Finding Good in the Darker Side of the Leaf.

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We are always on the lookout for new and exciting flavours that can be added to our kitchen pantry to make a meal go from delicious to “Oh wow”! This week we rediscovered our love for Pak Choi. This smaller Asian cousin to cabbage is a dark  leafy green, which is always a sign of something having an added boost of goodness. This is all too true for this green guy, Pak Choi is filled with amazing health benefits. Let’s start with the one that managed to get our attention in the first place - Vitamin K.

Pak Choi is filled with vitamin K which helps our bodies build healthy bones and also helps maintain that bone strength. It does this by redirecting calcium to your bones rather than to your arteries. This is aided by the high quantity of Vitamin C that’s also found in this delicious and bright Asian cabbage, which is a super food when it comes to cardiovascular health. Vitamin C helps your skin, bones, and gums to become strong and healthy, but it also helps prevent iron deficiency by improving your body's capability to absorb iron from foods.

There are a number of ways in which to use this vitamin-dense leaf, but we prefer to incorporate it into salads. Its dark green leaves provide contrast in a salad bowl and their extra crisp texture complements lettuce well, if you choose to mix the two. As this is an Asian vegetable it does tend to work best with flavours such as ginger, soy, sesame and chilli. It can be incorporated into an everyday salad as well.

Here is our recipe for a delicious Pak Choi salad.

For the sauce:

  • 125 ml Olive Oil

  • 60ml Rice Vinegar

  • 80 ml Honey

  • 3 Tablespoons Soy Sauce

  • 5cm Knob of Ginger, peeled and finely grated

  • 1 Clove of Garlic, grated

  • 1 tsp Toasted Sesame oil

  • 1 tsp Chilli (optional)

Mix these ingredients together for the sauce. This can be done in a small blender or just by hand using a whisk.

In a bowl combine :

  • 6-8 bunches of Pak Choi, sliced in half lengthways

  • 2 ripe Avocados, sliced

  • 125ml Cashews

  • 2 Tablespoons Sesame Seeds

  • 3ml Sea Salt Flakes

Drizzle the sauce over the salad just before serving to ensure the nuts and leaves remain as crisp as possible.

Enjoy!