Bok Choy With Chives, Black Bean Sauce, and Chow Fun Recipe (2024)

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Vegetables and sauce take the spotlight, while noodles add a bit of textural and flavor contrast.

By

J. Kenji López-Alt

Bok Choy With Chives, Black Bean Sauce, and Chow Fun Recipe (1)

J. Kenji López-Alt

Culinary Consultant

Kenji is the former culinary director for Serious Eats and a current culinary consultant for the site. He is also a New York Times food columnist and the author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science.

Learn about Serious Eats'Editorial Process

Updated January 23, 2024

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Bok Choy With Chives, Black Bean Sauce, and Chow Fun Recipe (2)

Why It Works

  • Cutting back on the noodles and adding more vegetables makes for a more nutritionally balanced vegan dish.
  • The noodles are great for a bit of textural and flavor contrast.

Back in 2007,Mark Bittmanwrote what I thought was one of the more brilliant columns of The Minimalist inThe New York Times. Every good Italian cook knows that a bowl of pasta is mainly about the pasta; the sauce is merely there to accent it. His simple idea?Who cares what Italian tradition says: reverse the ratios and make your dishfocus on the sauce and vegetables, using pasta as a tasty, textural accent, not the centerpiece of the recipe.

It's a really good idea for anyone—even omnivores—but as a vegan, I've found it to be a total life-saver when planning meals. Could thatpasta with braised broccoli and tomatoI made be better as braised broccoli and tomatoeswithpasta? Indeed it is.

The other day, I stir-fried some chow fun noodles in the office and served them with a bit of scallion and a black bean sauce. As I was eating, I thought to myself: Why not apply Bittman's trick to other cuisines?

Once I'd broken that psychological barrier, I found myself experimenting. A mapo tofu-inspired dish of simmered soft tofu with chiles and flowering chives should have been served daintily scooped along with a big bowl of white rice to dilute its intense flavor. Instead, I decided to tone down the flavor a bit, add some extra tofu and vegetables, and serve it with just a tiny bit of rice on the side.

Dry-fried chow fun is one of my favorite foods in the world (exhibit a) but at its core, it's essentially a huge pile of refined carbs. As a meat eater, that's fine. I've got meat as a concentrated source of protein, and perhaps a pile of steamed dark green vegetables on the side. As a vegan, Ineedto pack more fresh vegetables into my meals if I want to make sure to stay balanced.

The solution?Cut way back on the noodles and add a whole slew of vegetables.That's exactly what I did here. Instead of noodles, the base of the dish is stir-fried bok choy (cooked in a super-heated cast iron wok to get some nice, smokywok heiinto it) along with flowering chives, Chinese chives, and leeks in a savory fermented black bean and soy-based sauce. The noodles are still great—perfect for adding a bit of textural and flavor contrast—but now their ratio is more akin to the marshmallows in the Rice Krispies.

I know that I'm going to be playing around with this method a lot more in days to come, and I'd encourage anyone who cooks a carb-with-sauce-based meal to try it out. You may find it to be surprisingly delicious.

January 2012

Recipe Details

Bok Choy With Chives, Black Bean Sauce, and Chow Fun Recipe

Prep5 mins

Cook10 mins

Active15 mins

Total15 mins

Serves4 servings

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup Shaoxing wine or dry sherry

  • 3 tablespoons dark soy sauce

  • 2 tablespoons fermented black bean sauce (or 3 tablespoons whole fermented black beans, mashed with the back of a fork)

  • 1/2 pound fresh chow fun noodles

  • 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

  • 1 1/2 pounds bok choy(about 1 medium head), cut into rough 2-inch lengths (about 4 quarts packed pieces)

  • 1/4 pound Chinese chives or scallions, cut into 2-inch lengths

  • 1 large leek, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1-inch lengths

  • 2 cups mung bean sprouts

Directions

  1. Combine Shaoxing wine, soy sauce, and black beans in a small bowl and stir. Set aside. If noodles are cold, transfer to a microwave-safe bowl and microwave under high power for 1 minute.

  2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil over high heat in a large wok until smoking heavily. Add bok choy and toss to coat in oil. Cook, stirring and tossing occasionally, until bok choy is charred in spots, bright green, and tender-crisp, about 2 minutes total. Transfer cooked bok choy to a bowl and wipe out wok with a paper towel.

  3. Add remaining tablespoon oil to wok and heat over high heat until heavily smoking. Add chives and leeks and cook, stirring and tossing occasionally, until charred in spots, about 1 minute. Add bean sprouts, noodles, bok choy, and sauce. Cook, carefully flipping and turning until noodles and vegetables are evenly coated in sauce. Transfer to a large serving platter and serve immediately.

Special Equipment

Wok

Notes

You need a supply of fresh steamed rice noodles for this recipe. Check your local Chinatown or a good Asian grocery. Steamed rice noodles need to be used the day they are made. Do not refrigerate them or they will become brittle/stale very rapidly. If you can't find chow fun noodles, any cooked vegan Chinese noodle will work.

Read More

  • The Best Vegan Mapo Tofu
  • Vegan Dan Dan Noodles
  • Chinese
  • Vegan Mains
  • Vegetarian Mains
  • Stir-Fry Noodles
  • Vegetable Stir-Fry
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
285Calories
10g Fat
35g Carbs
12g Protein

×

Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4
Amount per serving
Calories285
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 10g13%
Saturated Fat 1g5%
Cholesterol 6mg2%
Sodium 1379mg60%
Total Carbohydrate 35g13%
Dietary Fiber 6g20%
Total Sugars 5g
Protein 12g
Vitamin C 59mg296%
Calcium 219mg17%
Iron 4mg24%
Potassium 1029mg22%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.

(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

Bok Choy With Chives, Black Bean Sauce, and Chow Fun Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is Chow Fun made of? ›

Beef chow fun is a Cantonese dish made from stir-frying beef, wide rice noodles (he fen or huo fun), scallions, ginger, bean sprouts and dark soy sauce. Known as gon chow ngau huo in Cantonese, you can find it in dim sum restaurants or sometimes Cantonese roast meat places.

Does bok choy need to be blanched? ›

Not only is blanching used for cooking a dish but for storage as well. What is this? Blanching before freezing the bok choy slows or stops the enzyme action that leads to deterioration of flavor and texture. Depending on the type of vegetable and the amount, some vegetables may take 1 to 5 minutes to blanch.

Are choy sum and bok choy the same? ›

Baby bok choy: The most common Chinese green, it is light green and usually sold in bunches of three. Choy sum: Produces small yellow flowers, which gives it its other name of Chinese flowering cabbage. Its long, pale stalks and fragile leaves are suited to stir-frying and steaming.

What is the difference between baby bok choy and bok choy tips? ›

Can bok choy and baby bok choy be used interchangeably in recipes? Yes, bok choy and baby bok choy can generally be used interchangeably in recipes. However, baby bok choy is more tender and cooks more quickly than regular bok choy, so you may need to adjust cooking times accordingly.

What is healthier chow mein or chow fun? ›

Q1: Is chow mein healthier than chow fun? A: No, chow mein is considered less healthy than chow fun because it is typically higher in calories and sodium. Both dishes can be made healthier by reducing oil and high-sodium sauce ingredients and by using lots of fresh vegetables and lean protein for added nutrition.

What does chow fun mean in Chinese? ›

Chow fun and lo mein are made with different ingredients and cooking techniques. Chow fun calls for rice noodles and , while lo mein typically uses egg noodles. Each of their names also refers to how the noodles are cooked: “Chow” means to fry and “lo” means to toss.

What part of bok choy do you not eat? ›

All of Bok Choy is edible, so once you get to that point, you can chop up the stem and the bulb.

Should I soak bok choy before cooking? ›

The simplest way to prep bok choy is to cut it in half lengthwise and submerge it in cold water for a few minutes. This will soften the dirt and allow you to remove it easily. Drain the water, check for dirt between the stalks, and run each half of bok choy under cold water.

Are you supposed to eat the stems of bok choy? ›

Traditional bok choy has dark, crinkly leaves and crisp, white stems; Shanghai bok choy has spoon-shaped leaves and jade green stems. The cool thing is that both the leaves and the stalks can be eaten, and this wonderful little plant is an excellent go-to for fiber, as well as for beta-carotene and vitamins C, K and A.

Why is bok choy so expensive? ›

Apart from a small supply volume from the northeast, most bok choy comes from Hebei production areas. The production volume there is significantly reduced. In addition, the bok choy season in the northeast is almost over, while the season in Hebei is just starting.

Is it OK to eat raw bok choy? ›

There are plenty of ways to try adding bok choy to your diet. You can consume bok choy raw, roasted, or cooked on the stovetop in a soup, stir-fry, or fried rice dish. You can incorporate bok choy into your diet in Asian dishes and many other ways.

Is bok choy better than spinach? ›

In equivalent raw weight, bok choy contains more vitamin C, vitamin A, and some other nutrients than spinach and around the same amount of calcium. Spinach, however, contains higher amounts of some other nutrients, including vitamin K, than bok choy.

What does bok choy do for your body? ›

Like other dark, leafy greens, bok choy is an excellent source of the flavonoid quercetin. Quercetin can help to reduce inflammation in the body, which may help to reduce your risk of developing a variety of chronic health issues such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Should bok choy be stored in the fridge? ›

Bok choy can be refrigerated for 3 to 7 days. Place the unwashed bok choy in a breathable plastic bag in the crisper. If you need to store the bok choy for a longer period of time, you can boil it in water for 2 minutes and then rinse with cold water and place the bok choy in the freezer.

Are Chow Fun noodles healthy? ›

Both mei fun and chow fun can be very healthy depending on your ratio of noodles, protein, and vegetables. Both can have trouble with large servings of carbs and sodium. Neither dish calls for much sugar. But, mei fun takes a slight edge in that you can put a larger variety of vegetables in the dish.

Is chow fun always rice noodles? ›

"Chow" means stir-fry, and it always uses "ho fun" noodles. "Ho Fun" just means those flat rice noodles, so as long as you stir-fry it, it's all the same.

What is the difference between chow fun and Ho Fun? ›

There isn't a difference between Chow Fun and Ho Fun beside the name. Chow Fun is utilized in countries that speak and write menus in English. In contrast, the same dish is referred to as Ho Fun, especially in Hong Kong or Southern China. Outside of the name, realize the two are the same.

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