Chinese spinach salad is a cold appetizer that features tender blanched spinach and crispy peanuts tossed in a gingery vinegar dressing. It’s a simple and highly nutritious dish that is perfect to complete your weekday meal. {Vegan, Gluten-Free Adaptable}
Chinese spinach salad with peanuts is a traditional northern Chinese dish that my mom makes all the time. Unlike many Western spinach salads which use raw spinach, Chinese spinach salad uses blanched spinach for its tender texture. Combined with crispy peanuts and a refreshing vinaigrette dressing, it is the perfect appetizer to pique your appetite and it pairs perfectly with many types of main dishes.
Chinese spinach salad ingredients
The spinach
You should use regular spinach (it’s sold in batches and has thicker stems and leaves), not baby spinach, for this dish.
The dressing
The vinegar sauce is delicious and contains only five ingredients. The main ingredient is Chinkiang vinegar, a Chinese fermented vinegar that is somewhere between balsamic vinegar and malt vinegar. It has a dark brown color and a deep fermented umami, tastes slightly sweet but not as sweet as balsamic vinegar. Soy sauce, sugar, salt, and grated ginger are added to the vinegar to create a savory umami sauce that is rich and refreshing.
The peanuts
Back in China, it’s very common to use freshly fried skin-on peanuts to make Chinese spinach salad. When freshly deep fried, the peanuts are buttery and crispy, still a little warm. They taste so good that sometimes the peanuts are served in the vinegar dressing by themselves.
Here in the homestyle version, I opt to use store-bought pre roasted peanuts. I also coarsely chop them instead of serving them whole. Not only does it save a lot of time and the trouble of deep frying, but the chopped peanuts also grab onto the spinach better and add satisfying texture to the dish.
How to make Chinese spinach salad
Making this Chinese spinach salad is super easy:
- Blanch the spinach
- Thoroughly squeeze the excess water out of the spinach
- Chop the spinach so it’s easier to eat
- Mix the spinach with peanuts and the dressing
Can I make Chinese spinach ahead of time?
Once you’ve mixed it together, the Chinese spinach salad holds quite well if stored in the fridge for a few hours. However, I wouldn’t make it a day ahead. The spinach will start to release water and the color will become dull, and the peanuts will get soggy.
How to serve Chinese spinach salad
Chinese spinach salad with peanuts is a cold appetizer. It is called 凉菜 (liang cai) in Chinese, literally means cold dish. It is usually served before the main course if it’s in a restaurant. At home, we usually serve it alongside our main dishes, together with a staple (rice or noodles), and soup.
Chinese spinach salad is a great way to add nutrition to your daily meals. Once cooked, the spinach will shrink a lot and taste very concentrated in flavor. Even though it’s a Northern Chinese dish, it goes very well with most Chinese dishes no matter whether it is savory, sweet or spicy.
More delicious Chinese appetizers
- Chinese Chicken Dumplings (鸡肉饺子)
- Pork Lettuce Wrap (San Choy Bow)
- Old-Beijing Fried Carrot Fritters (炸素丸子)
- Easy Steamed Tofu (蒸豆腐)
- Chinese Celery and Peanut Salad
Chinese Spinach Salad with Peanuts (老醋菠菜花生)
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb (225 g) spinach , tough ends removed and rinsed thoroughly
- 1 tablespoon Chinkiang vinegar
- 1 teaspoon light soy sauce (or soy sauce)
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ginger , minced
- 1/4 scant cup salted roasted peanuts , coarsely chopped
Instructions
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add spinach and cook over medium heat until cooked through, about 1 minute. Drain, quickly rise with cold tap water, then drain again. Squeeze extra water out of the spinach with both hands. Chop spinach into pieces about 3” (8 cm) in length and transfer a serving bowl.
- Combine black vinegar, light soy sauce, sugar, salt, and ginger in a small bowl, mix well.
- Right before serving, top the spinach with peanuts and drizzle with the vinegar sauce. Serve immediately as a cold appetizer.
Spinach salad is one of my favorite Asian dishes. The way you cut your spinach is really pretty! I like how it’s in a neat little block. The light sauce looks great, and this is super healthy. Pinned!
Thanks for introducing me to another recipe that I’ve never heard of before. I love that most of your recipes are simple, too. I’ve always thought Asian recipes had long ingredients lists, so I love this about your blog! 🙂
This salad and so making me hungry right now. Loving every bit of this post
I love the flavors in this salad Maggie! I recently tried blanched spinach salad, but it was definitely missing something-the crunch from the peanuts. Very easy to make, too!
Spinach is one of my favorite veggies, and this certainly sounds like an interesting way to prepare it. Also, I’m not great at creating flavor packed salads, but the flavor combos in this sound out of this world!
Looks great. What step do I add the ginger? 我不是错过了吗？☺️ Thanks!
Oops, sorry about the mistake! You should add the ginger at the sauce mixing step. I’ve updated the recipe and now it’s correct.
Really great recipe, even with pre-cut baby spinach! I tossed the peanuts in a bit of salt right after frying and added a pinch of MSG to the sauce. I;ll definitely make this whenever I’ve got spinach in the fridge. Thanks for putting it up!
I’m looking for a recipe for 芹菜花生 in English. Would this be similar? I had it years ago and loved it. Thanks!
Do you remember if the peanuts are soft and is very flavorful? If yes, you’ll be looking at a different recipe – the peanuts are cooked from raw usually with skin on. It’s braised in a aromatic broth (usually with salt and bunch of dried spices such as star anise, bay leaves etc).
The celery is usually quickly blanched, then you mix everything together with a simple dressing, usually a touch soy sauce, salt and sesame oil.
This one is actually a bit different because it has vinegar in it.
I’m going to add this one on my recipe to-do list because I like it too 🙂
Looks like a great salad and I love those rustic looking chopsticks. Are those available in the U.S.?
I did purchase those chopsticks in the US, but I cannot remember exactly where I got them. MUJI has pretty nice chopsticks. I also recommend checking out Japanese markets, because they carry this shape (Chinese chopsticks are slightly thicker and the end is not pointed).