Stir-fried Napa Cabbage with Hot & Sour Sauce (酸辣白菜)

Pungent, flavourful in taste and crunchy in texture, stir-fried Napa cabbage with hot & sour sauce is delectable, yet very simple to cook.

Prep time: PT4M

Cook time: PT3M

Total time: PT7M

Rating

4.98 stars (68 reviews)

Keywords

Authentic, Chinese cabbage, Spicy

Ingredients

1 small Napa cabbage (Chinese cabbage) (about 450 g/1 lbs)
1½ tablespoon black rice vinegar (see note 1)
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
½ teaspoon dark soy sauce (optional)
1 tablespoon tapioca starch, or cornstarch
1 pinch salt
1 pinch sugar
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon cooking oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
6 dried chilies, cut in sections (or to taste, see note 2)
1 stalk scallions, finely chopped

Cuisine

Chinese

Steps

Prepare the cabbage
- Separate the leaves of the Napa cabbage. Lay one leaf flat on the chopping board. Cut it into bite-sized pieces at a 30-degree angle (please refer to the image in the post above). Repeat to finish the rest.
Mix the sauce
- In a small bowl, mix black rice vinegar, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, starch, salt, sugar and water. Set aside.
Stir-fry the dish
- Heat up a wok over high heat until it starts to smoke. Pour in oil then add garlic and dried chilies. Fry until fragrant (do not burn).
- Put in the cabbage. Stir fry until the green leafy part starts to wilt but the white part remains crunchy.
- Give the sauce a good stir then pour into the wok. Add scallions. Mix well. Remove from the heat once the sauce thickens. Serve immediately.

Nutitrion

Serving Size: 1 serving
Calories: 136 kcal

Reviews

Anna on 2026-02-19 (5 stars):
YUM!
Saera Ellin on 2025-11-04 (5 stars):
Delicious recipe, will be making it again.
Tony Chang on 2025-03-18 (5 stars):
I follow the recipe and the cabbage was delicious. Thank you
Anne on 2024-10-08 (5 stars):
I made this in a skillet with green cabbage, but it came out perfectly anyway! I'll be adding this to my regular "oh no the farmshare has a cabbage" rotation.
Raquel on 2023-12-04 (5 stars):
So delicious, I made it as is, except used Thai chili flakes. Maybe the most delicious cabbage ever. Thank you for the recipe
SteveF on 2023-09-17 (5 stars):
I've tried this before but a while ago! Tonight I had all the ingredients! As is NZ Pakeha heat tolerance I used only 3 dried chillies and de-seeded them! Nonetheless, this is a go-to recipe.
Zach Thomas on 2023-01-31 (5 stars):
We loved this dish. Found "lite" soy sauce in non-Asian grocery. Does "light soy sauce" in your recipe refer to "light" in color or "lite" otherwise? 1/2 Tbsp tapioca starch.worked fine. Will use one or two dried chilies next time, definitely not 6. For dessert, slices of fresh mango drizzled with condensed coconut milk complements well.
G. on 2022-09-24 (5 stars):
This recipe is fantastic! I was afraid the cabbage would be watery, so I just removed the outer leaves and chopped it as is without washing it. I also used wine vinegar, as that was all I had, and dark brown sugar. I kept waiting for the cabbage to start getting soggy but instead it was about to burn. I added the sauce right then, and came out with that wok hei that is so good - I dare say, restaurant-worthy! Thank you again!
Jan Boon on 2022-03-09 (5 stars):
Love this recipe, made it twice now, the combination of all flavors makes this an perfect dish. The second time since I have some green Sichuan peppers left from my last trip to Sichuan I toasted some of them until fragrant and then fried them in the oil with the garlic. Just delicious!!! Thank you Wei for this wonderful recipe.
Bad Kitty on 2022-02-14 (4 stars):
I made this for dinner tonight. I had the same issue as another commenter, with the sauce thickening up too much, too fast to even stir. I added a bit more water, and it was fine. Next time I will reduce the starch by half and up the black vinegar to 2 tbsp because I'd like more of a sour taste. Healthy, fast, easy, and delicious recipe. Thank you.

Stir-fried Napa Cabbage with Hot &amp; Sour Sauce (酸辣白菜)