Toasted Garlic Bok Choy

Tasty Bok Choy with a toasted garlic topping is an absolute staple in our household! Only taking around 15 mins to prepare, this recipe will become one of your new favorite veggies.

I like to think of this dish as three separate components that come together in perfect harmony: the sauce, the toasted garlic, and the bok choy.

The sauce

This sauce only requires 4 INGREDIENTS (maybe even 3 if you don’t count the water). It’s a very standard sauce comprising of:

• Oyster sauce
• Sugar
• Oil (garlic-infused)
• Water

That’s it! Not only is it so simple, but the sauce is absolutely delicious. It reminds me a lot of other Chinese and Asian dishes since the flavor profile of the oyster sauce is so distinct.

Toasted garlic

The key to golden, toasted garlic is patience. That’s why in so many recipes you’ll often see the chefs telling you to saute or fry the garlic last: because they burn super quickly. No one likes burnt garlic, it becomes terribly bitter, and that bitterness seeps into our garlic oil which also makes that somewhat unpleasant to eat.

To avoid that, fry your garlic over a medium to medium-low heat; just enough to cause the garlic to sizzle and toast, but not enough to completely burn them. Continue moving the minced garlic around so it toasts evenly in the oil for around 5-7 mins or until perfectly golden, then strain out the garlic and save the resulting oil for our sauce!

The Bok Choy

Now, there are actually various you can cook bok choy, and you may already have your own preference! The most common methods are to boil/blanch them, saute, or steam.

That being said, this is where you can usually deviate from the recipe a bit if you already have a preferred method of cooking! For the sake of this recipe, I boiled the bok choy.

Preparing the bok choy is fairly straightforward:

1. Start by cutting off the bottom root section of the bok choy, about 1 inch from the bottom. You can choose to discard this or throw it in a pot for vegetable stock!
2. Peel away the individual stems of the bok choy and thoroughly rinse them under cold water (lots of dirt tend to get stuck in these tight areas so you’ll want to watch out for that).
3. In a pot of BOILING water, throw in your cleaned bok choy and let it boil for 1-3 minutes. Timing is crucial with bok choy because you certainly do not want to overcook these. Overcooked, and they become soggy, and their nutritional value decreases. Depending on if you plan to use regular or baby bok choy, a way to know if they’re cooked is if the greens are wilted, the stems are tender (when pierced with a fork) and the color of the bok choy is an overall vibrant green.

Garlic Bok Choy

0.0 from 0 votes

Recipe by Ian Course: SidesCuisine: Chinese, Asian

Tasty Bok Choy with a toasted garlic topping is an absolute staple in our household! Only taking around 15 mins to prepare, this recipe will become one of your new favorite veggies.

Cook Mode

Keep the screen of your device on

Ingredients

• Bok choy

• Toasted garlic

• 5-7 cloves garlic, minced

• 3 tbsp oil

• Sauce

• 1.5 tbsp oyster sauce

• 1 tsp sugar

• 1.5 tbsp reserved garlic-infused oil

• 1.5 tbsp water

Directions

• Rinse the bok choy under cold water to remove any debris, then boil them for around 1-3 mins or until tender.
• Meanwhile, toast the garlic over medium heat, stirring occasionally, to avoid burning. Once the garlic has turned a golden-brown color, drain the toasted garlic and reserve the infused oil.
• Prepare the sauce by combining all the ingredients together, then drizzle over the cooked bok choy.
• Top with the toasted garlic and serve.

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @Iankewks on Instagram and hashtag it with #iankewks

Like this recipe?

Follow @Iankewks on Pinterest

Join our Facebook Group!

Follow Iankewks on Facebook