All About Bok Choy

By Jing Shan


Dear CSA Members,

Hope you've been enjoying your fresh organic veggies.

Did you get to try your bok choy? How did you prepare it? Since I'm a big
bok choy fan, I'd like to share things I know and things I just discovered
with you.

Bok choy (or pak choi) comes from Cantonese pronunciation. In Mandarin
Chinese it is pronounced "bai cai", which literally means "white vegetable".

So I've always known bok choy originated in China, but I didn't know it's been around for more than 5000 years. I also didn't know you can eat it raw.

Here is a list of 10 Fun Facts.

Since I've never tried it raw, the easiest way for me to prepare it is to boil it:

1. Strip the leaves off the roots. Wash thoroughly (I like to wash each leaf individually).

2. If the stems are too thick and leaves are large, I usually just break it up with my hands, and chop the stalks into pieces. Otherwise I just leave the whole laves alone.

3. Bring a pot of water to a boil then add the bok choy. Boil for a minute or two. Allow the water to drain out and place cooked bok choy in a bowl.

4. To season, I like to use flax seed oil or olive oil, and add salt & black pepper.

My family likes it stir-fried as well. Satué the bok choy in vegetable oil with garlic and ginger and then add a little bit of salt before turning off the heat. This is great with mushrooms too. Here is a recipe I found online.

Bok choy is also popular in Chinese or Asian soup. It makes the soup looks great, plus you'll have all the fiber and nutrients. Speaking of nutrients, bok choy is packed with vitamins A, C, and K as well as folate and calcium. It also has polyphenols, antioxidant phytochemicals that are shown to have anti-cancer properties. Click here to read more.

Hope this was helpful. Feel free to share pictures of your bok choy dish.

Enjoy your bok choy!!


With joy,

Jing

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