoned, then turn off the heat and serve on a plate.

  

  

  
• 3

  Final Product

  Just a few simple cooking steps and you already have a delicious plate of stir-fried water spinach with garlic. This rustic dish is not only easy to make but also very nutritious, as water spinach is a type of vegetable that offers many wonderful health benefits.

  The plate of water spinach after being stir-fried will have a beautiful vibrant green color, fragrant with the strong aroma of fried garlic and a hint of fish sauce. If you have a patch of wild water spinach growing in your garden, try picking some and making this stir-fry dish.