Chinese Stir-Fried Rice Cakes with Egg and Spinach Recipe
Stir-fried rice cakes with egg and spinach is a simple dish from southern China, where rice cakes are as popular as potato dumplings are in Poland. Here they go into a pan with egg, garlic, and green spinach, creating a quick, meatless lunch. The texture of the rice cakes is pleasantly chewy, and the whole dish is a bit like a cross between pasta and Silesian dumplings in an Asian version.
Stir-fried rice cakes are popular in Shanghai and southern China as a quick home-style or street food dish, often paired with cabbage, bok choy, or simply with egg.
This dish combines the comforting chewiness of Chinese rice cakes with simple, everyday ingredients like egg and spinach, creating a quick, satisfying, and meatless meal with a distinct southern Chinese character.
Why this version works
- Soaking or rinsing the rice cakes before frying keeps them from sticking together and drying out in the pan.
- Cooking the eggs separately gives you soft, creamy pieces in the sauce instead of a dry scramble stuck to the bottom.
- Adding water to the sauce lets the rice cakes soften from the inside, rather than just browning on the outside.
- Adding the spinach at the end keeps its color bright and prevents it from watering down the sauce too early.
Chef's tips
Do not overcook the rice cakes, as they can become too soft and lose their pleasant chewiness. If they start sticking to the pan, add a little water instead of more oil—this helps them soften and absorb the sauce better.
How to serve
Serve in warm bowls, topped with extra sliced spring onion and a drizzle of chili oil or a spoonful of chili crisp for added heat and aroma.
Watch out for
- Frying dry rice cakes over high heat for too long will make them hard and brittle instead of bouncy and chewy.
- If you pour in all the sauce over rice cakes that are still quite firm and don’t add any water, they can absorb the liquid unevenly and some pieces will stay dry.
Substitutions
- You can replace oyster sauce with mushroom sauce or a vegan “oyster-style” sauce to keep the umami.
- Fresh spinach can be swapped for kale or spring cabbage; slice them into thin strips and stir-fry a bit longer.
- Rice cakes can be replaced with thick rice noodles, reducing the stir-fry time by 1–2 minutes.
Ingredients
- Chinese rice cakes (rice cakes) slices made from rice flour, fresh or dried - 250 g
- eggs - 2 pieces
- fresh spinach you can use baby spinach - 150 g
- garlic finely chopped - 3 cloves
- onion cut into diagonal pieces - 2 pieces
- soy sauce - 2 tablespoons
- oyster sauce for vegetarians you can replace it with 1 teaspoon of soy sauce and 1 teaspoon of miso paste - 1 tablespoon
- water for sprinkling the rice cakes - 80 ml
- oil - 2 tablespoons
- pepper - 0.25 teaspoons
Preparation
- If you are using dried rice cakes, soak them in hot (but not boiling) water for 30–40 minutes, until they soften and feel flexible between your fingers. Drain and pat them dry gently. Rinse fresh rice cakes with warm water, separating any pieces that are stuck together.
- Beat the eggs in a small bowl with a pinch of salt until the whites are completely combined with the yolks. Finely chop the garlic; slice the spring onion, keeping the white and green parts separate. Wash and thoroughly dry the spinach, cutting larger leaves in half.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large pan or wok over medium heat. Pour in the eggs and cook, gently scraping them from the bottom, until you have a soft scramble that is still slightly moist, without any brown bits. Transfer to a plate.
- In the same pan, heat the second tablespoon of oil over high heat. Add the garlic and the white parts of the spring onion and fry for 30–40 seconds, until very fragrant and just turning translucent, but not browning.
- Add the rice cakes. Stir-fry for 2–3 minutes over high heat, gently tossing or stirring with a wide spatula, until the edges of some pieces start to take on a light golden color. If they stick badly, add 2–3 tablespoons of water and stir quickly.
- Pour in the soy sauce, oyster sauce, and most of the water. Stir for 1–2 minutes, until the sauce starts to bubble gently, thickens slightly, and coats the rice cakes evenly; when you cut into one, it should look glossier and softer inside.
- Add the spinach and the green parts of the spring onion. Stir-fry for 2–3 minutes, stirring often, until the leaves wilt but stay a vivid green, and the rice cakes are soft yet still pleasantly chewy when you bite into them.
- Add the fried egg, season with pepper, and fold gently to distribute the egg among the rice cakes. Taste and, if needed, add a splash of soy sauce or a little water if the sauce is too thick. Serve immediately, while the rice cakes are hot and elastic.
Storage
No storage information available for this dish.
I like this dish because it feels both familiar and exotic at the same time—like a mix between pasta and Polish dumplings, but with a clearly Asian flavor profile. It’s also a great way to use up leftover spinach and eggs in a new form.
