How to Cut Bok Choy for Stir Fry

The large outer stalks of bok choy hide the tender inner leaves.

Stir fries allow you to be as creative as your imagination allows--you can add almost anything you can think of and still potentially make a tasty dish. You can also keep it traditional with simple, fresh ingredients that people commonly include in stir fries. One of these common ingredients, bok choy, may be familiar when included in a stir fry but confusing when you first attempt to prepare it from scratch. Fortunately, bok choy is a simple ingredient to prepare. It comes in heads vaguely similar to head lettuce, but much smaller and looser.

Things You'll Need

• Bok choy
• Cutting board
• Knife

Instructions

1. Rinse your bok choy thoroughly under cold running water. Be sure the water goes between as many leaves as possible. Bok choy tends to be very dirty between its leaves, and the more dirt you remove now, the better.

2. Place your bok choy on the cutting board.

3. Cut off the very bottom of the bok choy. Cut just enough that the outer leaves of the head are detached or mostly detached and can be removed easily. Pull off these leaves and chop the large stalks into smaller chunks, then set aside the leaves and chunks of stalk. This will allow the stalks to become tender in the short amount of time it takes to cook a stir fry. As you progress into the bok choy, the stalks will be thin and tender enough that you do not need to cut them.

4. Cut another piece off the bottom of the head of bok choy, just enough that you can easily remove the next layer of leaves. Set these leaves aside once you have removed them.

5. Slice more pieces off the head of bok choy, removing the loose leaves at each step, until you have all the leaves you want set aside. You will find a few small leaves tightly stuck together in the middle of the head; you may discard these or include this entire small cluster of leaves in your stir fry.

6. Rinse the leaves you have set aside thoroughly under cold water to remove any remaining dirt.

Tips & Warnings

• If you want smaller, bite-sized pieces of bok choy, you may also chop the leaves before adding the bok choy to your stir fry.

Resources

• Cooks.com: Oriental Stir Fry