Bok Choy

You can easily adapt this recipe to vegetables you already have to make a quick, healthy dinner.

Traditional Asian meals tend to be full of veggies, and this one won't disappoint. Also, peanuts provide protein and off-the-chart levels of resveratrol, the same heart-smart compound found in red wine.

Save time by purchasing sliced stemmed shiitake mushrooms and wasabi paste in a tube. If the paste isn't available, mix 2 teaspoons wasabi powder with 1 tablespoon water.

Here’s a spicy noodle dish that’s packed with vegetables; covering the pan during cooking helps trap the steam so the vegetables soften more quickly (and retain their nutrients). Look for soba noodles made entirely of buckwheat flour; besides being gluten-free, they are more nutritious than soba made from whole-wheat flour.

Sablefish, also known as black cod, is among the best sources of heart-friendly omega-3 fatty acids. Here, the fish is combined with bok choy, which contains antioxidants and fiber. The hoisin mixture, brushed on top of the fish before broiling, is essentially a quick barbecue sauce.

In addition to the beneficial omega-3s provided by halibut, the green tea in this dish contains epigallocatechin gallate, or EGCG—a powerful antioxidant shown to help prevent cancer. Quinoa is high in protein and fiber.

Cooking the chicken with the skin and bones intact ultimately makes the dish more flavorful (and economical), but feel free to substitute two boneless, skinless breast halves for the whole breast in this salad if you prefer (reduce the cooking time to 15 minutes). Bok choy, abundant with cancer-fighting compounds, makes a nutritious accompaniment.

When steaming asparagus, choose thick stalks over pencil-thin ones, which cook quickly and can become limp. The cooking time depends on the thickness and freshness of the stalk, as well as your preference for firmer or more tender texture.

You can purchase a whole roast duck at your local Chinese restaurant. Some varieties of noodles suggest soaking them in boiling water instead of cooking them; check your package instructions before preparing them.

Both the ribs and the greens need to marinate overnight, so plan accordingly.

This recipe is a good way to use any leftover rice you might have; it can easily be doubled.

Similar greens—such as yow choy, also known as choy sum (which looks almost identical to bok choy but bears small yellow flowers), broccolini, or even regular broccoli—will work well in this dish if you can’t find Chinese broccoli. You can buy wide rice noodles at Asian grocery stores, or use the narrow rice noodles (often labeled “pad thai noodles”) that many supermarkets carry.

On their own, scallops have a rich, sweet flavor. When topped with this bold balsamic sauce, they’re transformed into an extraordinary dish. Serve the scallops and vegetables over steamed rice and add a tossed salad with Sesame-Ginger Dressing (page 95) for a delectable dinner.

Colorful and quick, this stir-fry is tossed in hoisin sauce and toasted sesame oil, then served over brown rice and garnished with chopped nuts.

Lots of barbecue joints in Tennessee do country-style vegetables other than coleslaw, barbecued beans, and potato salad. One of our favorites is a big pile of turnip greens doused with hot pepper vinegar to go with a side of pork ribs. We think vegetables are a critical counterbalance to rich smoky barbecued meats. Same goes with Asian barbecue. Swap the collards and turnip greens for bok choy or Napa cabbage flavored with garlic, ginger, and soy sauce. Serve this with Filipino Adobo-Q Chicken (page 94) and a big pile of fluffy jasmine rice.

This crisp salad is a delightful accompaniment to many Asian-style grain, noodle, tofu, or seitan dishes. I recommend it quite often throughout the book.