10 Minute Garlic Bok Choy Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How long does bok choy need to be cooked for? ›

Bring a pot of water to the boil and drop the bok chop into the water. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until just tender. Avoid overcooking as this will reduce the nutritional value and alter the texture.

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.

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, 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.

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.

Bok choy only takes 45 days to reach maturity, so you can enjoy your leafy greens relatively quickly after planting them. Harvest the bok choy before the hot weather sets in, because the hot weather will make the bok choy go to seed very fast. Bok choy is ready to harvest when it reaches 12 to 18 inches tall.

You can also rip the stalks off, if you don't feel like cutting them. But you will eventually have to cut them when you reach the mini bulb inside. All of Bok Choy is edible, so once you get to that point, you can chop up the stem and the bulb.

Bok choy belongs to the cruciferous family of vegetables like broccoli and cabbage known to have high amounts of fermentable carbohydrates like sorbitol and mannitol. These increase bloating, gas, and pain in the abdomen, and further aggravate IBS symptoms.

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 meta-analysis and review of research in the journal Food Chemistry found that eating 100 grams of cruciferous vegetables, such as bok choy, every day was associated with a 10% reduction in the risk of death from any cause. (100 grams of cooked bok choy is a little more than a half-cup.)

What does bok choy do for your body? ›

Bok choy is an especially good source of vitamins C and K. It also contains some fiber, a critical nutrient found only in plant foods. Fiber supports digestive health and helps reduce the risk of many chronic diseases ( 3 , 4 , 5 ).

The vegetable is also high in potassium, magnesium, and calcium, all of which help to reduce your blood pressure naturally. Some studies show that eating sufficient potassium can help to lower sodium-induced high blood pressure.

In equivalent raw weight, bok choy contains more vitamin C, vitamin A, and some other nutrients than spinach and around the same amount of calcium. Spinach, however, contains higher amounts of some other nutrients, including vitamin K, than bok choy.

What is the difference between regular bok choy and baby bok choy? There is virtually no difference between regular-sized bok choy and baby bok choy. Baby bok choy is harvested earlier than regular-sized bok choy, and as a result, the vegetable is naturally smaller and overall is a bit sweeter.

Baby Bok Choy can be eaten raw or cook very lightly, stirring into finished dishes to help preserve the vitamins. Stirfry quickly – Whole or cut in half lengthwise – according to your recipe.

There are plenty of ways to try adding bok choy to your diet. You can consume bok choy raw, roasted, or cooked on the stovetop in a soup, stir-fry, or fried rice dish. You can incorporate bok choy into your diet in Asian dishes and many other ways.

The major shift in nutrients between raw and cooked bok choy is the level of vitamin C and K depletion when the vegetable is cooked. It's best to consume it raw to get the most nutrients or at the very least only lightly cook it.