This Vietnamese stir-fried squid with veggies is quick and easy to make for dinner. The squid is sautéed until just cooked through to retain its mild sweetness and a pleasant texture.
Besides steaming ang grilling, stir-frying is one of the most popular ways to cook squid in Vietnamese cuisine. Stir-fried squid is called “mực xào” in Vietnamese. Viet cooks can use different combinations of vegetables to add to the dish. The version I’m sharing today is very popular in Saigon, and later in this post, I will include a variation my mom often makes in the North.
Ingredients
Here are the main ingredients for this stir-fried squid recipe:
- squid
- veggies: pineapple, tomato, scallion and leaf celery
- aromatics and seasonings: garlic, onion, fish sauce, salt and pepper
In case you are wondering “what is leaf celery?”: it is a thin variety of celery with flavorful stalks and leaves. It is pretty common to use this Asian celery in stir-fries in Vietnam.
You may need to take a trip to an Asian grocery store to buy it in the US. If that’s not possible, you can use the leafy part of Western celery or substitute it with scallions though it will be less aromatic.
Cooking Notes
This recipe comes together very quickly, about 5 minutes so make sure you prepare all ingredients before heating the stove. The squid can be cut into rings or bite-sized pieces, and you can visit my steamed squid recipe to watch how to clean and cut it.
All the veggies will need to be either sliced or cut into short sections to match the size of the squid pieces. Here are the steps to cut a pineapple in an Asian style.
Once all ingredients have been prepped, heat a heavy-bottomed pan until it is very hot. Start with briefly sautéing the squid. Do not cook all the way through yet, or it may be overcooked later and become rubbery.
Set the squid aside and sauté the aromatics. Then cook the pineapple and tomato briefly before adding back the squid and stir-frying them together.
Finally, stir in chopped scallion and leaf celery, and the dish is ready to serve. It is best to eat it right away when it is still hot. Also, leftovers will not taste as good the next day, so I recommend making just enough for your meal.
You can eat this squid stir-fry with rice or on its own. It is also common to serve it with a small bowl of fish sauce on the side as a dipping sauce.
Recipe Variations and Substitutions
The version of stir-fried squid my mom often makes in the North doesn’t use pineapple or tomato. It contains thinly sliced kohralbi besides scallion of leaf celery.
Another variation is super simple. There’s also no tomato or pineapple, and you just need to increase the amount of onion and celery leaves used. This simple version is called “mực xào hành cần“.
As mentioned previously, if you cannot find leaf celery, the best substitute would be the leafy part of the regular Western celery. Otherwise, you may use more onion and scallion instead.
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