The Buzz About Bok Choy

Bok Choy
"The White Cabbage"

Bok Choy’s scientific name is brassica chinensis. It is classified as a cabbage but its white stalks resemble celery and the dark green leaves are similar to romaine lettuce. The Chinese generally refer to Bok Choy as Pak Choi or "white cabbage”. As a member of the cabbage family, you can cook it as you would a cabbage. When cooked, it has a sweet flavor and its stalks are firm. Both stalks and leaves are edible. Bok Choy is becoming very popular because of its nutritional value. It doesn’t contain fat or cholesterol plus it is a good source of calcium. Bok Choy is also easy to prepare, just wash and then chop it! Steam or microwave for a healthy side dish or even a main meal. This vegetable is popular in kitchens everywhere because it is not only a delicious substitute to cabbage but it is also healthy and packed with nutrition.

You might even find Baby Bok Choy available. Cuteness quotient aside, baby bok choy are more tender and incomparably milder than big bok choy. They've also got it all over their adult counterparts when it comes to relative ease of cooking. Whereas the adult counterpart demands a sort of tag-team approach -- the crunchy stems must be separated from the leafy greens and cooked far longer -- the diminutive bunches can be braised whole.

Nutritional Information
Serving Size: one cup shredded bok choy, or 70 grams.

Macronutrients:
Calories: 9
Protein: 1.05 g
Carbohydrates: 1.53 g
Fiber: 0.7 g
Sugars: 0.83 g
Total Fat: 0.14 g
Saturated Fat: 0.018 g
Monounsaturated Fat: 0.011 g
Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.067 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg

Micronutrients:
Calcium: 74 mg
Iron: 0.56 mg
Magnesium: 13 mg
Phosphorus: 26 mg
Potassium: 176 mg
Sodium: 46 mg
Zinc: 0.13 mg
Vitamin C: 31.5 mg

Bok Choy Tips
Use both the stalks and leaves for stir fry. Add the stalk slices first. Add the leaves just before serving as you would bean sprouts.
Avoid bok choy with deformed stalks and brown spots which indicate poor growing conditions. Yellow leaves and very small stalks or bunches mean old product.

Try great Bok Choy recipes like:

CHICKEN BOK CHOY - www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1718,135187-254195,00.html
BOK CHOY SALAD www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1918,150166-225199,00.html
SWEET & SOUR BOK CHOY www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,1950,149174-248198,00.html

Tasty Humor
A Bok Choy joke is not easy to come up with… how about a limerick?

Asparagus, Bok Choy or Chard
Being vegan is really not hard

Live life cruelty free

Scream “It’s tofu for me!”

While feeling quite the avant-garde


Submitted by
Charlotte Barnes
GVSU Intern