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10 min totalCantonese home kitchens

Garlic Baby Bok Choy Stir-Fry

The 8-minute green that appears on every Chinese dinner table: crisp stems, silky leaves, loud garlic.

Quick answer: This is a genuine Chinese home dish — 10 minutes total, 4 main ingredients plus pantry staples, one pot, and zero wok skills. Wash the bok choy and cook it wet — the clinging water creates the steam that tenderizes the stems while the leaves fry.
4main ingredients
3steps
1pot / pan
0wok skills

The story

Stir-fried baby bok choy with lots of raw-punchy garlic is the default vegetable dish in Chinese homes — the thing that balances a braised meat and keeps the meal feeling complete. Baby bok choy is in every US supermarket, which makes this the easiest authentic win on the site.

Ingredients (4 + pantry staples)

  • Baby bok choy — 1 lb / 450 g, halved or quartered
  • Garlic — 4 cloves, minced
  • Soy sauce — 1 tbsp
  • Salt — to taste (counts here)

Pantry staples used (don't count toward the 6): cooking oil. Not stocked yet? See the pantry page.

Steps

  1. Get the pan properly hot with 1.5 tbsp oil. Garlic in for 20 seconds.
  2. Bok choy in — toss 3–4 minutes until stems turn glossy and just tender, leaves wilted.
  3. Soy sauce and a pinch of salt; one toss, plate.

Swaps

Same method for choy sum, gai lan, napa wedges or frozen spinach (squeezed dry).

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