In Season Now: Chinese Cabbage
In season now and as crisp as the fall weather itself: Chinese cabbage. At Turner Farm, we grow a few varieties of organic Chinese cabbage, which refers to not one but two cultivars of Chinese leaf vegetables in the mustard family: pac choi (the Chinensis group, more commonly known as bok choy in our part of the world, including in our Farm Market) and napa cabbage (the Pekinensis group):
Bok Choy
Bok choy is less like a cabbage in that it doesn’t form a head. Instead it has a bulbous base that sprouts a cluster of leafy green blades that are mild and sweet, with crunchy, juicy stems. It “delivers a potent vitamin cocktail, including a big dose of rare cancer-fighting nitrogen compounds called indoles, as well as folic acid, iron, beta-carotene, and potassium,” according to editors at Men’s Health. At Turner Farm, we grow full-size heads of varieties like win-win choi, as well as baby bok choy such as mei qing choi. Bok choy shrinks less than your usual cabbage when cooked, and doesn’t need much preparation to become a delicious dish:
Stir fry bok choy with garlic for a quick, winning side.
Roast it whole in this keto-friendly garlic roasted bok choy recipe.
Add it to a warming batch of ginger noodle soup or bok choy chicken soup.
Pair it with pasture-raised chicken in an easy meal of chicken stir fry with bok choy.
Add it raw to a refreshing apple bok choy salad.
Napa Cabbage
The thick white ribs and crinkly yellow-green leaves of napa cabbage are tender crisp, and have a sweet flavor that’s more mellow than that of its pungent European cabbage cousins. Napa cabbage can be eaten raw or cooked. It’s also a great source of vitamin A and C, and contains only 7.4 calories per ounce (nutrition data).
Use the raw leaves in place of iceberg lettuce in a wedge salad.
Stir fry it with a piquant sauce to make hot and sour cabbage, a Northern Chinese classic.
Add chopped leaves to a comforting pot of cabbage egg drop soup.
Put it front and center in a napa cabbage salad.
Make an easy, rave-worthy side of roasted napa cabbage wedges with just three ingredients.
Pick up both bok choy and napa cabbage at our Farm Market and decide which you like best. Or, if you’re like us, decide that you should be eating more of all the Chinese cabbages, because they’re that good (and good for you).