Cooking from the garden week 3: Bok choy!

Week 3: spinach, spring greens, red leaf lettuce, scallions, cilantro & bok choy!

Bok choy is the new kid on the block this week. I am fairly new to bok choy also. My folks have been using it for some time and I finally gave it a try a month or so ago and love it.

Bok choy is typically used in a stir fry but my folks (and now me, too!) like it in salad, used like celery with a veggie dip, on a sandwich for some crunch…it is very versatile with great texture and taste.

As I keep cooked brown rice at the ready and I had a last bit of cooked chicken – a stir fry with some of the bok choy was in order. I mixed a little sesame oil and sunflower oil until hot – threw the bok choy and some mini sweet peppers in for a minute, then the rice and chicken. I added a wee bit of Oy Vay’s veri veri teriyaki (another great recommendation and gift from my folks!!). Top with some cashews and cilantro. Fresh pineapple on the side. A very good, very quick, very healthy, supper from the garden.

I’ve been keeping a bowl of pickled cucumber and onion going. This week, I added some of the bok choy and grated beets. That worked! The vinegar with just a bit of sugar and whatever herbs sound good – soften, “pickle” and enhance the texture of the raw vegetables. It makes a light and refreshing slaw kind of salad.

More spinach so I bought more mushrooms. I LOVE spinach and mushrooms sauteed in butter. I add the mix to rice, with cheese and mashed avocado to make a quesadilla, to a grilled cheese sandwich, or just on the plate with a poached egg on top.

Due to the schedule this past week, grilled cheese hit the supper table a few times…mostly with pesto.

The pesto did double duty also as the “sauce” for english muffin pizzas. These pizzas and the grilled cheese had pesto made with spring greens, cilantro, a little basil, garlic, salt, olive oil, parmesan and sunflower seeds. I am very much liking the sunflower seeds in place of the spendy pine nuts.

In a search for ideas for the scallions, I saw a recipe for scallion pesto. This was also in the middle of my “what constitutes pesto?” search. I was a bit taken aback by the scallion pesto as I thought: “Wow…this isn’t even green?” …but it is because the onion tops are used along with the white part.

Bottom line, it is a pale green, and I subbed sunflower seeds again, but all else the usual pesto ingredients. It was so good that the photo is the bit I froze as I ate all that I put in the cute mason jar before I got around to taking a photo :) ! The dark green package is the spring green/cilantro pesto.