Sichuanese 'send-the-rice-down' chopped celery with minced beef (Jia chang rou mo qin cai) from Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking (page 194) by Fuchsia Dunlop

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Notes about this recipe

  • Eat Your Books

    Can substitute minced pork for minced beef.

  • seherhussain on April 06, 2026

    I also doubled the beef and this was super tasty! Will toss the leftovers through noodles and think will work just as well as rice

  • tillathehungry on November 04, 2025

    Excellent and i can’t add more praise than already listed in these notes. But i did try making it with wallaby mince. It worked very well, despite being on the lean side of the meat spectrum. A wonderful more ‘sustainable’ meat option for those of us down under.

  • KarinaFrancis on April 10, 2025

    This was better than I was expecting, super simple to make but really flavourful.

  • Pandan on May 13, 2024

    This was super easy to make on a weekday. I doubled the amount of ground meet to 400g to use up all I had defrosted. Next time I won’t use the soy sauce as it was a bit too salty.

  • Jardimc on March 02, 2024

    I’ve made this countless times now - with pork, with beef - and served it with rice, and once with Indo Mie Mi Goreng instant noodles. It’s that bloody good. Every single time.

  • Apollonia on January 22, 2023

    Another banger from this book. Like Patioweather below, I made it with a higher proportion of vegan meat (Beyond Beef ground, to be precise), and while normally we aren't the sort of vegetarians to just down a big pack of this stuff, it was superb here. Served with twice-cooked chard--- will defo make again.

  • jenburkholder on August 16, 2022

    Surprisingly good. Used fresh celery from the farmer’s market - would definitely advise searching some of that, or Chinese celery, out for additional flavor. Subbed Impossible for beef and that worked well.

  • snoozermoose on December 14, 2021

    This was a little too gingery and salty for my husband and me, though we did appreciate the bold flavors.

  • patioweather on September 12, 2021

    Neither my partner not I particularly care for celery but we both devoured this. I used fake beef, and greatly increased the meat to celery ratio because I wanted to use the entire package. I had two broad bean pastes in my fridge, one labeled "spicy" and one not, so I used half and half.

  • corylavell on May 10, 2021

    We make this pretty regularly. You do have to love celery, but that’s not hard here. I love how the dish stretches a small amount of meat into a whole meal - a great way to help us eat a bit more sustainably without compromising on flavour or cutting meat altogether.

  • Bloominanglophile on September 11, 2020

    My husband loved this dish and wants to have it again in the future. I don't mind making this again--it was a great, quick meal for a weekday. It is also quite economical, with only 4oz of ground beef serving two people. In fact, I'm thinking of assembling a meal "kit" to take to my daughter in college (in her first apartment) with the ingredients for this recipe so she can whip this up whenever the urge strikes!

  • jdjd99 on June 04, 2020

    I didn't have enough celery, so I supplemented with fresh green peas, and used a 2:1 veg to beef ratio. Everything else the same as the recipe. Delicious and we'll definitely reprise this frequently. Super easy and inexpensive.

  • excurvatus on March 18, 2020

    I've enjoyed having this in the fridge for the past couple of days. with a ratio of 3:1 (celery:beef), it is a very meat-light relish to help you eat your rice!

  • sosayi on April 17, 2017

    I probably make this dish once a month, which is shockingly regular for me. It's a quick, easy and simple dish that pretty much uses pantry staples (minus the meat). We generally double the recipe, which tends to use a whole, large head of regular celery and is perfect as a whole meal for two (with leftovers for my lunch!). We also sub in pork for the beef, as suggested as a possibility in the head note. I also cut down (maybe half?) on the doubanjiang, as I'm a wimp, but even that's pretty spicy. Served with brown rice, this is a great healthy dinner and I seriously love this dish!

  • helskitchenvt on August 08, 2016

    Unlike the other commenters, I couldn't find Chinese celery or a local strongly flavored celery, so I actually upped the celery, spiced a little more strongly (made it quite spicy, actually) and added fermented black beans (I also didn't have kids eating it, which helps). Worked really well and used up a lot of celery while at the same time no one complained about not having enough meat. I served it as part of a largely vegetarian dinner.

  • westminstr on October 15, 2014

    I made this with double the beef, which gives a better amount of food for a main dish and also helped to "send the celery down." (mine was from the farm and strongly flavored, very similar to chinese celery) I liked the dish but my family was not in love. I made in two batches, one regular for adults and one very mild with less celery for the kids. Used 1/2 tbsp chili bean paste and my son still complained it was too spicy, I should have cut back on the ginger as well I think.

  • Delys77 on June 17, 2013

    Pg. 194 Made this with the chinese celery and it definitely gives it a fragrant aromatic edge. Overall quite good but much better as a supporting dish than as a main. Would work well as a multi course meal as it is very easy to make.

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