Chinese Vegetable Dishes

Vegetable dish generally  refers to the dish cooked by vegetable oil, vegetables, soybean  products, gluten, bamboo shoots, fungus, algae, dried or fresh fruits  and other plant materials. Vegetable dish occupies a major position in  our daily diet and is also an important part of the Chinese cooking  culture.
China’s vegetable dish culture has a long history and it has nothing  less than the meat dish in terms of no matter the variety, the material  selection, the elaborate cooking skill, or the style. China’s vegetable  dish culture can be traced back to the Western Han Dynasty. It is said  that the then Huainan King Liu An invented tofu which made great  contribution to the development of the vegetable dish. Tofu is not only  an important raw material of vegetable dish but also full of quality  protein. Therefore, the invention of tofu not only enriched the content  of vegetable dish but also endowed the vegetable dish with powerful  persuasion in regard to nutrition. Besides, the Chinese vegetable dish  also has the history of going abroad. It is recorded in the Japanese  literature that when Monk Yinyuan went to Japan in the late Ming  Dynasty, he also brought the Chinese cooking skills there, including the  cooking methods of “pure vegetables”.


Potato‑Greens‑Dish

It is generally recognized that the Chinese vegetable dish has three  major schools and two main styles. The three major schools include the  imperial court vegetable dish, the monastery vegetable dish and the  civil vegetable dish. The two styles include “complete vegetable style”  and “incomplete vegetable style”. The former is mainly represented by  the monastery vegetable dish that does not use the “five Hun” including  eggs, shallot, garlic and others. The latter is mainly represented by  the civil vegetable dish in which the “five Hun” and eggs, or even  seafood, animal fats and broth are allowed.