Discover Pak Choi Recipes for Tasty and Easy Meal Preparation
Whether you are a vegetarian or not, pak choi is a superb ingredient that has a subtle flavour and deliciously crunchy texture that brings a distinctive feel to any recipe it is used in.
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How to Cook Pak Choi in Different Ways
There are many ways to cook pak choi, each of which produces slightly different results:
- Boiling: Perhaps the simplest way to cook pak choi is to place it into simmering water for two minutes. Then, strain the vegetable and serve it as an accompaniment to the rest of the dish on the side of the plate.
- Stir-Frying: Many recipes make use of stir-fried pak choi, including the delicious pork and pak choi rice. When the pork is browned, chop your pak choi and fry for a few minutes in a wok or frying pan.
- Steaming: If you don’t want to submerge your pak choi in water to cook it, then steam it instead. Make sure the water is boiling, and turn the pak choi halfway through so it steams on all sides. This method takes a couple of minutes.
- Cooking in Coconut Milk: Similar to boiling in water, cooking in coconut milk only takes a minute or two to tenderise the pak choi. Don’t strain the pak choi, though. Check out prawn and coconut laksa with garlic charred pak choi for a side-dish that goes well with a Southeast Asian coconut curry.
- Raw: Because it is a leafy vegetable, pak choi also makes for a very useful addition to salads. If so, you don’t need to cook it at all. Just cut it into bite-sized chunks for any leafy salad. Alternatively, chop it finely and sprinkle it raw over a soup or noodle dish for added crunch and texture.
How to Prepare Pak Choi - Your Step-by-Step Guide
Here’s what you need to do to prepare your pak choi for any recipe:
- Rinse: Although pak choi is usually clean, it is advisable to run it under the tap or soak it for a few seconds to remove any unwanted material that may remain on the surface of its leaves. Remember that, as a brassica, pak choi grows in earth, so it can sometimes need a quick wash before eating, especially near the bottoms of the stems.
- Remove the Stem: Whether you intend to cook your pak choi or eat it raw, the stem will be inedible. Simply cut away the bottom few millimetres of your pak choi, but keep the rest because it is all edible.
- Chop: Next, chop your pak choi. You can cut it lengthways, ideal for serving in two halves as a vegetable accompaniment or cut it into smaller sections for stir-frying, for example. When chopping, keep the top, greener leaves bigger. Slightly smaller sections of the plant's whiter, more dense part will mean you get even cooking throughout.
- Cook: Either toss your chopped pak choi into a salad or cook it with one of the aforementioned methods outlined above.
Pak Choi Recipe FAQs
How do I cut pak choi?
To cut pak choi, place a whole one sideways down on a chopping board and remove the stem. The individual leaves can then be pulled apart by hand. Smaller ones won’t need further cutting, but denser ones near the stem should be chopped into smaller pieces, especially for pak choi salads and stir-fries.
What is pak choi?
Also known as pak choy or bok choy, pak choi is a leafy green vegetable that’s part of the brassica family, just like cabbage. It is often used in East-Asian cuisine.
How can I use pak choi?
Pak choi can be eaten raw in a salad. When cooking pak choi, you can stir-fry or boil it, but don’t overdo it, or you will lose its crunchy texture. Savoy cabbage or Swiss chard are good pak choi substitutes.
What do you eat with pak choi?
Pak choi can be eaten with other vegetables in a vegetarian stir-fry or salad dish. It is also a great accompaniment for meat or fish, just as cabbage would be. In short, it is highly versatile.
What are two uses of pak choi?
Steam or boil pak choi to serve it as a vegetable accompaniment alongside meat, fish, or a vegetarian alternative. When used in a stir-fry, add it towards the end in sesame or walnut oil since it only takes a little cooking.
What part of pak choi do we eat?
The green leaves of pak choi are edible, as is the stem, which is greener and denser. The only part you remove is the tip of the stem where the roots would be.
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