Pickled Snow Cabbage

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Pickled snow cabbage (雪菜) is a classic Chinese preserved vegetable like pickled mustard greens and pickled cucumbers. Also, this pickled snow cabbage vegetable recipe is great for stirring fry, making soup and noodle soup. Let’s learn how to make this simple yet salty snow cabbage vegetable for your side dishes.

Love Chinese food? Check out these steamed minced pork, steamed pork ribs, garlic chives eggs, tomato eggs, congee, hairy gourd vermicelli, Chinese bacon cabbage stir fry and salted duck eggs recipes.

cut up pickled snow cabbage in the white bowl with a spoon

What is pickled snow cabbage (雪菜)?

Pickled snow cabbage is one of the classic Chinese preserved vegetables like pickled mustard greens and pickled cucumbers. Pickled snow cabbage is a salty preserved vegetable. However, pickled mustard greens are fermented salty and sour preserved vegetables.

They both are used to make stir fry dishes or as a side for noodles such as stir fry pickled mustard green for Taiwanese beef noodle soup and pickled snow cabbage pork rice noodle soup.

What kind of vegetables for pickled snow cabbage?

Preserved snow cabbage (雪菜) usually use sher li hon vegetables (雪里红/雪里蕻) in Chinese. Sher li hon (snow cabbage) is a type of mustard greens, Brassica juncea var. It looks very similar to mustard greens. But it is slightly different. It's very mild, sweet and has tender leaves. Also, it is great for stirring fry with meat, making soup and noodle soup.

However, some people like to use mustard greens and kale to make this kind of pickled vegetables.

What are the ingredients for preserved snow vegetables?

This pickled snow cabbage recipe is very simple, it only has 2 ingredients: sher li hon vegetable and kosher salt.

snow cabbage vegetable sher li hong and salt ingredients

Cooking tips for how to make Chinese pickled snow cabbage vegetable:

Soak the sher li hon vegetable for 15 minutes. Then, wash it a few times(3 times).
Lay the vegetable on the tray with a paper towel. Put it under the sun for an hour. ( This step is to air dry the vegetable and reduce excess water from washing it. Don’t need to be 100% dry. Around 80-90% dry is ok.)
You can use a salad bowl spinner to spin excess water and air dry it.
Rub some kosher salt on the vegetables. Then, wait 30 minutes. Repeat this step again, rub some salt and wait 30 minutes. Total 3 times. After, cover the vegetable with a plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 3 days before using it.
It can be refrigerated for up to 5-7 days. You can freeze them if you want.
Soak the pickled snow cabbage vegetable for 30-45 minutes before using it because it is very salty.
Remember to squeeze very well and remove excess water after soaking it.
Chop it into pieces and you can use it for soup, noodles and stir fry dishes.

FAQs:

Where can I buy sher li hon vegetable?

I buy them at the Asian stores. The name on the vegetable package is sher li hon (雪里红/雪里蕻).

Can I use mustard greens vegetable instead?

Yes, you can. Snow cabbage or sher li hon (雪里红/雪里蕻) is a type of mustard greens. It looks very similar to mustard greens, but it’s longer, mild and sweet. Also, some people like to use kale to pickle the vegetables.

How long will it last in the refrigerator?

It can be refrigerated for 5-7 days.

How do you store it?

Usually I will soak, squeeze it. Chop it into pieces, then stir fry it with pork. After, I will put the leftovers in the ziplock bag and freeze it. It can last up to 6 months. When I make noodle soup, I will take out some.

Instructions for how to make Chinese pickled snow cabbage vegetables:

Preparation:

1. Pour 12 cups of water into a big bowl.

soak snow cabbage vegetable sher li hon in the bowl

2. Soak 1 pound of snow cabbage vegetable (sher li hon) for 15 minutes. Then, wash and rinse it 3 times.

3. Put 4 pieces of paper towel on the tray.

sher li hon snow cabbage on the tray with paper towel

4. After that, put the washed snow cabbage vegetable (sher li hon) from step 2 on the tray.

5. Take it outside, under the sun for 1 hour. (This step is to air dry the vegetable and reduce excess water from washing it. Don’t need to be 100% dry. Around 80-90% dry is ok.) You can use a salad bowl spinner to spin excess water and air dry it.

salt rub on snow cabbage vegetable sher li hon

Preservation:

6. After, rub 2 tablespoons of kosher salt on the washed snow cabbage vegetables (sher li hon). Make sure each vegetable is rubbed with salt.

salt on snow cabbage vegetable sher li hong in the glass container

7. Next, put them into a glass container and wait for 30 minutes.

salted snow cabbage sher li hon on the white plate

8. After 30 minutes, rub 2 tablespoons of kosher salt on the vegetables and wait 30 minutes.

salted snow cabbage vegetable sher li hon in the glass container

9. Third time, rub 2 tablespoons of kosher salt on the vegetables and put it in the glass container.

plastic wrap cover the glass container with pickled snow cabbage

10. Cover the vegetable with a plastic wrap. Then, refrigerate it for 3 days.

pickled snow cabbage vegetable after 3 days in the glass container top view

11. After 3 days, take out the pickled snow cabbage from the fridge and unwrap it.

soak the preserved snow cabbage vegetable sher li hon in the white bowl

12. Pour 5 cups of water in the bowl and soak the pickled snow cabbage vegetables for 30-45 minutes.

squeezed Chinese pickled snow cabbage vegetable sher li hon on the chopping board

13. Squeeze the pickled snow cabbage vegetable very well to remove excess water from soaking it.

Chinese pickled snow cabbage cut up into pieces on the chopping board

14. Then, cut the preserved Chinese snow cabbage vegetables into small pieces. You can use it for soup, noodles and stir fry dishes. Refrigerate or freeze it.

cut up pickled Chinese snow cabbage vegetable in the bowl

Enjoy this simple authentic Chinese pickled snow cabbage vegetable recipe! Also, check out these coconut buns, mapo tofu, beef chow fun, yu choy sum and chicken chop recipes.