Bok Choy & Green Beans

On my last dumpstering voyage, I noticed a lone package of bok choy in a bag of produce. I'd eaten bok choy a few times, but had never cooked it before, so I got excited to try. It looked pretty sad when I dumpstered it, so I knew I had to cook it in the next 24 hours if I was going to get any use out of it.

Bok choy is a pretty versatile product mostly used in Asian cuisine - you can boil it, steam it, stir fry it, or even deep fry it. I had also dumpstered 5 bags of green beans on the same trip (read: more than humanly possible to eat without choosing to eat them often), so I decided to make a stir fry out of both and kill two birds with one stone. I normally cook green beans a totally different way and am unaccustomed to stir frying, so it seemed like a good choice to learn with.

BOK CHOY & GREEN BEANS

Ingredients:

- 2.5 heads bok choy, washed and separated (I started with 3 heads, but had to sacrifice the brown stalks and wilted leaves)
- 1 bag of green beans (approx. 5 handfuls)
- 2 cloves garlic
- Equivalent size of 2 cloves ginger
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/4 cup water or rice wine vinegar
- 4 tbsp sesame oil
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- Sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds
- Salt, ginger powder, & garlic powder to taste (powders can also be substituted for fresh ingredients if you don't have them on hand)

So, you can really break the dish down into making just bok choy, just green beans, or mixing the two. It doesn't matter if you start with the bok choy or the green beans.

First, we have the bok choy:

Before you start: separating the bok choy involves cutting off the very bottom, taking off the leaves, but then cutting the white stalk from the leafy part on the bigger leaves, since they have separate cooking times (the leaves are about 1-2 min. less). Leave the last little nugget in the middle intact.

Put some cooking oil (I used olive) in the bottom of a wok or pan, heat at medium.
Throw in minced garlic, and shred your skinned ginger into the pan using a lemon zester or cheese grater.
Wait for the garlic and ginger to sizzle.
Next, add the bok choy and turn vigorously for about 30 seconds until the oily mixture coats it.
Pour in water or vinegar, turn heat to high, and steam for 2 minutes.
Drizzle with soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, salt, and garlic/ginger powder to taste.

Put this aside.

Using the same oil, turn the heat down to medium-high, add a little more olive oil/sesame oil/soy sauce/salt/sesame seeds to your pan. Throw in your green beans. Cover them to make them cook a bit faster, but not so much that they lose their crunch!

Here are the green beans by themselves:

Now that you have both components, toss them together and serve! This was SO easy and SO delicious. I'm now addicted to bok choy, and hope to dumpster it again soon.

As an afterthought, some sugar could have been used here and there to change up the dish's flavor if I make it again, since the bok choy stalks are a little bitter. However, since green beans are so sweet, I didn't really need it.

The cooking time for this is only about 7-15 min and yields 2 entree-sized portions (maybe 4 side portions).

After making this dish, I was so pleased with the outcome that I texted a friend and told him I had just made some bok choy my bitch. He didn't really understand, but I'll just make the dish for him some other time so he gets it...

Items not donated or dumpstered: toasted sesame seeds, olive oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, garlic, ginger