Napa Cabbage vs. Bok Choy: What’s the Difference?

Napa cabbage is a type of Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa var. pekinensis) with an oval head of light green leaves. Its common names include Chinese white cabbage, Peking cabbage, or celery cabbage (due to its white stalks). The word “napa” comes from the Japanese word for leaves, but in Japan, it’s called hakusai. Australians call it wombok cabbage, a misinterpretation of the Cantonese name. In Korea, it’s called baechu.

A napa cabbage is large and oblong with crinkly, tightly packed pale green leaves. It’s a staple in Asian cuisine due mainly to its versatility. You can eat it raw in a salad or slaw; stir-fry it; combine it with other ingredients to fill dumplings; stew it; pickle it; or ferment it, as in the case of Korean kimchi. Napa cabbage has a more delicate flavor and texture than “regular cabbage.” It has a generally mild flavor and becomes sweeter when cooked.

Bok choy, also known as pak choi or pak choy, is a variety of Chinese cabbage (Brassica rapa var. chinensis) with dark green leaves and thick white stalks. Its name means “white vegetable” in Cantonese. Bok choy is a cruciferous vegetable in the cabbage family, closely related to turnips, broccoli rabe, napa cabbage, Brussels sprouts, tatsoi, and mizuna. With origins in Central Asia, bok choy is one of the oldest cultivated vegetables.

In American supermarkets, you can find two main varieties of bok choy: “regular” bok choy, which has a ruffly, dark green leaf and bright white stalk, and Shanghai bok choy, which has smooth, oval leaves and is light green from the leaves to the stalk. Both regular and Shanghai bok choy are high in beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin C.

While they may have once been hard to track down, napa cabbage and bok choy are now widely available in many grocery stores. They’re very closely related and are both frequent components of stir-frys and side dishes. There are, however, a few differences between the two:

• Cooking method: Most napa cabbage recipes suggest cooking all parts of the chopped-up vegetable together. When you cook bok choy, on the other hand, it’s a good idea to separate the stalks from the leaves, since the stalks take longer to cook. Its tender leaves don’t take long to cook at all.
• Flavor: Bok choy is a leafy green and tastes like it. It’s more bitter than napa cabbage and has a more assertive flavor, though it gets milder as it cooks.
• Nutrition: Bok choy is significantly higher in dietary fiber, vitamin C, and vitamin A than napa cabbage.
• Texture: Bok choy stalks are more fibrous than the leaves of napa cabbage, and you’d therefore be less likely to encounter them raw. Raw napa cabbage, on the other hand, is often thinly sliced for salads.

It’s possible to substitute bok choy and napa cabbage for each other, with a few important caveats. Suppose you want to make napa cabbage salad or coleslaw but don’t have any on hand. In that case, you’re better off using a vegetable that’s similarly crunchy and mild when raw (like green cabbage) rather than bok choy, which will likely be too fibrous and bitter. If you’re cooking a bok choy recipe like a stir-fry or a soup, napa cabbage is an excellent substitute since both vegetables become soft and mild when cooked.

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