The most commonly eaten olive vegetable is mustard greens.

Olive vegetables are dishes made from mustard greens, olives and other seasonings. They have a salty taste. They are a flavored side dish in the Chaoshan region of Guangdong and belong to Chaozhou cuisine in the Cantonese cuisine. The mustard used to make olives is a large-leaf mustard with 50-50 leaves. In addition, seasonings such as peanut oil (or rapeseed oil), salt and soy sauce are also added when making olive vegetables.

Olive vegetables have a delicate texture and a salty taste. They have the astringency of olives, the sourness of mustard greens, and a special fragrance. The taste is diverse and unique. Olive vegetables are great for porridge and can also be used for stir-fries.

Olive vegetables are also a special variety of pickles in Chaoshan area, and are an important part of Chaoshan food culture. Chaoshan olive vegetable production techniques have a long history and are widely spread in Longhu District, Chenghai District and surrounding villages and towns of Shantou City.

The development history of olive vegetables:

Zhang Xiuqing's "Chenghai County Chronicle" recorded in the Jiaqing period of the Qing Dynasty: "Mustard greens, also known as large vegetables, are often planted in the fields after the autumn harvest in this county, and they are salted after harvesting. , the taste is very delicious. The skilled women in Chenghai carefully cooked black olive vegetables using local olives and salted mustard."

In the middle of the Qing Dynasty, there was the "Qianheng Vegetable Gallery" in Waisha Township, Chenghai County. Workshops such as "Tian Sheng Vegetable Gallery" and "Shunchang Tai Vegetable Gallery" show the popularity of olive vegetable production. After Shantou opened as a port, Chaoshan people traveled across the ocean, and olive vegetables were also sold to Southeast Asian countries. Overseas Chaozhou people called it "homesick food." It enhances overseas hipsters’ sense of identity with their hometown culture.

With the improvement of people’s quality of life, the acceleration of the pace of life, and the refinement of social division of labor, the traditional habit of making olive vegetables at home has gradually faded out of people’s lives, especially among the younger generation. It has been lost, and there is an urgent need to increase the protection of Chaoshan olive vegetable production techniques.