Garlic Bok Choy Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the best way to eat bok choy? ›

Bok choy, a Chinese cabbage, is tender, sweet, and stands up well to heat — making it perfect for stir-frying. Cook it simply with garlic, black bean sauce, or shiitake mushrooms for a delicious side dish, or incorporate it into a frittata or bowl of ramen for a more substantial bite.

Blanching your greens is key to getting that bitterness level down. Because glucosinolates are water-soluble compounds, a lot of them are leached out into the water, allowing for a less bitter green.

Try tossing it into a stir fry or soup. Steam it and add it to a grain bowl. Or enjoy it raw in a salad, sandwich, or wrap! If you'd like some more specific suggestions for how to cook bok choy, don't worry, I've got you covered.

The simplest way to prep bok choy is to cut it in half lengthwise and submerge it in cold water for a few minutes. This will soften the dirt and allow you to remove it easily. Drain the water, check for dirt between the stalks, and run each half of bok choy under cold water.

Bok choy contains the minerals potassium, magnesium, and calcium, which work to help naturally regulate your blood pressure ( 17 ). Having unmanaged high blood pressure can be a risk factor for developing heart disease ( 18 ). Bok choy is also a good source of folate and vitamin B6.

Bok choy contains sorbitol which is hard to digest. When eaten in excess, it slips through the small intestine without being digested and enters the large intestine. Gut bacteria in the intestines break it down to form gases such as hydrogen that cause bloating issues.

The best way to eat bok choy is to lightly steam or stir-fry it to retain its crisp texture. Overcooking makes it mushy. Bok choy has a delicious, mild flavor that pairs well with garlic, ginger, sesame oil, oyster sauce, soy sauce, chiles, or Whole30 peanut sauce.

Baby bok choy can be fibrous, which makes biting into a whole leaf a stringy chore and an affront to etiquette. Remember, unless you are a non-Asian, there is no silverware brought to the table. The only tools you have to break down this unwittingly challenging vegetable are chopsticks and your teeth.

A lot of these pests can be combatted with row covers and crop rotation. Another useful method is growing bok choy as a fall crop, when pests are past their natural growing season lifecycle. This is especially effective when combatting vegetable weevils. If natural methods fail, use insecticides.

How to store bok choy. Bok choy can be refrigerated for 3 to 7 days. Place the unwashed bok choy in a breathable plastic bag in the crisper. If you need to store the bok choy for a longer period of time, you can boil it in water for 2 minutes and then rinse with cold water and place the bok choy in the freezer.

Can I freeze bok choy? ›

Dry the bok choy and place carefully into freezer bags, removing as much air as possible from bag. Bok choy keeps for up to 12 months if frozen under 0 degrees. What are the benefits of bok choy? A cruciferous vegetables, bok chop contains high levels of vitamin C, fibre, vitamin K, vitamin A, and beta-carotene.

You can find two main types of bok choy, Shanghai Bok Choy and Baby Bok Choy. Baby Bok Choy has white stalks and dark green, crinkly leaves with a more mineral taste. Shanghai Bok Choy has wide, jade-colored stalks shaped like soupspoons and light green smooth leaves with a more mild, celery-like flavor.

Can you regrow bok choy? Yes, you sure can, and it's super simple. If you're a thrifty person, regrowing bok choy is a nice alternative to throwing the leftovers in the compost bin or garbage can.

Bok choy has a stellar lineup of nutrients that help promote bone health — including iron, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and bone-building vitamin K. In addition, this superfood is a much healthier alternative to fat-filled milk for getting the RDA of calcium and preventing calcium deficiency.

Raw bok choy, like all cruciferous vegetables, contains an enzyme called myrosinase. Myrosinase can hinder thyroid function by preventing the body from absorbing iodine. Cooking deactivates it.

Bok choy tastes similar to cabbage. It has a mild, fresh, and grassy flavor with a slight peppery kick. The stalks have a celery-like crunch, while the leaves are soft and crisp.

Bok choy is a heavy feeder. It needs rich soil with plenty of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Be sure to add plenty of compost and some organic fertilizer to the soil at planting time. It grows best in full sun, but can tolerate some shade.