Quick Baby Bok Choy Stir-Fry
This dish comes together in ten minutes and is among the easiest and most flavorful preparations of Bok Choy. The sauce is restaurant quality and bursting with flavor, outstanding when piled onto a bowl of steaming hot white rice.
Bok Choy, also called Pok Choy or Chinese White Cabbage, is a popular ingredient in Asian dishes. It belongs to the cabbage family and has thick satisfyingly crunchy stems and mild tasting leaves.
The stir-fry cooks within minutes and makes a healthy main or side. A tasty and comforting meal on any weekday evening and a great choice if you are just introducing bok choy to your kids.
This dish has been on a weekly rotation in my kitchen as Bok choy currently ranks as #1 on my son’s vegetable favorites; dethroning broccoli from that position.
In this recipe I have used 5 baby bok choy (about the size of my hand) that I bought at the farmer’s market. Baby bok choy is available at Chinese grocery stores and farmer’s markets in California. They may not be as easy to come by at regular grocery stores, although many supermarkets these days carry large mature bok choy. If that's what you are able to find, chop it into a few large pieces before adding it to the pan.
You can easily swap out the bok choy for a pound of broccoli or any sturdy greens like cabbage or chard.
Baby Bok Choy Stir Fry
Serves 2 as main and 4 as a side
Ingredients:
5 baby bok choy
1 tbsp avocado oil
1 tbsp minced garlic, about 3 plump garlic cloves
2 tsp fresh grated ginger, about 1 inch ginger
For the sauce
1-1/2 tbsp low sodium soy sauce or tamari
1 tbsp Shaohsing (Shaoxing) cooking wine or dry sherry
1/3 cup water
1 tsp sambal oelek
1 tsp maple syrup or sugar
1 tbsp arrowroot powder or cornstarch
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 tsp black sesame seeds for garnish, optional
Preparation:
Prepare all your ingredients before you start making this dish. It goes really fast and you won’t have time to grab things once you turn on the stove.
First, trim the base of the bok choy and separate the stalks, leaving the smallest inner leaves attached. Wash thoroughly under running water taking special care to wash off the dirt & grit that tends to get trapped between the stalks.
Mince the garlic. Grate the ginger. Keep aside.
In a small mason jar or bowl, combine all the ingredients listed under sauce. Stir well and keep aside.
Heat oil in a wok or a large cast iron skillet over high heat. Add the ginger and garlic. Cook stirring continuously for about 30 sec. Stir in the bok choy. The pan may look a little crowded at this point but it’ll be fine as the bok choy leaves will wilt with the heat. Cover and let the bok choy steam for 2 minutes.
Uncover the pan. Give the sauce another stir to re-incorporate the arrowroot powder that would have settled at the bottom, and then add it to the pan. Cook for another minute, until the sauce becomes slightly thick and glossy and coats the bok choy.
Turn off the stove and transfer the bok choy to a serving dish. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve with steamed rice.
Notes:
Both soy sauce and Shaoxing cooking wine have salt. I have used low sodium tamari here and did not need any additional salt.
I prefer using Arrowroot powder as a healthier alternative to cornstarch to thicken my sauces. It is gluten free, tasteless, odourless and gives a nice glossy finish. It promotes digestive health and has many other health benefits.
Using tamari, dry sherry and arrowroot powder make this dish GLUTEN FREE.
Get the kids cooking:
Let the kids separate the stalks of the bok choy and help wash it, especially along the stem where the dirt is most frequently found.
They can prep the aromatics - ginger & garlic. Sometimes kids don’t enjoy handling garlic but are quite happy to use a garlic press and avoid getting the smell on their hands.
Kids can measure and combine the ingredients for the sauce.
They make great time keepers. It takes 5 mins from adding the oil to the pan to removing the cooked bok choy on to a serving platter or plate! Make sure your rice and other elements of the meal are ready and the table is set before you set out to cook your bok choy.
Did you know?
Bok Choy is packed with vitamins A and C. One cup of cooked bok choy provides more than 100% of the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of A, and close to two-thirds the RDA of C.
Did you make this recipe? Please let me know how it turned out for you! Leave a comment below and share a picture on instagram and tag it with the hashtag #nibblengobble.
