Choy sum
If you've ever visited an Asian grocery store, chances are you've found yourself in the produce section wondering what all those green leafy vegetables are, and how to cook them. Each vegetable has its own taste and texture; from the crunchy gai lan to the spicy, mustard-y gai choy. As with most greens, these can be steamed, stir-fried, stewed, braised, chopped and cooked in dumplings, and cooked in soups. In this post, I'll demystify some of them for you.
Napa Cabbage (Chinese Cabbage) is probably the most well-known as it's also available in non-Asian supermarkets. It's a large vegetable with white stalks and pale green leaves arranged cruciferously. The shape is oblong. Napa has a mild taste and a soft texture when cooked. It's the key ingredient in Korean kimchi. Napa is best used in stir-fries and soups.
Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli) is a slightly bitter dark green vegetable with thick, glossy stalks, large leaves, and small vestigal flower heads in the center very similar to broccoli. It's a little more bitter than broccoli. It's usually steamed and served with oyster sauce, although it can be used in stir fries.
Snow Pea Shoots have long stems with many leaves, and are stir-fried with garlic, cooked in soups, or eaten raw.
Bok Choy is a vegetable sold in either mature or baby form. Mature bok choy has white stems and dark green leaves; baby bok choy is light green in color. Best used in stir fries, braises, soups, stews, and steamed.
Choy Sum is very similar to bok choy in that it has white stems and dark green leaves, but it is much thinner. Used the same way as bok choy.
Tatsoi is very similar to bok choy, but with rounder leaves. Cooked the same way.
Gai Choy (Chinese Mustard) is a large vegetable that is a dark yellowish-green color. Usually some of the stems and leaves are curled. It has a bit of a spicy "bite" to it. It's pickled, stir fried, stewed, and braised.
Mizuna is a leafy Japanese vegetable that is used in a Japanese soup called nabemono. The taste is a combination of bitter and peppery. The leaves are dark green and serrated; the stalks are narrow and white. Both leaves and stalks are edible. Can also be stir fried, pickled, and eaten in salads.
Taro Leaves are large, elephant ear-shaped, and dark green. Primarily found in Filipino and Southeast Asian dishes. The leaves contain oxalic acid and should not be eaten with milk or other foods rich in calcium as this causes your body to produce calcium oxalate, which causes kidney stones. In the Philippines, taro leaves are stewed in coconut milk with fish to make a dish called laing. In Pakistan and North India, the leaves are rolled in batter, fried, and spiced. In South India, the leaves are steamed and pickled.
En Choy looks a lot like purple spinach and is sometimes called "Chinese spinach" or amaranth. Characterized by large dark green leaves with purple in the centers and crunchy green stems, it is related to beets. Like beets, the red color comes from the betalain pigment. Like spinach, it wilts easily, and does well when it is lightly steamed or stir fried.
Kang Kong is a type of water spinach in East and Southeast Asia. It's dark green in color, with smooth arrowhead-shaped leaves and long green stems. Often stir-fried with oyster sauce or yellow soybean paste, and garlic and chillies.
Chrysanthemum Greens have flat, serrated leaves and a bitter taste. Very different from the chrysanthemum plants used as ornamental plants - this particular species is known as Chrysanthemum coronarium. Used in tempura, Taiwanese oyster omelets, and soups/hot pots. Goes by various names: tong hao in Chinese, shungiku or kikuna in Japanese, ssukgat in Korean and cải cúc or tần ô in Vietnamese.
Sweet Potato Leaves are a popular vegetable in Chinese and Taiwanese cuisine where they are stir-fried with garlic and spices, and cooked in soups. The leaves are dark green and pitchfork-shaped.
Related:
Five Ways To Eat Bok Choy
Recipe Review: Chinese Broccoli and Five-Spice Sauce
Ingredient Spotlight: Lotus Root
Ingredient Spotlight: Moringa Leaves
Seasonal Spotlight: Shiso
Cooking Korean: Soondubu jjigae
Lahpet: Burmese Pickled Tea
(Images: Kathryn Hill)
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
Do you know the English name for those greens that have long, pointy leaves and hollow stems? We used to grow this in the backyard when I was growing up. The Chinese name means "hollow center/heart vegetable".
view geckotoes1's profile
I have tatsoi in my fridge right now - can't wait to use it tonight in a pork noodle dish... I think I'll throw it in some soup this weekend. Thanks for the article!
view keltrue's profile
@geckotoes1, well, the kangkong (water spinach) has pointy leaves and hollow stems. Could that be it? It's called "ong choy" in Chinese.
view Kathryn Hill's profile
Do you mean water spinach? Your description sounds like it... but what do I know!
view keltrue's profile
I thought choy sum looks more like gai lan in shape, but has a lighter green color and yellow flowers.
As for hollow center vegetable/water spinach, I have also heard of it referred to as morning glory in some parts of southeast Asia.
view dhcfong's profile
i'm supposed to be getting chrysanthemum leaves in my csa bin tomorrow. this post couldn't have come at a better time! looking forward to trying them out.
view cassiopia's profile
the first pic is def not choy sum. choy sum is all green and looks like gai lan, but has a shinier stem.
at best, the first pic can be bok choy sum. A cross breed of bok choy and choy sum.
And the last pic isnt what i would normally call bok choy. Its more like a xiao tong choi.
kangkong aka water spinich is what chinese people call ong choy or tong choy. Both chinese names describe the same thing
view pkyc0's profile
My son tells me that sweet potato leaves thicken the liquid in which they're cooked (cf. okra). I stir-fry them dry, and they're quite tasty.
view Leisureguy's profile
It would be great to have pictures of each of these leafy greens inside the actual article. Much easier to remember the look along with the name when going to the store rather than just the name on its own--especially when they're not labeled clearly at the store!
view LizWong's profile
I agree with pkyc0.
Choy sum is not like bok choy at all. It's like gai larn but instead of a broccoli like texture in the stem, it has a stringy stem.
Chrysanthemum greens/Tong Ho are a plant that I'm enjoying cooking with. Not very common yet, maybe because they have a pungent, herby flavour that some people dislike. Great for soups.
view buda's profile
@LizWong, I did my best, the ones photographed are the greens I was able to find. Sorry I couldn't do more.
We can't always use pictures on the internet that don't belong to us due to copyrights, but if you do a google image search for them, you'll find the ones I wasn't able to photograph.
view Kathryn Hill's profile
Wow the curling form of #3, the Chinese mustard, is beautiful
view akay's profile
geckotoes1, that is definitely kang kong. yummy!
view irry's profile
@kathryn hill: "siling labuyo" is not taro. it's bird's eye chili pepper. sili means chili, labuyo is a wild chicken or rooster. your source is probably referring to "dahon ng sili" (trans. leaf of chili, or chili plant leaves). taro leaves with chili is probably some variant of laing.
view sandrita's profile
The "choy sum" is really bok choy, and what's listed as "bok choy" is really Shanghai bok choy... fyi. :)
view keelo's profile
FYI Choy, Choi, Tsoi are transliterations for the Chinese word (and related languages) for vegetable.
Choy Sum (literal translation: vegetable heart) which refers to the inner or tender stalks and tips of more than one type of vegetables depending on region). Cantonese use it to refer to the Yu Choy (Edible Rape) which is not pictured. Since mature Yu Choy can be tough, what you see in the market is Yu Choy Sum. For Cantonese speakers it ends up being just Choy Sum since that's the most popular type of Choy Sum and Yu Choy for Mandarin speakers. The other common Choy Sum is Bok Choy Sum which is pictured. I've seen this labelled as Taiwanese Bok Choy in the US, so I'm not sure if Choy Sum for Mandarin speakers refers to Bok Choy Sum in general or not.
Bok Choy (Chinese Cabbage, Snow Cabbage) comes in a lot of different cultivars which includes tatsoi also known as Rosette Bok Choy and the all green variety known in the US as Baby Bok Choy or as I prefer Shanghai Cabbage since "Bok Choy" means "White Vegetable". Technically speaking, Bok Choys are all the same species Brassica rapa which includes Nappa Cabbage, some varieties of Mizuna and Common Turnip. You can think of them like you do for all the varieties of Lettuce out there.
I don't think I've seen Amaranth labelled as En Choy yet. It looks like it this particular transliteration comes via Austrailia? Yin Choy might be a more popular translation of 苋菜. Most of the time I see Amaranth labelled as Rau Dền (Vietnamese).
Kang Kong [Tagalog/Filipino], Ong Choy [Cantonese] (Water Spinach, Swamp Cabbage) is the Chinese Spinach I'm more familiar with. I'm guessing it's more popular than Amaranth since I've yet to see Amaranth served in an Asian restaurant.
Sweet Potato Leaves. I have yet to see them in US Asian grocery stores. Not all cultivars have pitchforked leaves; some are just heart shaped. It's pretty easy to grow your own by just buying a sweet potato and planting it. There are also ornamental varieties sold at nurseries. Just make sure it's Ipomoea batatas. Wild Sweet Potato Vine is a different species and poisonous.
Taro Leaves. Haven't seen time in the US yet either, but I do see the stems and of course the tuber of the Taro for sale.
view ajanhelendam's profile
I like Chinese cabbage but i have rarely tried many of the others.
view cafegurl19's profile
@sandrita thanks for the correction on "siling labuyo."
@ajanhelendam - where do you live? I've seen taro leaves and sweet potato leaves at the Manila Oriental Market in San Francisco.
view Kathryn Hill's profile
i love trying new veggies. is there any other way to use these besides stir fries? can they be used fresh moreso in salads?
view hla21's profile