How Long To Cook Pak Choi

If you've ever browsed our recipe list you'll have noticed that we're big fans of Asian cuisine. We think tofu specifically pairs beautifully well with oriental flavours and one of the best of many of these dishes is pak choi.

Pak Choi is a member of the cabbage family but is wonderfully crunchy – adding brilliant texture to curries and broth dishes alike. Its structure is similar to that of a squat celery and has dark, glossy green leaves with a paler, white stalk. We love cooking with this vegetable, so we thought we'd give you a little how-to in case you weren't familiar with it.

How To Prepare Pak Choi

One of the things we love about pak choi is that it's available all year round, it's not specifically seasonal. Below is how you can go about preparing pak choi for your dish.

Firstly, you'll want to choose the best products, so make sure you opt for pak choi that has firm looking and glossy leaves with an unblemished stalk. The smaller cabbages tend to be the most tender, so pick those if you're after that in your dish.
Next, it's important to wash pak choi like you would any other cabbage.
Now, you can either tear the entire stalk and leaf off and cook as is – many Japanese style noodle broths keep them whole like this, however, we recommend choosing a small or young pak choi for this. Alternatively, you can chop horizontally into wide strips down the vegetable.

How To Cook Pak Choi

Once you've bought your pak choi, it can be stored in your fridge for up to 3 days. We've outlined some of our favourite methods of cooking pak choi below, all of which retain the lovely fresh flavour of the vegetable:

Steam: Sliced pak choi will take as little time as 2 mins to steam, whole it can take up to 8 mins, so pop it on to steam when you're nearing the end of your cooking time.
Stir-fry: Again, a very quick method that retains a nice crunch, only taking 2 mins.
Blanch: Pak choi is so quick to cook it only needs a quick blanch in boiling water for 2 mins to get the effect you want for that refreshing crunch.

Pak Choi Recipe Ideas

Vegan Tofu Thai Green Curry

A delicious, fragrant and creamy Thai green curry with pieces of tofu and crispy vegetables. Thai green curry is a very popular dish and our organic tofu brings a unique, light taste to this dish packed full of flavour.

Vegan Sticky Tofu With Shiitake Mushrooms & Spring Onions

This modern Asian dish combines rich soy and ginger flavours with a sweet maple and rice wine with a hint of chilli on the tofu, shitake mushroom full flavour and texture which all contrasts wonderfully with the fresh pak choi and spring onions.

Tofu Porcini & Pak Choi Risotto

This mushroom delight is a simple risotto that is full of flavour and texture! A beautiful blend of white wine, risotto rice and vegetable stock keep this dish extremely light and fresh.

Vegan Satay Tofu Stir Fry

With a rich and creamy peanut sauce, this satay-inspired stir-fry is served over healthy quinoa. Bursting with coconut, sriracha, and ginger, this vegan dish is definitely a crowd pleaser!