Chinese Stir Fry: Celery and Pressed Tofu

Stir frying vegetables and tofu is a great weeknight dinner that also gets you all of your necessary nutrients. My mom taught me how to make this dish and David and I have recreated it more than a couple times with great results. The key to making the stir fry is getting Chinese celery, which is smaller and has more concentrated taste than American celery.

Celery and Pressed Tofu Stir Fry

1 Pound pork
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1 bag pressed tofu
2 bunches Chinese Celery

Mix together the pork with the corn starch, garlic powder, and soy sauce, similar to the mapo tofu recipe.

Remove dirt and any sand from the Chinese celery:

Cook the pork with a bit of oil (we usually use peanut oil):

Dice the pressed tofu:

Make sure the pork is all cooked through and set aside:

Next, place a little more peanut oil in the pan and cook the pressed tofu:

Then add the Chinese celery, which you can cut into pieces similar in size to the pressed tofu:

Finally, add back in the pork:

Mix all of the ingredients and it’s ready to eat:

The dish has lots of proteins from the tofu and the pork and also tastes very light because the Chinese celery is so fresh tasting (much more concentrated than American celery). I’ve never seen it in a regular grocery store in New York, but it is easily found in any grocery store in Chinatown!