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Celery with Lily Bulb and Goji stir fry is classic Chinese vegetarian food. It perfectly combines color, texture, taste, and nutrition in one pan. It features green crunchy celery that has a herbal flavor. The white and nutty lily bulb gives you this satisfying firm bite feeling, but also a hint of bitterness. Red soft Goji berries balance the whole dish with semi-sweetness.
This traditional Chinese food is amazingly healthy as well. Both lily bulb and Goji enjoy the accolade of being super nourishing to our body systems. Celery itself is notable for being rich in vitamins, minerals, and fibers. People also believe celery can help mitigate high blood pressure.
What a perfect vegetable dish with three remarkably healthy ingredients!
What is a lily bulb?
Lily bulb, or Bai He {百合} in Chinese, are the roots of the lily flower plants. It is a well-known superfood and a herbal remedy.
TCM {Traditional Chinese Medicine} believes lily bulb has soothing and clarifying effects, and especially beneficial to respiratory systems.
People use the lily bulb to make dessert, stir-fry, soup, and even porridge. Growing up in Suzhou, I enjoyed lots of fresh lily bulbs.
Fortunately, nowadays you can find quality dried lily bulbs without having to look too far. After a good few hours’ soaking, they can get the same job done almost like the fresh lily bulb.
It worth mentioning that the lily is truly a wonder plant that has so much to offer. Besides the beautiful flowers and the deliciously healthy roots (lily bulbs), its flower buds are also a popular ingredient for soup and stir-fry in China.
Read here to learn more about how we can incorporate this wholesome plant-based ingredient in this appetizing Hot and Sour Soup.
What do you need to make Celery with Lily Bulb and Goji Stir Fry?
Besides celery, fresh or dried lily bulb, and Goji Berries, you only need a little cooking oil, salt, arrowroot flour {superfood starch} and white pepper.
How to make Celery with Lily Bulb and Goji Stir Fry from scratch?
See the Recipe for a detailed step-by-step tutorial. Here are a few highlights:
Soak dried lily bulb at least 4 hours in advance
Place dried lily bulb cloves in a bowl and add plenty of room temperature water to soak for a few hours. Change the water once, wash and rinse well and trim the bad parts.
Blanch the lily bulb and set aside.
Prep celery, Goji berries and arrowroot flour-water mixture
Wash, rinse, and trim celery. Cut celery with an angle to have thin bite-size slices. While it is optional, I highly recommend you blanch the celery first before stir-frying.
This will help get rid of the excessive celery’s herbal flavor. It also enhances light green color and makes it taste tender.
You can use the same pot of boiling water to blanch celery and lily bulb. I typically blanch celery first and then lily bulb.
As for Goji berry, add a little room temperature water right before the stir-fry to re-hydrate them.
Add the arrowroot flour in a small bowl with 2/3 cup water, mix well with a mini whisk, and set aside.
Stir-fry Celery with Lily Bulb and Goji
Turn the heat to high and heat a hard-anodized fry-pan for 1 minute. Spry avocado oil or other cooking oil using a homemade oil sprayer and then add the blanched celery bite-size pieces and lily bulb, along with hydrated Goji berries.
Fold and mix for 2 minutes, and sprinkle with freshly ground Himalayan pink salt and white pepper. Mix and fold for about 30 seconds.
Wrap-up and glaze the dish
Quickly re-blend the arrowroot flour-water mixture and then pour it into the pan in a circular motion. Immediately fold and turn until the sauce thickens and has created a layer of glaze on the dish.
All done, enjoy a refreshingly tasty and nourishing dish!
Celery with Lily Bulb and Goji Stir-Fry Recipe
Celery with Lily Bulb and Goji stir fry is classic Chinese vegetarian food. It perfectly combines color, texture, taste, and nutrition in one pan.
Ingredients
- 10 oz celery
- 1.5 oz dried lily bulb
- 1 tbsp dried Goji berries
- 1/2 tsp Avocado oil
- 1/2 tsp Himalayan pink salt
- 1/2 tsp white pepper, freshly ground
- 1 tbsp arrowroot flour
- 2/3 cup water
Instructions
- Add dried lily bud in a bowl with plenty of room temperature water. Soak for 4 hours. Change the water once, wash and rinse well. Trim the bad parts.
- Wash, rinse, and trim celery. Cut celery with an angle to have thin bite-size slices.
- Add arrowroot flour in a small bowl with 2/3 cup of water. Mix well using a mini whisk and set it aside.
- Fill a 4 Qts. stockpot with 75% water, turn the heat to high, cover it with a lid, and bring it to a boil. Add celery pieces, gently stir and remove from the pot after 30 seconds using a spider skimmer. Set them aside.
- Cover the pot with the lid and wait for it to reach a boil again. Add hydrated lily bulb into the boiling water, gently stir, cover it with a lid and wait for it to reach a boil again. Turn off the heat and remove the lily bulb from the pot using a spider skimmer and set it aside.
- Add the Goji berries into a small bowl with some room temperature water. Rinse once and set them aside.
- Turn the heat to high and heat a 12-inch hard-anodized fry pan for 1 minute, spray oil onto the fry-pan and add blanched celery, lily bulb, and hydrated Goji berries.
- Fold and mix for 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 white pepper and continue to fold and mix for about 30 seconds.
- Quickly re-blend the arrowroot flour-water mixture. Pour into the pan using a circular motion, continue to fold, turn and mix until the sauce thickens and has created a layer of glaze on the dish.
- All done! Enjoy a super refreshingly tasty and healthy dish.
Nutrition Information
Yield 4 servings Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 29Total Fat 1gSaturated Fat 0gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 1gCholesterol 0mgSodium 159mgCarbohydrates 5gFiber 1gSugar 2gProtein 1g
Nutrition calculation is provided by Nutritionix to the best knowledge per ingredients description and isn't always accurate.
