What can you make from pak choi cabbage? Chinese cabbage pak choi: cultivation and care features, beneficial properties and recipes. Fried pak choi with ginger

If you are tired of everyday familiar dishes, try to cook something unusual using not the most famous and common products, such as pak choi cabbage. You can make a lot of interesting things out of it if you know how.

What it is?

Pak choy or bok choy is a type of Chinese cabbage. This species differs from others in that it does not have heads of cabbage. Smooth green leaves with thick and dense stems are formed around the central main bud. If you translate the name, it will sound like “white vegetable”, and it is especially popular in Southeast Asia, but pak choy is also actively grown and consumed in North America and Europe.

Fun fact: Pak choy is a close relative of Chinese cabbage, but the two varieties are very different.

Product benefits

Chinese cabbage contains a lot of different useful substances, for example, fiber, protein, ash, carbohydrates, magnesium, calcium, sodium, iron, as well as vitamins A, K, PP, C and group B. The calorie content of 100 grams of this product is only only 13 kilocalories.

Beneficial features:

• Normalization of peristalsis of the intestinal walls, relief from constipation.
• Removing waste and toxins, cleansing the body.
• Prevention of atherosclerosis: reducing the level of “bad” cholesterol, cleansing blood vessels and strengthening their walls.
• Improving the functioning of the immune system, strengthening the body's defenses and increasing its resistance to attacks by pathogenic microorganisms.
• Chinese cabbage can promote weight loss, as it is low in calories, satisfies hunger and gives a feeling of fullness, and also normalizes metabolic processes.
• Vitamin K normalizes blood clotting; if it is low, it stops bleeding.
• B vitamins take part in many reactions and metabolic processes occurring in the body and ensure the smooth functioning of the nervous system, improving mood and sleep.
• Vitamin A is good for the skin and helps maintain visual acuity.
• Pak choy is useful to use during pregnancy: this product ensures the proper formation of fetal organs.
• Chinese cabbage is good for the heart.
• Pak choy has an antioxidant effect: it neutralizes the activity of free radicals, stops oxidation and aging of tissues, and prevents cell malignancy.

How to select and store Chinese cabbage?

When choosing pak choy, pay attention to the leaves: they should be medium in size (no more than 13-15 centimeters long) and have a rich green tint, as well as be smooth and fresh. Unpleasant odor is not allowed.

Chinese cabbage is stored in the refrigerator. You can also separate and wash the leaves and wrap them in a damp cloth.

Can cabbage be harmful?

Contraindications to the use of Chinese cabbage include individual hypersensitivity to such a product and exacerbation of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. Also, do not overuse it: glucosinolates are found in pak choi, which in high doses can have a toxic effect on the body. But moderate consumption certainly won’t do any harm.

What to cook with pak choy?

Pak choi cabbage is widely known in Asian countries and is actively used to prepare a variety of dishes. And you, too, can do something interesting by studying the recipes below.

Healthy light salad

Here's what you'll need:

• 300 g pak choi;
• two medium-sized carrots;
• onion (you can take purple or white);
• half a teaspoon of Dijon mustard;
• two tbsp. l. rice vinegar;
• a quarter or a third of a small spoon of salt;
• tsp honey.

Preparation:

1. First you need to wash the cabbage, divide it into leaves and cut them.
2. The carrots are washed, if necessary, cleared of any remaining soil and grated on a coarse grater or divided into thin strips using a special knife.
3. The onion needs to be cut into thin half rings.
4. Mix honey with Dijon mustard, salt and toffee vinegar. This is a kind of sauce.
5. Combine all ingredients, season them with sauce and mix the salad.

Braised spicy pak choy

If you want to get an unusual and very spicy side dish, then you will need to prepare the following products:

• 700 g pak choi;
• three tbsp. l. olive oil;
• two cloves of garlic;
• 10-15 g fresh ginger root;
• five tbsp. l. natural classic soy sauce;
• ground pepper.

Process description:

1. Prepare Chinese cabbage: divide into leaves, wash thoroughly, dry, chop if necessary, but not very finely.
2. The ginger needs to be either finely chopped or grated. The garlic is peeled and chopped in any way.
3. Heat the oil thoroughly in a frying pan, add garlic and ginger and fry for literally a minute.
4. Then add pak choy. Fry all the products for about five minutes until barely noticeable golden brown, and then simmer under the lid for about five minutes.
5. Pour in soy sauce and add pepper, simmer the dish for about another minute. The pak choy leaves should darken and soften completely.

Pak choi and mushroom appetizer

To prepare a snack for every day or for a holiday table, you can also use unusual pak choy. Here's what's useful for this:

• 800 g pak choi;
• 400 g of mushrooms (it is best to use fresh champignons);
• three cloves of garlic;
• two tbsp. l. olive oil (ordinary sunflower oil will do);
• Art. l. sesame oil;
• two tbsp. l. sesame seeds;
• five tbsp. l. wine vinegar;
• ground pepper;
• salt.

Description of preparation:

1. Mushrooms should be thoroughly washed and cut into not very thin slices.
2. The garlic is peeled, crushed, for example, passed through a press.
3. Pak choy is divided into individual sheets, washed and dried, and then cut (small leaves can be left whole).
4. Fry the sesame seeds in a dry frying pan.
5. Heat the olive oil, place the mushrooms and garlic in a frying pan, fry for a couple of minutes.
6. Then add the Chinese cabbage and fry all the ingredients until fully cooked and golden brown.
7. Add salt, sesame seeds, wine vinegar, sesame oil and pepper, keep everything covered for a minute and turn off the heat.
8. When the appetizer has cooled down a little, you can serve it to the table.

If you come across unusual Chinese cabbage pak choi in the store, be sure to buy it and try to cook something interesting and appetizing.

Pak choi cabbage has been cultivated for a very long time, but it has only become popular in our country recently. It is perfect for growing outdoors and is not particularly difficult to care for. This variety of cabbage does not form heads. If you look at the photo, you can see that in appearance it very much resembles a salad vegetable. But it is used not only for making salads. There are many recipes for both first and second courses using this vegetable crop.

This kale is also called Chinese cabbage, since it began to be cultivated in this country. The plant forms a compact rosette of leaves tightly adjacent to each other. Cabbage leaves are juicy, often bright green on top, and white and fleshy at the base. The entire above-ground part of the plant, both the green leaf mass and the white petioles, can be used for food.

There are different varieties of this cabbage, which differ in ripening time and size. Pak choy can reach a height of up to 30-60 cm, and a rosette diameter of up to 30 cm. The plant is rich in vitamins and various minerals. It has a beneficial effect on the body when consumed regularly and is suitable for dietary nutrition.

But in addition to its exceptional benefits for the body, pak choy is also popular among gardeners due to its:

• good germination;
• high yield;
• precocity;
• unpretentiousness in care.

Features of cultivation

Like any crop, this cabbage has some growing features that the gardener must take into account. The plant prefers cool weather and high humidity. As for predecessors, it is better not to sow pak choi in beds where any type of cabbage was planted in previous years. It is good to plant it after onions, legumes, pumpkin and grain crops. But it is quite unpretentious to soils. Of course, cabbage will grow better on fertile soil, but good yields can be obtained in poorer soil.

Attention! Pak choi does not tolerate acidic soils very well. If the acidity of the soil at the site of the intended planting is increased, it is better to prepare the soil in the fall by adding ash or dolomite flour.

Planting pak choi cabbage

You can sow cabbage in open soil from April to August. But not all of this period is equally favorable for sowing pak choy. It is better to choose one of the following two periods for planting seeds:

• end of April;
• mid-July.

Gardeners especially prefer to sow pak choi cabbage in July, since when planting it at this time, you can not only get really good yields, but also avoid the plant going into decline as much as possible.

Pak choy is sown in prepared soil 2-3 cm deep in holes with a distance between them of 20-30 cm. It is also better to keep the distance between rows at least 20-30 cm so that each plant has the necessary area for nutrition. When planting in the spring, when it is still quite cold, the crops can be covered with film or special material to protect young seedlings.

Advice. This variety of cabbage can be grown not only by direct sowing in the garden, but also by seedlings. But this is not the best option, because pak choi does not tolerate further transplantation very well.

Plant care

Even a novice gardener can easily cope with caring for pak choi. It is not very difficult and consists of:

• sufficient watering;
• regular loosening of the soil around plants;
• applying fertilizers.

But you shouldn’t get too carried away with fertilizing this early-ripening crop, especially with the application of mineral fertilizers. It will be enough to feed pak choi once or twice with herbal infusion. You can also take mullein infusion to feed plants.

Water cabbage depending on weather conditions. Watering should be sufficient, but not excessive. After rains and waterings, the soil is loosened so that it is light and breathable. They do this carefully so as not to harm the root system of the plants, which is superficial.

When cabbage pests appear, measures must be taken to protect the plants. But since this crop is early ripening, you need to use only safe means. For cruciferous flea beetles or cabbage whites, you can spray the plants with tobacco infusion or use ash, and it is better to remove the larvae and egg laying manually. Hand picking is also effective against cabbage pests such as slugs and snails.

Use of pak choy in cooking

Pak choy is used in many different dishes, and in any form this cabbage is very good. It can be stewed or fried with other vegetables or meat. It is also used for preparing first courses. For example, chicken soup with pak choy is very tasty, light and nutritious.

To prepare this dish in 1.5 liters of water you will need 2 chicken fillets, 6 bunches of pak choi cabbage, 4 small potatoes and carrots, 2 celery stalks, 1 onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tbsp. vegetable oil, 1-2 bouillon cubes.

Preparation:

1. Cut the chicken fillet and vegetables into cubes, and finely chop the garlic.
2. Let the chicken fillet cook for 10-15 minutes, then add potatoes, carrots, cabbage stalks and celery to the pan.
3. Heat the oil in a frying pan, fry the onion and garlic in it until softened.
4. Place the fried onions and garlic in a saucepan, then cook for about 10-15 minutes.
5. At the very end, add bouillon cubes, cabbage leaves and salt.

But during heat treatment, some of the vitamins of green pak choy leaves are quickly lost. Therefore, this cabbage will be much healthier in a fresh salad. The ingredients for preparing fresh salads can be different. This already depends on a person’s taste preferences.

A very tasty salad can be made, for example, from bell peppers, pak choi leaves, dates, grated ginger and carrots. These ingredients need to be mixed, then seasoned with lemon juice. If desired, you can also add a little vegetable oil to the salad, preferably olive oil. The dish turns out light and nutritious.

When choosing what to plant in your garden, do not forget about pak choi cabbage, because it is a tasty and healthy product. In addition, this crop is quite simple to care for. Even a beginner in gardening can cope with its cultivation.

Pak choy cabbage: video

Bok choy. The title itself suggests that we will be talking about something related to China. And this “something” is Chinese cabbage. But not the one we call, but the Chinese call petsai, and the other is leafy.

What is bok choy

Bok choy (or pak choy) is one of the most popular vegetables in China, Vietnam, the Philippines and other countries in the East Asian regions. Not long ago, the Western world also paid attention to this inconspicuous in appearance, but very healthy vegetable. The first people to grow bok choy were people from China and some other regions of Asia. And this happened, as researchers believe, more than one and a half thousand years ago.

Bok choy is a leafy vegetable from the cruciferous family. Green spoon-shaped leaves with slightly flattened stems are collected in a rosette with a diameter of 30 cm and fit tightly to each other. Outside of China, as a rule, two varieties of this vegetable are common: with light green petioles and leaves, and a variety with dark green leaves and white petioles.

This cabbage is called by different names in different regions, including pak choy, Chinese collard greens, mustard or celery cabbage, white mustard celery, and Chinese chard. And in translation from Chinese the name “pak choy” means “horse ear”, and I must say there is a reason for it - the external similarities are obvious. And although in the official classification of plants this crop is classified as a variety of cabbage, recently researchers who carefully studied the characteristics of this crop came to the conclusion that bok choy is not cabbage at all. Experts say that in fact, from a botanical point of view, this is a variety. Perhaps over time, biologists will revise the official classification and classify “horse ear” as a turnip, but for now we continue to call this crop cabbage.

Chemical composition and nutritional value

The benefits of Chinese kale are determined primarily by the chemical composition of the product. And this vegetable is rich in many vitamins and minerals. In particular, it is an excellent source of vitamins A, C, and K, and contains surprisingly large reserves of calcium, phosphorus, potassium, iron and sodium. Interestingly, this leafy vegetable contains almost as much vitamin A as bok choy, and in terms of vitamin C concentration, bok choy surpasses all other salad crops. In addition, bok choy is rich in fiber and essential amino acids.

Beneficial features

In the East, the healing properties of kale have been known for several centuries. Modern research indicates that bok choy may be beneficial for the immune system, promoting proper metabolism and supporting the body's health at the cellular level. This vegetable is known to be good for the heart and eyes, removes toxins from the body and contains more than 70 antioxidant substances.

Do you think vitamin C is only found in sour fruits? Bok choy also contains a lot of ascorbic acid, due to which the beneficial properties of the vegetable are significantly expanded. It is common knowledge that vitamin C is essential for maintaining the immune system. But besides this, ascorbic acid is an indispensable participant in the process of collagen formation, which is necessary to maintain skin firmness and elasticity of blood vessels. Bok choy is also beneficial for the circulatory system because it prevents excessive platelet formation and also increases hemoglobin.

Pak choy is a low-calorie, high-fiber food. Thanks to this, it is useful for people who want to lose excess weight. In addition, dietary fiber makes cabbage beneficial for the intestines. It helps remove toxins from the body and also helps reduce blood pressure.

How to grow

Pak choy is still exotic for our regions. But its popularity is growing rapidly.

Since climatic conditions allow us to grow this vegetable in our gardens, many summer residents have begun to “populate” their gardens with this useful crop. And very successfully. Bok choy is a frost-resistant, early-ripening vegetable (no more than 30 days pass from the day of sowing to harvest). In latitudes with warm climates, you can harvest 5 harvests of kale in a year.

The most suitable cabbage varieties for growing in our climatic conditions are “Prima”, “Lastochka”, “Gipro” and “Four Seasons”. These varieties are resistant to pests, easy to care for, have excellent taste characteristics and produce good yields. But for a rich harvest, you should not plant bok choy in a bed where other varieties of cabbage previously grew. By the way, the maximum yield should be expected from seeds planted in June.

It is also interesting that bok choy in the garden pleases not only gardeners and cooks, but also landscape designers. They use Chinese cabbage leaf for their flower beds. One of the most winning combinations is bok choy and marigolds. And by the way, such a neighborhood will protect the cabbage from pests.

Chinese kale is rapidly conquering the Western world. Once you try this amazing salad vegetable, it is difficult to refuse it in the future. Bok choy is a case where nature has combined an incredible amount of beneficial properties in one plant. All a person has to do is learn how to properly prepare these greens and take advantage of their benefits.

Chinese leafy cabbage pak choi is one of the most ancient vegetable crops that began to be cultivated in China. Today it is popular in all Asian countries and is persistently moving into Europe and North America. The main reason for such a triumphant procession is the unpretentiousness of this variety and a huge number of useful qualities.

Description of Chinese cabbage pak choi

There are different points of view about which group of plants the Chinese pak choi belongs to. Carl Linnaeus, for example, identified it as a separate species. This culture is often combined with Chinese cabbage. In the State Register of Breeding Achievements approved for use on the territory of the Russian Federation, Chinese cabbage is designated as a separate item.

In different countries and localities, the culture has different names. The Chinese themselves call pak choy an oil vegetable, since oil is made from its seeds. Other fairly well-known and common names for Chinese kale: petiole cabbage, white cabbage, mustard cabbage, celery cabbage and even horse ear cabbage.

The appearance of the vegetable is more reminiscent of large-leaf lettuce than traditional cabbage.

This variety does not form a head of cabbage. It has an erect, semi-spreading or compact leaf rosette, the diameter of which can reach more than 35 cm. Powerful fleshy petioles are tightly pressed to each other, and have an outer convexity in the lower part of the plant. The leaf of the crop is large, tender, slightly corrugated. Depending on the variety, the height of the plant can vary from 10 cm to half a meter. There are three varieties of pak choi, differing in the color of the leaf blades and petioles:

Table: Chinese cabbage varieties included in the State Register of Breeding Achievements

Photo gallery: varieties of Chinese cabbage pak choi

The value of the variety Krassa Vostochka: high yield, evenness of plants, resistance to diseases and bolting. The first harvest of green Chinese cabbage of the Lastochka variety is possible 15 days after germination when 7–10 leaves are formed.
Kholodok is an early-ripening (35–40 days) hybrid for early spring and summer-autumn cultivation in open and protected ground. The value of the Chinese cabbage variety. Four seasons: disease resistance, intensive growth. Goluba is a mid-season (75–85 days) hybrid for early spring and summer-growing. autumn cultivation in open and protected ground Chinese cabbage Chingensai is a dietary plant that helps to lose excess weight, increases the body's resistance to diseases. The Chinese cabbage variety Springfly is resistant to premature stemming, relatively resistant to mucous and vascular bacteriosis and clubroot Chinese kale of the Pamyati Popova variety has an excellent taste and high yield (up to 10.0 kg/kg/m2). You cannot delay the spring sowing of Chinese kale of the Alyonushka variety: with a day length of more than 13 hours, there is a high probability of plant stemming

Beneficial properties of pak choy and its harm

Pak choy cabbage has a number of beneficial qualities for the human body:

• the vegetable is low in calories. 100 g of product contains only 13 kcal, so it is ideal for those who want to stay in good shape;
• helps remove toxins and bad cholesterol from the body;
• cabbage leaves contain a large amount of ascorbic acid and other beneficial vitamins;
• systematic consumption of vegetables has a beneficial effect on the elasticity of blood vessels and the renewal of skin cells;
• cabbage juice has a wound-healing effect;
• leaves and roots are saturated with microelements, fiber and natural amino acids lysine.

This variety of cabbage is literally loaded with anti-cancer agents and combines many other beneficial qualities.

Chinese pak choi cabbage is very healthy, but in some cases it can harm the body:

• This variety should not be consumed by people with an allergic reaction to any type of cabbage;
• It is also contraindicated for persons with poor blood clotting.

It must be remembered that excessive consumption of vegetables, like other foods, can affect the body's hormonal levels.

Features of growing Chinese cabbage pak choi

Overall, this variety of cabbage is easy to grow. It is not capricious and generous with its harvest, but has a number of features compared to its relatives from the Cabbage family:

Pak choy belongs to the category of cold-resistant and early-ripening crops

Sowing Chinese kale

Pak choy can be grown by direct sowing of seeds in the ground or through seedlings. To prevent the cabbage from going to waste, it is important to follow the planting dates. When planting directly in open ground, this is done early - in April, so that the main growing season does not fall during long daylight hours. According to reviews from gardeners, the highest quality and most abundant harvest is obtained by sowing seeds in August.

May-July is a bad time to sow pak choy. During long daylight hours, cabbage will quickly bloom and you will not get a high-quality harvest.

When grown by seedlings, Chinese leaf is sowed in March in order to have full-fledged seedlings for planting in open ground by the end of April. If you plan to grow Chinese kale in a greenhouse, then the seeds for seedlings are sown in February, so that in March the pak choy seedlings have a well-developed root system, 4-5 true leaves and are ready for transplanting into the ground.

When deciding on a site for Chinese kale, it is important to take into account the basic rule of crop rotation: do not plant the crop where cabbage or other cruciferous vegetables were grown last year. This is a very important requirement, since these plants have common pests.

Grow kale in sunny places: the shade should not be on the site for more than 3 hours

Chinese kale does not have any special requirements for soil nutrition. The soil should be at least moderately fertilized. In the fall, you should add organic matter to the bed that you will set aside for pak choi (1 bucket per 1 square meter). It will be useful to add superphosphate and potassium chloride (1 tablespoon for the same area). If necessary, lime the soil. Before sowing, the soil is thoroughly loosened and 1 teaspoon of urea is added per meter of bed. Late application of fertilizers for Chinese cabbage is not advisable.

Growing seedlings

The seedling method of growing Chinese kale allows you to get an early harvest of the vegetable. At the beginning of growth, the seedling of the crop begins to form a long root, so it is quite difficult to transfer the transplant from the container to a permanent place.

In order not to create additional stressful situations for the seedlings, it is recommended to grow them in individual peat tablets or pots and plant them in a permanent place without transshipment.

Seedlings ready for planting should have 4–5 leaves

Coconut substrate is perfect as a soil for seedlings. It meets the main requirement for soil - looseness. You can sow several seeds in each pot, but then pinch off the weak shoots and leave the strongest seedling. Seeds are planted in a pot to a depth of about 1 cm. If the planting containers are placed in a warm room, sprouts will appear in 3–5 days. The seedlings will be ready for planting in the ground in about 3 weeks.

To prolong the harvest of a high-quality harvest, cabbage seeds should be planted in stages with an interval of 7–10 days.

Growing from seeds

Chinese kale seeds can be sown in a prepared bed in a variety of ways:

• tape-line. It provides a distance between tapes of 0.5 m, and between lines - up to 30 cm;
• into the holes. They are prepared at a distance of about 30 cm from each other. 3-4 seeds are planted in each hole so that in the future it will be possible to select the strongest seedlings.

The seeds are planted to a depth of no more than 2 cm. Experienced gardeners advise immediately sprinkling the beds with ash and thus preventing the appearance of the main pest of cabbage - the cruciferous flea beetle. When sowing in spring, it is recommended to insulate the area with covering material to protect the seedlings from possible return frosts.

Sprouts appear 5–10 days after sowing and grow quickly

Video: how to plant Chinese cabbage pak choi

Cabbage care

Chinese kale is resistant to growing conditions and many diseases. To get a good harvest, you must adhere to the basic rules that significantly affect its quality and abundance:

Photo gallery: main pests of Chinese pak choi cabbage

You should periodically inspect the underside of pak choi leaves and destroy the oviposition of white butterflies to prevent the appearance of caterpillars. If measures to protect pak choi from the cruciferous flea beetle are not taken on time, then these pests can completely destroy the plant at the initial stage of growth. Slugs can be prevented on the beds with cabbage, sprinkling the rows with allspice, rosemary, coriander, spraying the crops with a decoction of mustard or wormwood

To protect the crop from pests and diseases, it is not recommended to treat and spray with chemicals and agents that can accumulate in parts of pak choi.

Video: cruciferous flea beetle on pak choi cabbage

Harvest

The first cutting of cabbage leaves can be done approximately 3 weeks after germination. Young leaves are cut at a distance of 2–3 cm from the root, adults - a little higher. This technique allows you to get a second harvest of petioles and greens, since pak choy quickly forms new leafy shoots. In plants that are left in the garden for over 50 days, the leaves may become rough and tasteless.

Cut leaves are not stored for a long time, so they are harvested as needed and immediately used in salads or other dishes.

If you cut a plant in the initial phase of frond formation, it does not lose its juiciness, tastyness and usefulness.