My favorite baby bok choy recipe! Plenty of veggies and a tangy ginger garlic sauce make this easy stir fry a delicious, flavorful weeknight meal.
Stir fry was probably the first healthy-ish meal I learned to make, although it used to look nothing like this. When I was in college, I’d stock up on frozen vegetables because I was broke and they were 4 for $1 at Publix. I’d mix the frozen veggies with instant brown rice and drown it all in soy sauce. While I appreciated the bargain, that dinner was “healthy” for healthy’s sake, and I’d try to convince myself it was delicious while my roommates all ate pizza. Now, I love to make this actually delicious stir fry with lots of fresh vegetables, like baby bok choy, and a tangy sauce made with sesame, ginger, garlic, and lime juice.
Key Bok Choy Stir Fry Ingredients
Since college, my stir fry game has improved dramatically. Aside from the frozen edamame, the vegetables here are fresh:
- Baby bok choy adds crispness and leafy greens.
- Shiitake mushrooms punch up the umami flavor.
- Broccoli and broccoli STEMS fill it out with lots of green, so this stir fry is mostly veggies! I use vegetable peeler to slice thin ribbons off the broccoli stalk and toss them into the pan with everything else. Delicious. College budget or not, it’s so fun to figure out resourceful ways to use every part of a vegetable.
Another thing missing from my college stir fry was a good sauce. This one – made from tamari, ginger, rice vinegar, fresh lime and sesame oil – is light, tangy, and delicious. Make extra if you want to have a quick weeknight stir fry ready to go – the sauce will keep well in the fridge for a few weeks.
For more bok choy recipes…
Try this Golden Turmeric Miso Soup, Red Curry Lemongrass Soup, or Easy Vegetarian Pho!
Bok Choy Stir Fry
Ingredients
sauce:
- 1½ tablespoons tamari
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 teaspoon fresh lime juice, plus extra lime slices for serving
- ½ teaspoon honey, or maple syrup
- ½ teaspoon minced fresh ginger
- 1 small garlic clove, minced
- ½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
for the stir fry:
- 4 ounces soba noodles or brown rice pasta
- 1 tablespoon sunflower oil, or any high-heat oil
- 4 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
- ½ small head broccoli, florets chopped, stems peeled into strips
- 2 scallions, chopped
- 2 baby bok choy, quartered vertically
- ½ cup frozen edamame, thawed
- 1 carrot, peeled into thin strips
- 2 teaspoons sesame seeds
- Sriracha, or sambal, for serving
Instructions
- Make the sauce by stirring together the tamari, rice vinegar, lime juice, honey, ginger, garlic, and sesame oil. Set aside.
- In a pot of salted boiling water, cook the noodles according to the package directions until al dente. Drain, rinse and set aside (or leave them in cold water or toss with a little oil to prevent clumping).
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the shiitake mushrooms and broccoli, stir to coat then let cook 1 to 2 minutes until the mushrooms begin to soften and the broccoli begins to brown. Give the pan a good shake and stir, then add the scallions, bok choy, and edamame. Cook, stirring occasionally for another 2 minutes, until the bok choy and broccoli are tender but still vibrant.
- Add the carrots and noodles and toss. Add the sauce, toss again. Add a squeeze of lime. Taste and adjust seasonings. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve with extra lime slices and sambal or sriracha on the side.
Can I use ground ginger instead of fresh ginger and if so, how much would i need?
Do you have nutrition information on this by chance ?
Hi Alexandra, unfortunately we don’t calculate the nutrition facts for our recipes. The best way to get an estimate is to use an online nutrition calculator like MyFitnessPal. Hope this helps!
I really liked how easy this recipe was to make but I think if you have a different stir fry sauce you like, to use that instead. This one was very light other than the flavor of vinegar. We then doubled it and the vinegar taste just got stronger.
I loved this! Very easy to put together and the sauce was wonderful! Better than takeout and much healthier! Thank you.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
For me this was pretty good, but not great. I’d probably give it 3.5 stars, I think my mistake was adding an extra squeeze of lime before tasting it (which the recipe suggested but was a rookie mistake). I squeezed a small piece but the lime was pretty juicy and the end result was way too sour/acidic for me. I tried to balance it out with more sesame oil and honey, and that helped the acidity, but it was still not my favorite sauce. I added some fried chili oil to it and that helped make it more interesting, but I don’t think I’d make it again.
Made with rainbow chard instead of boo choy. We are overrun with it! I’m sure the boy choy would have been much better. The east of it was very good.
I’m so glad you loved it! If you still have rainbow chard, we really love this pasta recipe: https://www.loveandlemons.com/lemony-swiss-chard-pasta/
Very easy and tasty. We didn’t have all the veggies you used — just a ton of bok choi, some carrots and red peppers. But I followed the sauce exactly and it was spot on delicious. Rice instead of noodles. Next time we’ll try it with the noodles!!
I’m so glad you loved it!
How about the amount of noodles? So basic. We guessed. Don’t leave this hanging.
it says 4 oz on the recipe, I made last night.
Read the comments, doubled the ginger and garlic, made sauce in the morning, used 7 hours later. Marvelous flavour, great mix of veggies. Will make whenever Mom’s Organic has requisite veg. In stock. Thank you!
Nice textures but I found I found it rather bland.I’m even added Sriracha to the sauce and extra ginger. Nice mix of veggies..
I concur. We tried making this recipe and everything just fell flat (taste wise). Might need some retooling on the next go around. We used it as a side dish for some fresh fish we sautéed in an adjacent skillet.
Want to make this today but don’t have tamari sauce. May I substitute soy sauce?
yep, you can!
I made this last night with regular bok choy as I could not find a baby bok choy. I love the way flavors and textures of all of these ingredients come together! It was not too saucy, just right. I am one who typically likes a lot of sauce but this was perfectly balanced. I used Banza spaghetti and simply could not wait until lunch today to eat the leftovers! I’m certain it would be even tastier with baby bok choy. This will be a definite regular recipe in my rotation.
Thank you so much for this recipe. It was delicious!!! I coated some pressed tofu cubes in cornstarch and garlic powder and air fried them. I added the tofu with the noodles before coating with the sauce. I didn’t have mushrooms so instead I used bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and walnut pieces. Looking forward to having leftovers tomorrow.
Love this recipe.
Made this tonight and it was delicious! Pretty quick to whip together too. Will add this to our dinner rotation for sure.
This is SO GOOD! I received a head of bok choy in my CSA box yesterday. I’d never cooked bok choy and had no idea how to prepare. I came to Love and Lemons and searched bok choy because I always come to Love and Lemons when I have something I don’t know what to do with. This recipe came up. Bonus, it calls for broccoli too which I also received in my CSA box. Though I usually make a recipe exactly as posted the first time I make it, I didn’t have all the ingredients so I used brown rice instead of the noodles and I used powdered ginger instead of fresh. It turned out great! It’s on my favs list!
Note: I estimate that nearly half of all my meals this past year almost to the day have come from your A to Z cookbook or your blog. It has changed my life and the way I eat. I received your Everday cookbook for Christmas. I have a couple of chapters to go in A to Z, then I’ll start on Everyday. Very excited!
Can’t wait to try this! Do you use basic sesame oil or toasted? Thanks!
toasted!
Thanks! 🙂
I was looking for ways to use Bok Choy and found this recipe. I didn’t have all the ingredients on hand, but I made the sauce as written and improvised with other elements. So easy and delicious – THANK YOU for helping me think outside the box. Looking forward to trying more of your recipes! And eating my leftovers for lunch tomorrow!
Hi Bonnie, I’m so glad you loved it!
I did not want my plate to empty! The sauce is very addicting.
Hi Katie, I’m so glad you loved it so much!
Wondering about substituting lemon for the lime. I always have lemons in the kitchen, limes, not so much.
Absolutely. The acid in either really brightens it all.
The sauce is amazing! Was looking for a way to utilize my veggies, I had on hand baby bok chocolate, yellow pepper & lots of mushrooms, followed the recipe, I used half teaspoon olive oil to stir fry lots of veggies as I didn’t have sesame oil. Great flavor, I will definitely make this again.
Hi Nena, I’m glad you loved it!