Tatsoi
Brassica rapa subsp. narinosa
Similar veggies:
Bok choi
A quick introduction
Tatsoi, with its dark green leaves that are shaped as a rosette, is one of the most beautiful vegetables we grow. The taste is mild and the leaves can be eaten raw when young and tender. We sometimes bunch 2 or 3 tatsoi together but you might also find it bagged as loose leaves. Sometimes we will add it to a salad mix. When tatsoi starts to bolt, pretty yellow flowers appear. We sometimes still add a last bunch of this flowering tatsoi to the veggie box as the flowers are perfectly edible.
Storage
As with all Asian greens we recommend washing tatsoi in cold water (we do pre-wash it at the farm), then dry it and store in a closed container in the fridge. This way it will keep for almost a week.
Season
Spring and fall
Suggestions for preparation
Tatsoi is great in a stir-fry. We also like to roast them whole in a hot pan and serve them with some chili oil on top. When the tatsoi leaves are young they add some delicious crunch to any salad.
Recipes
Here a great recipe for a lemongrass stir-fry by Nigel Slater that works will all kinds of different greens!
How to stir-fry vegetables
Make Mapo tofu and serve it with steamed or stir fried tatsoi and white rice
Stir fried cabbage with garlic and fish sauce (replace the cabbage with tatsoi). For a vegetarian version, kimchi juice can be used instead of fish sauce.
Vegan mushroom, udon & cabbage soup (this soup can be made with lots of different vegetables, think turnips, mustard greens or tatsoi...)
Replace kale with tatsoi and diminish the cooking time to make these pasta with beans and greens
Replace the choi sum with tatsoi in this black pepper chicken with soy butter (replace the chicken with fried tofu if you would like a vegetarian version)