Steamed Pak Choi is a Perfect Asian Side Dish

Steamed pak choi (served with an umami-rich sesame, garlic, and oyster sauce) ticks all the boxes: It’s healthy, vibrant, and ready in less than 15 minutes.

Why should main dishes get all the glory on your dinner table?

While it may look modest, this steamed pak choi totally flips the script. It’s a recipe practically designed to be the first empty plate on the table (Don’t blame me if your diners clammer for more; make double the batch!).

Steaming — a fundamentally basic, healthy cooking technique — makes the Asian greens unfathomably tender and sweet, with a buttery softness. There’s just the right amount of delicate crunch and juicy succulence in equal measure.

You could leave it at that. It’s great. But, to make it fantastic, I maximise my time in the kitchen by making a thick, glossy sauce to drizzle over the leafy vegetables while they cook.

Think classic Asian flavours, layered and balanced and full of depth: nutty toasted sesame, punchy sliced garlic, delicate soy, a touch of sweetness and at the heart, a current of deeply satisfying umami from vegetarian oyster sauce.

It all comes together in less than 15 minutes, so there’s no excuse not to get started right now!

🥬 Ingredient Notes

Technically, you only need one ingredient to make steamed pak choi: pak choi itself! If you prefer clean flavours, feel free to keep things simple with the crisp green seasoned with a touch of flaky salt.

However, I’ve chosen to add a scrumptiously savoury drizzle of sesame, garlic, and oyster sauce. It adds a little extra oomph to the greens.

You only need 5 ingredients to make the sauce, so if you have the ingredients to hand, it’s a no-brainer:

• Pak choi (also called bok choy or bok choi) is the star of this side dish. While I’ve used green-stemmed Shanghai pak choi (commonly available in U.K. supermarkets), baby pak choi would be an excellent choice too. Avoid overly mature plants, as they’re less tender. Always look for unblemished, crisp stems and leaves!
• Toasted sesame oil adds an incredibly nutty aroma to our finishing sauce. Be sure to use toasted sesame oil; regular sesame oil is lighter in colour, lacks the intense aroma, and has a completely different application.
• Garlic pairs so beautifully with leafy greens and adds a buttery pungency to our drizzle.
• Vegetarian oyster sauce is umami-packed magic. Loaded with caramel-rich, deep, intense flavours, it’s a powerhouse. Vegetarian oyster sauce can be found in most large Asian grocery stores or ordered online. I use the Lee Kum Kee Mushroom Stir-Fry Sauce.
• Light soy sauce provides saltiness and a delicate umami flavour.
• Sugar balances the dish and complements the natural sweetness of steamed pak choi.

🌱 Adapting the Recipe for Allergies and Dietary Requirements

This steamed pak choi recipe is 100% vegan, dairy-free, and nut-free.

With just a few changes (no hard-to-find ingredients, I promise!), it can be a fantastic dish for satisfying many different dietary needs (and fussy eaters).

🡆 To make the dish gluten-free, please replace regular light soy sauce with tamari. It’s a like-for-like, naturally gluten-free alternative. My Mum actually prefers it to soy sauce! If you regularly cook Asian recipes, it should be a staple in your kitchen.

Most vegetarian oyster sauce brands are gluten-free. However, it’s always prudent to check the labelling, as some may contain gluten-based thickeners. My brand of choice, Lee Kum Kee vegetarian oyster sauce, is gluten-free and vegan.

🡆 To make the dish soy-free, I’d serve the steamed pak choi with a sesame, garlic, and ginger sauce instead. It’ll have a slightly different flavour profile, yet just as delicious. Use coconut aminos in place of soy sauce for savoury umami.

🔄 Substitutions and Variations

In addition to the quick swaps to make this dish suitable for any dietary needs you may have, here are some easy trades for when you don’t have an ingredient … or some additions, for when you want something extra!

• Instead of white sugar, feel free to use a natural sweetener such as honey. Vegan alternatives would include maple syrup, agave nectar, and coconut sugar.
• Change up the serving sauce. I love this signature sesame, garlic, and oyster sauce — it’s a takeout classic — but other classic Asian sauces such as black bean sauce, hoisin sauce, and garlic chilli sauce would be fantastic. Alternatively, you could try a drizzle of homemade chilli sauce, ginger scallion oil, or shallot oil. Yum!
• Add a bit of heat. Crushed chilli flakes, freshly sliced bird’s eye chillies, or even ground white pepper will all get your taste buds tingling.

👨‍🍳 How to Make Steamed Pak Choi

This steamed pak choi is stupidly easy to cook: a few minutes prep, a few minutes steaming, and then garlic-sesame oyster sauce comes together in mere seconds. Wham, bam, done.

Firstly, you’ll need to process the pak choi. Believe it or not, this step is most time-consuming: begin by trimming off woody ends (not all pak choi have these), then slice the greens in half.

Once halved, gently pry the leaves just enough to run water between the stems. Remove any lingering grit/dirt, then pat dry.

Next, the cooking:

🥡 Storage, Reheating, Making Ahead

If you’re planning for a big meal, you can make the serving sauce ahead of time and reheat as needed. However, I suggest cooking the steamed pak choi fresh if possible — it only takes a few minutes to cook and tastes best this way.

And if you have leftovers (rarely happens in our house!), here’s how to store them:

🡆 Fridge: Steamed pak choi should be cooled, then portioned into air-tight containers. It can be refrigerated for up to three days. I recommend storing the sauce separately.

🡆 Reheat: I enjoy eating this steamed pak choi cold as a refreshing side. You can also reheat the greens in a microwave or steamer for 30-60 seconds.

If the sauce has been stored separately, gently reheat it in a small saucepan with a splash of water.

I don’t recommend freezing steamed pak choi. Like most cooked greens, the pak choi turns mushy once defrosted.

🍜 Serving Suggestions

You can pair these fresh greens with almost anything — in fact, steamed pak choi is such a versatile side dish that I’ll struggle to list all the ways you could serve it!

If you’d like to make a wholesome, full feast-style meal, start with appetisers. I’m talking tofu potstickers (with a crispy dumpling skirt), mushroom wontons, or totally moreish takeaway-style salt and pepper tofu.

Rice dishes like vegetarian nasi goreng, vegan Thai basil fried rice, spicy chilli garlic fried rice, or even this Indo-Chinese fusion recipe, Manchurian fried rice would be glorious with garlic pak choi.

Equally as tempting are noodle stir-fries: honey garlic noodles marry fantastically with the sweet, garlicky pak choi; mushroom chow mein with the savoury umami of the sauce; or plain chow mein for an understated, easy classic choice.

I’m also partial to serving simple Asian greens with rich, heavy curries. The contrast is incredible! Try it with massaman tofu curry, creamy satay curry with tofu, or restaurant-copycat vegan katsu curry.

I’d love to know what combinations you come up with — let me know below.

📜 Looking for More Pak Choi Recipes? I’ve Got You Covered

• Roasted baby bok choy
• Pak choi salad
• Braised bok choy
• Bok choy noodles