Prolific American cookbook author Barbara Kafka’s most recent book is the rather suggestively titled Vegetable Love. It’s huge, encyclopedic and white with beautiful multi-coloured text splashed across the cover, full of technique and an enormous array of (mostly) vegetarian-friendly recipes.
A bunch of organic bok choy, crisp and juicy from the market this morning, needed a new approach. Enter Babs and her Vegetable Lovin’.
Radiant Bok Choy. Radiant. What a word. Made me want to eat this immediately.
But you know what? Babs needs a bit of hand with this recipe. Though she claims in the introduction that, ‘This is one of my proudest [sic] recipes’, and it was very, very good, it needs some extra help to develop the flavour. Firstly she uses too much turmeric, a whopping 2 tablespoons – oh, the bitterness; oh the shirt-staining, jeans-staining, couch-staining horror - and secondly she uses far too much salt.
Here goes. It’s delicious. There’s a lot of sauce, so soak it up with some plain basmati rice.
Radiant bok choy, adapted by me – for 2
2 heads of bok choy
2 teaspoons of turmeric
Generous pinch of sea salt
1 small tin of coconut milk, mixed with enough water to make 1 ½ cups in total
A few slices of ginger
A few shiitake mushrooms, de-stalked and caps sliced (dried are fine – just remember to soak for 20 mins in hot water and drain before proceeding)
Tamari or umeboshi vinegar
1 lime, cut into wedges
Quarter the bok choy lengthways and give it a really, really good wash. There's always sand embedded deep between the base of the leaves.
Place in one layer in a large saucepan or lidded frying pan. Add the turmeric, sea salt, coconut milk-water mixture and ginger. Bring to a boil, cover and turn the heat down to medium. Simmer for 6 minutes.
Take the lid off, turn the bok choy over using tongs, add the shiitakes and cover again. Simmer for further 6 minutes.
Serve splashed with a little tamari or umeboshi vinegar to taste and arrange the lime wedges on the side.
A very yellow dish. Don’t wear white when you eat this. Turmeric makes the very worst kind of stain…
Labels: autumn, bok choy, coconut milk, cookbooks, South East Asian flavours
Hi there Lucy, thanks for this recipe. I came across your blog yesterday and made this dish last night. I did add a bit of tofu and some noodles (we were hungry). It was brilliant - lots of flavour, lots of nutrition and easy-peasy to make (it took me about 15 minutes).
Thanks again for the recipe, I think it will be a regular in our house
Posted by: kathryn | April 25, 2007 at 02:41 AM
It's freezing cold here in Nashville and I absolutely cannot wait to make this to warm me up tonight. I've been ogling it all day :)
Posted by: Hannah | January 22, 2013 at 06:46 AM
hi hannah - hope it warms you right up! x
Posted by: Lucy | January 22, 2013 at 08:28 AM
My garden and fridge are overflowing with bok choy! We cant eat or give it away fast enough.. Lol! Ive tried many recipies and while they are good Im getting a little tired of them. Im excited I found this recipie as it is quite different from most of them out there! Making this right now! Thanks!!
Posted by: Natalie | May 22, 2015 at 07:03 AM
This was great! I added leftover mussels and it is delicious. I will definitely make it again. Thanks!
Posted by: Liz | April 23, 2016 at 01:36 AM
I did the soup and besides is full of anti-inflamatory and prebiotic ingredients, is amazingly delicous. Thank you!!
Posted by: Rirett | January 06, 2018 at 02:35 AM
Plan to try this dish tonight but am a bit bewildered by the purpose of the lime. Is it just a decorative garnish, or are we meant to sqeeze the wedges onto our servings? Thanks!
Posted by: Laloofah | January 24, 2018 at 10:41 AM
Nevermind! we squeezed the lime juice onto our servings and it was delicious! This is definitely a keeper.
Posted by: Laloofah | January 24, 2018 at 01:13 PM