Stir Fried Baby Green Beans with Olive Vegetable - Beans # 2 榄菜炒鬼豆苗

I first tried baby green beans fried this way in a vegetarian shop in Damansara Uptown. I went to dinner with my friend and his father who is a vegetarian. That was my first time eating olive vegetable.

After that I went searching for it and found some in Carrefour. I took the cheapest one, Singlong brand and I can tell you, it was nothing like what I tasted at the restaurant. It was very oily and the the taste was quite yucks. I didn’t buy another jar until lately.

Olive vegetables are not leaves of the olive plant. It’s actually mustard greens preserved in olive oil and with olive fruit (I found an olive seed in it). It is very oily and salty. According to Lydia’s ex nanny, Lydia loved this preserved veggie with her rice porridge.

I decided to give this preserved veggie another chance and bought another jar. Definitely not Singlong this time. And I was glad I did because I could finally recreate that dish that I once had, although there wasn’t any garlic there in the first place, but to me, I can’t give garlic a miss here.

Stir Fried Baby Green Beans with Olive Vegetable
Recipe Source: Wendyywy
Inspired from: A vegetarian restaurant in Damansara Uptown

200gm baby green beans
2 large cloves garlic
1 heaped Tbsp olive vegetable
½ tsp sugar
½ Tbsp cooking oil

1. Trim baby green beans, peel off both ends.
2. Peel and slice garlic.
3. Heat a wok until very hot.
4. Put in ½ Tbsp oil and fry garlic slices until fragrant and almost golden.
5. Put in baby green beans and stir fry for a while until you can smell it being fragrant. It will look half cooked.
6. Put in olive vegetable and then toss everything around.
7. Put in 1 tbsp water around the beans, not onto the beans. Toss until it turns dry and add another Tbsp of water. Not adding too much at a time, if not it won’t be fragrant.
8. Put in sugar and give it a final toss and dish up. Beans should be just cooked and stil green and crunchy.

*Cooking time should not exceed 3 minutes.