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Zingy grilled baby bok choy

Grilled baby bok choy in an easy spicy sauce.

If it's green, I'm grilling it: that's my motto for this summer. After years of grilling asparagus (still my favorite way to cook it), I've moved on to the leafy greens like lettuce and bok choy. There's no stopping me.

Proximity to a wonderful Asian grocery store gives me endless access to big bags of baby bok choy, and also makes it easy to keep my pantry stocked with Asian ingredients. Bok choy is a cabbage, which means it has a mild but distinct flavor of its own, and also takes well to strong flavors around it. For this and other sauces, I like to use a new-to-my-pantry ingredient, chili pepper stir-in paste, that I buy in the produce section of my supermarket; you can substitute sambal oelek. In the time it takes to heat your grill, whip up an easy, spicy sauce, and toss the small heads in it before giving them two or three minutes on a hot grill. 

When the grill is hot, toss these baby bok choy on for a two-minute char.

Zingy grilled baby bok choy {vegan, can be gluten-free}

From the pantry you'll need: reduced-sodium soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, sweetener (or honey or agave), fresh black pepper, lime, sesame seeds, sambal oelek.

Serves 4-5.

Ingredients

1 Tbsp chili pepper stir-in paste or sambal oelek
1 Tbsp reduced-sodium soy sauce (use gluten-free if needed)
1/2 Tbsp rice vinegar
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp sweetener (or honey, or agave)
Juice of 1/2 lime
Pinch of fresh black pepper
10 heads of baby bok choy
Black and white sesame seeds, for garnish

Directions

Combine chile pepper paste, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, sweetener, lime juice and black pepper in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together, then add the bok choy and turn over and over to coat all of the heads with the sauce. Set aside.

Heat the grill.

When the grill is hot, remove the bok choy from the bowl, and set on the grill. It will take 2-3 minutes for the heads to cook; be sure to remove them from the grill before the leaves turn black and burn.

Garnish with a sprinkling of sesame seeds, and serve.

[Printer-friendly recipe.]


More bok choy recipes:
Bok choy stir-fry with ginger and garlic, from The Perfect Pantry
Steamed baby bok choy with hoisin glaze, from The Perfect Pantry
Bok choy brown rice salad with orange sesame dressing, from Annie's Eats
Baby bok choy with ginger miso dressing, from Use Real Butter

Bok choy tossed in a spicy sauce and cooked on the grill: amazing and so easy!


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Comments

Bok choy and Asian hot-lime sauce! Now I need the Asian market closer than a 2 hour drive.
I love those big (cheap, wonderful) bags of bok choy babies. Looks wonderful, smells wonderful (in my olfactory memory-fantasy)...

I'm jealous of those bags of baby bok choy. I look at it in the regular grocery store and usually decide it's too expensive. And haven't seen that stir-in paste either. I love this idea for a veggie side dish from the grill!

Kalyn, try this with regular bok choy. It's just as delicious.

Looks like another flavor magnet for me. I just wish the Asian markets were closer than a 2 hour drive, where the bok choy is fresh and plentiful, and not expensive either.

Susan, I do feel lucky to have a great Asian supermarket in my neighborhood.

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