Grilled Bok Choy

Whenever I'm out at the grocery store and I come across a fruit or vegetable I've never made before, I consider it a personal challenge. It's pretty much a guarantee that I will buy it and immediately go home and look up a million recipes. A few weeks ago, this happened with a persimmon. A what?! It's a Chinese fruit that's really soft when ripe. When I tasted it, I found it to be really sweet, so I ended up putting it on crackers with cream cheese to tone down the sweetness with the salty cracker; turned into a most delicious snack. This happened again with parsnips, hence the parsnip fries and rosemary parsnip puree. Most recently, it was baby bok choy that caught my eye! 

If you've never tried bok choy, I highly recommend you hunt some down. Also of Chinese origin, it's kind of like cabbage and is full of vitamins! And I think grilling it is definitely the way to go. It resulted in a tender yet still crunchy texture with a crispy top, mmm mmm! 

Start by trimming off the very bottom of the vegetable, but don't cut off too much -- you want it to still be intact. My bok choy was of the baby variety so it was quite small. A few of the larger ones, I cut in half lengthwise, but the others I left as is. However, if you have the regular-sized ones, you'll want to cut them all in half so they cook all the way through. Spray or lightly drizzle the bok choy with olive oil; you don't need much or it will get oily. Then toss with seasoned salt, paprika, garlic powder, and pepper. I also put some Mrs. Dash on there, but if you don't have any, I'm sure it'll still taste fine without it. Now just toss them right on the grill on medium heat. 

Grill for about five minutes until there's grill marks on there. Then flip, and grill for another five minutes or so. This may take longer if you're not using baby bok choy. Just keep an eye on it so the tops don't get too burnt. I like it best when the bottom white/light green part is tender but still crunchy. 

And that's it! Super simple and super tasty! I used this as a side to go along with some cured salmon on toast with cream cheese, a recent obsession of mine. But bok choy could really go with anything; feel free to experiment: change up the spices or brush with some soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, or even sriracha. If you find something you like, leave a comment so we can all try it out! 

Grilled Bok Choy

Bok choy

Paprika

Seasoned salt

Garlic powder

Pepper
Mrs. Dash

Olive oil

Preheat grill to medium. Trim white end of bok choy and slice large ones in half lengthwise. Spray with olive oil and toss with spices to taste. Grill approximately 5 minutes. Flip and grill another approximately 5 minutes.