Easy Bok Choy Recipe (Garlic & Ginger) | Downshiftology (2024)

FAQs

Is bok choy better steamed or boiled? ›

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.

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.

The names Pak Choy and Bok Choy are often used interchangeably, but there is a difference, and it's all in the stem. Bok Choy has a white stem, whereas Pak Choy has a green stem. Pak Choy looks like a squat celery with pale green, short stalks and glossy deep green leaves.

In fact, bok choy may be beneficial for heart health, bone health, and thyroid function. It may even have anticancer properties. You may want to eat it in cooked form to reduce your intake of myrosinase, a compound that could interfere with iodine absorption.

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.

All of Bok Choy is edible, so once you get to that point, you can chop up the stem and the bulb.

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.

Cook for about 6 minutes until the base of the bok choy is slightly tender. Test it with the tip of a knife, then serve. For best results, trim the stalks off before boiling, as the stalks take longer to cook than the leaves.

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.

Bok choy also is a good source of folate (folic acid) and potassium. And with its deep green leaves, bok choy has more beta-carotene than other cabbages, and it also supplies considerably more calcium. It's basically fat-free and low in calories.

Is bok choy healthier than green cabbage? ›

Nutrition: Bok choy is significantly higher in dietary fiber, vitamin C, and vitamin A than napa cabbage. Texture: Bok choy stalks are more fibrous than the leaves of napa cabbage, and you'd therefore be less likely to encounter them raw.

In Mandarin Chinese, the common name is 青菜 qing cai ("green vegetable") or 小白菜 xiao bai cai ("small white vegetable"). Although it is simply called 白菜 baak choi ("white vegetable") in Cantonese, the same characters pronounced bai cai by Mandarin speakers are preferably used as the name for Napa cabbage.

It packs potassium, lutein, folate and 70 antioxidants, which makes it a candidate for cancer prevention, according to research. Bok choy loses a smidge of its nutrients when it's cooked, but it's also easier to eat more cooked than raw, so you'll probably come out about even.

“Steaming allows you to retain more of the nutrients compared with boiling,” Jenna Hope confirms, because leaching, whereby some nutrients draw out into the water, doesn't occur as much. “Naturally, it may not provide as much flavour as, for example, roasting, so serve with a pesto or tahini.”

Steaming Vegetables

As the vegetables are not boiled, they don't lose the essential nutrients. Steaming also keeps the vegetables crisp and bright. In short, if you want to preserve the color, taste, and nutrients of the vegetables, you need to steam them instead of boiling them.