Tomato & Cauliflower Stir-Fry (Fan Qie Cai Hua)
The homeliest dish in the Chinese canon: cauliflower collapsing into sweet-tangy tomato sauce.
The story
Chinese home cooking has a whole genre of "tomato makes it dinner" dishes, and cauliflower is the sleeper hit. Pan-fried until golden, then simmered in collapsed tomato, it tastes like comfort with zero pretension.
Ingredients (5 + pantry staples)
- Cauliflower — 1 head, in bite-size florets
- Ripe tomatoes — 2, wedged
- Garlic — 2 cloves, sliced
- Soy sauce — 1 tbsp
- Scallions — 1, sliced
Pantry staples used (don't count toward the 6): sugar (1 tsp), salt, cooking oil. Not stocked yet? See the pantry page.
Steps
- Fry cauliflower in oil 5–6 minutes until golden in places.
- Garlic and tomatoes with sugar and salt; fry until the tomatoes collapse.
- Cover and steam-fry 3 minutes, then soy sauce and scallions.
Swaps
Add a beaten egg at the end (like tomato-egg) and it becomes a full vegetarian main.
More 20-minute dishes
Silky Steamed Egg Custard (Zheng Shui Dan)
China's answer to soft scrambled eggs: three eggs steamed into custard so smooth it jiggles.
Tomato & Egg Noodle Soup (Xi Hong Shi Ji Dan Mian)
The soup version of China's national home dish — brothy, sweet-sour, 15 minutes of actual cooking.
Weeknight Mapo Tofu (Ma Po Dou Fu, simplified)
The Sichuan legend, reduced to one pan and six ingredients — numbing, spicy, spooned over rice.