Baby Bok Choy with Cashews

Bok choy is quick and easy! You can make bok choy that is simple yet delicious in just 15-minutes. All you need is baby bok choy, olive oil, garlic, green onions, and roasted, salted cashews.

Sometimes the simplest things are the most enjoyable, right?

My mother whipped up this quick and easy baby bok choy dish the other night. The bok choy was so good I made her make it again the next day so I could watch with pad and pen in hand.

Getting a recipe out of my mom is actually not that easy. She never makes anything the same way twice, and she never measures. (She’s obviously not a baker.) I make her weigh things.

“How much bok choy is that mom?” She looks at me as if I’ve just asked her how many miles there are to the moon. I get the kitchen scale down from the cabinet.

What Does Baby Bok Choy Taste Like?

Bok choy is in the cabbage family, but doesn’t have the same sharpness or spiciness that cabbages often have.

Cooked, bok choy is mild and sweet. The leaves wilt like spinach while the stalks stay crisp-tender, somewhat like celery. Baby bok choy is just smaller and more tender than regular bok choy.

Ways to Adapt this Recipe

In this recipe we are stir-frying bok choy with green onions and cashews. Why cashews? Because that’s what we had on hand. Almonds would work too!

If you want, feel free to jazz the bok choy up a bit with a little freshly grated ginger and a shake of chili pepper flakes.

Tips for Preparing Bok Choy

  • Look for baby bok choy specifically, which is smaller and better for stir-fries like this.
  • Buy bok choy with firm, crispy stems and bright green leaves. Avoid bok choy with floppy stems or browned, bruised parts showing.
  • Rinse the bok choy thoroughly before cooking. Like celery and other greens, dirt can sometimes collect between the leaves.
  • To prepare bok choy for cooking, snap off the large outer leaves until you get to the small leaves clustered together in the middle. Trim the base, but leave it intact so those small leaves stay together. You’ll cook both the large outer leaves and these small inner leaves.
  • Bok choy cooks quickly! It only takes about 5 minutes on the heat for the leaves to wilt and the stems to become tender.

More Recipes with Bok Choy

Updated March 20, 2019 : We spiffed up this post to make it sparkle. No changes to the original recipe.

Baby Bok Choy with Cashews Recipe

  • Prep time: 10 minutes
  • Cook time: 5 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 cup chopped green onions, including green ends
  • 3 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 pound baby bok choy, rinsed, larger leaves separated from base, base trimmed but still present, holding the smaller leaves together
  • 1/2 teaspoon dark sesame oil
  • Salt
  • 1/2 cup chopped, roasted, salted cashews

Method

1 Sauté onions, garlic, bok choy: Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan on medium high heat. Add onions, then garlic, then bok choy. Sprinkle with sesame oil and salt.

2 Cover, and let the baby bok choy cook down for approximately 3 minutes. (Like spinach, when cooked, the bok choy will wilt a bit.)

3 Remove cover. Lower heat to low. Stir and let cook for a minute or two longer, until the bok choy is just cooked.

4 Gently stir in the roasted cashews.