Sesame-Miso Sous Vide Bok Choy Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Should I soak bok choy before cooking? ›

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.

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.

Unlike so many leafy greens, bok choy doesn't shrink down to nothing when cooked.

Sous vide is the perfect way to cook most foods, allowing you to have the ultimate temperature control, which in turn results in perfectly cooked food. While you may most commonly associate sous vide with cooking meat and fish, it is also a great way to cook vegetables.

Produce that no longer looks completely fresh or already smells strange is, of course, no longer suitable for the sous vide procedure. This particularly applies to fish and meat that is cooked at relatively low temperatures.

Traditional bok choy has dark, crinkly leaves and crisp, white stems; Shanghai bok choy has spoon-shaped leaves and jade green stems. The cool thing is that both the leaves and the stalks can be eaten, and this wonderful little plant is an excellent go-to for fiber, as well as for beta-carotene and vitamins C, K and A.

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.

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.

Also known as Pac Choi, this type of Chinese cabbage is a member of the brassica family. 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.

How do you know when bok choy is ready? ›

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.

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.

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. Eating raw bok choy in moderate amounts does not pose a hazard.

Eating bok choy is a great way to add more health-promoting nutrients and compounds to your diet. The vitamins and minerals found in bok choy offer additional benefits, such as: Potassium, magnesium, and calcium help support normal blood pressure regulation, an important factor in heart health.

Climate/Weather

Like most leafy green vegetables, bok choy prefers cooler temperatures. It performs poorly in heat, and generally prefers temperatures to remain between 55-75°F/12-24°C. Some varieties can tolerate hotter temperatures, as long as they're well watered.

And because your sous vide machine will be set to the exact temperature that you want the food to reach, you know it'll never go above this point and overcook.

Vegetables are prime candidates for sous vide cookery.

The precisely heated water bath allows you to cook green vegetables until they are crisp-tender but still a vibrant hue. It also allows you to cook root vegetables to their tender ideal from end to end.