Do you love Bok Choy? Never heard of it? No idea where to get it? Eat it weekly?
No matter what your status on bok choy is, this delicious dish will leave you wanting more! It’s easy to prepare and the good news is, even if you’ve never heard of bok choy, it’s easy to find at most mainstream grocery stores! And just like cabbage, it’s wonderfully low carb!
What You Will Learn:
- What is Bok Choy?
- Bok Choy vs. Baby Bok Choy
- How to properly choose, clean and cut fresh bok choy.
- How to properly store bok choy
- Carb count on Bok Choy
One of the things that I have noticed most with this style of eating is that all my cravings are gone and my hunger has been greatly reduced.
So much so, that I often have to remind myself to eat, or I can easily skip a meal, which is never a good idea with blood sugar issues. You definitely want to make sure you are eating enough with this way of eating, and that’s quite a switch from the way I used to eat!
One of the things I have to make a conscious effort to get enough of is vegetables. I love them, but I’m just never very hungry, so they tend to fall by the wayside. But not with this dish!
What is Bok Choy?
For those of you who are unfamiliar with bok choy, I can tell you it’s a wonderful vegetable!
It’s a chinese cabbage and is a member of the cruciferous vegetable family. It has thick, crunchy stems and dense leaves. The flavor is somewhere between cabbage and lettuce. It’s somewhat mild-flavored, but still offers a distinct flavor to any dish it’s included in. There are different ways to spell the name, but asking your local grocer or farmer for bok choy will always get you the right thing.
Bok choy could easily be considered a superfood. It contains omega-3s, as well as the antioxidant zinc as well as many other antioxidants. It’s also an anti-inflammatory veggie!
Bok Choy vs. Baby Bok Choy
Nutritionally, they are not that different. The obvious difference is in the size. Roughly speaking, for every medium, regular bok choy, you can use about 2 to 3 baby bok choys.
The main difference between the two is in their flavor. Baby bok choy has less of a “sharp” flavor, although both are relatively mild-flavored.
How to properly choose bok choy
When purchaseing bok choy (either regular or baby), look for firmness, and bright green colors, whether dark or light green. The leaves should look healthy and fresh. Avoid anything with brown spots or with wilted leaves.
How to properly store fresh bok choy
Do not wash your bok choy if it will be a few days before you cook it. The main reason for this is that any water left behind will rot the vegetable much faster. The best way to store bok choy is in a plastic bag with a paper towel to soak up any accidental moisture. It will last approximately 1 week this way.
To prepare prep bok choy
Cut off about 1 inch of the base to remove the stem and free the stems into individual pieces.
Rinse off all leaves to remove any dirt caught on the inside of the stems and leaves.
Stack the leaves into an even pile.
Chop the leaves cross-wise.
Then chop them length-wise.
When cooking, you should cook the whiter stem portions first as they will take longer to cook than the leaves, which wilt pretty quickly.
Bok choy carbs
(Data is for 1 cup)
The recipe
You can easily double or triple this recipe. I listed the servings as 2, but one person could easily eat this on their own. This makes a wonderful, veggie-filled breakfast!
It’s a fun and tasty way to get more veggies in your eating plan. It travels well for work as long as you keep thing cold until lunch. It reheats pretty well, though microwaved bacon is never the same as pan-fried. You won’t sacrifice on flavor however, and the portions are small enough that you won’t have to reheat more than once.
Note on the bacon: A good quality bacon can be tough to locate. Part of a low carb diet is avoiding sugar, something you will find in pretty much all mainstream bacon. So you have two options if you want to avoid this. You can buy locally from a farmer or butcher who will take requests to avoid any sugar in making their bacon, or you can look for the Wellshire Paleo No Sugar Bacon. I find it at Whole Foods and it has absolutely no added sugar. It’s a little on the pricier side, but meat is one thing I will spend good money on for better quality. Plus, it’s delicious bacon! (This is not a paid advertisem*nt, I really do buy this bacon and love it. Just a personal recommendation from me to you!)
I also found this Pederson’s Natural Farms Sugar Free Bacon (affiliate link) on Amazon. You have to order 6 packages at a time, so it’s a bit of a bigger cost up front. But it’s got a clean ingredient list as well.
Ingredients: Pork, Water, less than 2%, Salt, Vinegar, Celery Powder. 
This post from That’s Low Carb archives, originally posted 7/28/14.
Low Carb Bacon Bok Choy Recipe
Author: ÂThatsLowCarb.com
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 2
Ingredients
- 2 slices pastured bacon
- 2 cups chopped baby bok choy
- 2 large cloves garlic
Instructions
- Begin by sautéing the bacon in a skillet. When done, remove from pan and set aside to cool, leaving the bacon grease in the skillet.
- Add in the garlic and the bok choy stems to the skillet (the white part) and cook for about 2-3 minute, stirring constantly.
- Add the leaves and stir until the leaves wilt to your liking.
- Serve and enjoy.
Nutrition Data According To MyFitnessPal.com
(May not be totally accurate):
