Spaghetti with Bok Choy

Spaghetti with Bok Choy

This is one of my go-to recipes during a busy work week, especially when I am short on time in the kitchen but I still want to make something nutritious for the family. This Spaghetti with Boy Choy uses primarly just these two ingredients – spaghetti and bok choy – and the rest you are likely to already have in your fridge and pantry. It’s one of the easiest recipes I know of!

Bok Choy Stir-Fry

This recipe is essentially a bok choy stir-fry with the addition of spaghetti. It happens to combine the best of Chinese, Japanese and Italian cuisine to create an umami-packed pasta dish.

It is Chinese in origin because it starts with a bok choy stir-fry, but then becomes Japanese-inspired with the addition of butter and soy sauce, with a final nod to Italian cuisine with the addition of spaghetti to transform the stir-fry into a satisfying pasta dish.

The butter helps to create a silky sauce to coat the spaghetti, and the soy sauce adds a delicious saltiness which is almost addictive.

Recipe for Spaghetti with Boy Choy

This recipe is inspired by Hetty McKinnon‘s recipe for Soy-Butter Bok Choy Pasta in her book, Tenderheart. This particular recipe caught my attention because I love the combination of soy sauce with butter, and I knew right away that it would work perfectly in a pasta dish. However, the first time I tried Hetty’s recipe – and I followed her recipe exactly – I found it way too salty (her recipe uses 120 ml or 1/2 cup of soy sauce), and also way too buttery (her recipes uses 6 tablespoons of butter).

Even as I was reading Hetty’s recipe, I knew that 1/2 cup of soy sauce was going to be too much; most noodle stir-fries that I make using soy sauce only require 1-2 tablespoons. Either Hetty likes her food really salty, or the better guess is that she uses a soy sauce which is less salty than what I use. Which reinforces my belief that, no matter how much a recipe has been tested, there are still always many variables which a recipe writer cannot control, such as the brand of an ingredient which a reader uses.

So the recipe below is my variation of Hetty’s recipe, using the quantities which works for me and my family.

I use Kikkoman Soy Sauce for cooking, mainly because it is readily available in supermarkets around the world, and especially here in Zurich. If you use a different brand of soy sauce, or a version with less sodium, you may need to adjust the recipe to taste.

I also only use 1-2 tablespoons of butter because this quantity is enough to meld with the soy sauce to produce a lovely sauce for the pasta to adhere to, but the dish does not taste overly rich and buttery.

But as you make this recipe using the brand of soy sauce and butter which you normally have to hand, make any adjustments as you see fit.

How to Make Spaghetti with Bok Choy

Step 1

Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Add the salt and pasta, and cook the pasta according to the packet instructions until al dente, about 10-11 minutes. Save the pasta cooking water to use later in the recipe.

Step 2

While the pasta is cooking, prepare the bok choy.

If you are using large bok choy, separate the stems from the leaves. Chop the stems into 2 cm segments, and keep the leaves whole or chop them in half, depending on how leafy they are.

If you are using baby bok choy, simply halve or quarter the bok choy.

Wash the chopped bok choy thoroughly in cold water to remove any dirt and grit.

Step 3

Heat a large wok or frying pan with some vegetable oil over medium-high heat.

Sauté the bok choy stems (or baby bok choy segments) for a few minutes, or until it starts to soften.

Add the garlic, and give everything a good mix.

Step 4

Add the butter and soy sauce. Stir everything together.

Step 5

Use a pair of large tongs to transfer the cooked spaghetti to the pan with the bok choy, but do not discard the pasta cooking water.

Step 6

Add the bok choy leaves, together with a small ladle (about 60 ml/1/4 cup) of the pasta cooking water.

Step 7

Give everything a good mix until the pasta is thoroughly coated in the buttery soy sauce. If the pasta looks a bit dry, add some more pasta cooking water.

Taste for seasoning to see if the dish needs more soy sauce.

Serve with freshly ground black pepper just before serving.

Variations

I always have bok choy in our fridge because it is a mild green vegetable which our kids happily eat, and which I can cook in a variety of ways. Locally grown bok choy in Switzerland are very large, so I always separate the stems from the stalks. But my Asian grocer tends to stock baby bok choy which are very small and cute, and I either halve or quarter them before cooking.

Variations to this recipe which I have tried include:

• Asparagus: trimmed and sliced on an angle into thick lengths
• Baby corn: halved and added with other vegetables
• Baby spinach: add them with the cooked pasta to the sauce
• Broccolini: trimmed and cut into thin lengths
• Shitake mushrooms: sliced thickly and added with other vegetables
• Swiss chard: use in place of bok choy

Tips for Making Spaghetti with Bok Choy

This recipe is so easy to put together that it also happens to be a recipe I make when we are staying in a holiday apartment with a kitchen. We are likely to already have to butter for breakfast, oil for other meals, and the usual array of seasoning. In addition:

• I pack the spaghetti and bok choy before leaving (unless I know bok choy is readily available where we are staying).
• I save sachets of soy sauce from whenever we buy sushi, and use these sachets for travel. Just check the expiry dates on the sachets. Otherwise, I buy the smallest bottle of soy sauce available for travel.