Garlic Ginger Bok Choy

This week I decided that a trip to the Williamsburg Farmer’s Market would serve as my inspiration for deciding what type of vegetable to cook.  While at the farmer’s market, we came across a place called Blenheim Organic Gardens, a 400 acre farm in Westmoreland County.  The farm is family owned and operated, and produces all of their crops without the use of pesticides or chemicals.  They had a nice variety of fresh vegetables on display, and the one that finally caught my eye was the bok choy.

Bok choy is a type of Chinese cabbage first cultivated in the 14^th century.  While it is a vegetable high in vitamin A, vitamin C, and calcium, it is also very low in calories, with one full pound only equaling about 50 calories.  Bok choy also has many antioxidants that have been proven to prevent colon, breast, and prostate cancer as well as lower LDL, or “bad,” cholesterol.

In the past I had tried bok choy as an ingredient in vegetable soup, but I had never tried it as a main dish.  I found a recipe that only called for bok choy, soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and olive oil and decided to go with it.  It sounded easy enough, and this particular night I was in a hurry. 

 

To start, I cut the bok choy into chunks.  Bok choy has a white stem and green leaves, and as I cut the bok choy,  I separated the stems from the leaves, as I knew they would require different cooking times.  After the bok choy was cut, I heated a few tablespoons of olive oil over medium-high heat.

As the oil was heating, I grated about 1 tablespoon of fresh ginger (which smells exactly like ginger ale, by the way), and minced 2 cloves of garlic.  When the oil was hot, I added the ginger and garlic and sautéed until the garlic was soft (careful not to burn it!).  

 

Next I added the bok choy stems and ½ cup soy sauce.  I cooked and stirred this until the stems were soft and slightly translucent.  Finally I added the leaves and cooked just until they were wilted.

And voila! That was it! This recipe was very simple to make, and I found the bok choy to be a great pick for a main dish.  It was very filling and left us feeling satisfied, but at the same time we knew we were eating something very healthy for us.  Plus we really felt good about buying local, organic produce. 

   

Unfortunately the Williamsburg Farmer’s Market is about to end for the year, but we definitely look forward to next spring and summer when we can go back and get some more fresh vegetables!