Korean Mixed Rice Bowl—Bibimbap

Bibimbab {비빔밥}

This is love recipe. Why Love? Because if you love to cook and willing to saute each vegetable separably than you putting much love into making this meal.

I wish I grow up eating this kind of rice bowls, but I think it’s never too late. Korean cuisine and I just clicked instantly, but hey what not to love, right?!

I know that most of you know about “bibimbap” (bi bim-mixed, bap/bab-rice) but let me say a few more things.

The web is flooded with Bibimbap recipes, but I thought what better way to make very delicious dinner than this veggie and protein packed dish and at the same time present something that is a staple of every Korean household to my family, too.

Bibimbap is an International dish that is listed at #40 on World’s 50 most delicious foods readers’ poll compiled by CNN in 2011, but today my kids will eat something healthy, nutritious and delicious.

The best thing about bibimbap is that you don’t have to keep it “traditionally”, any leftover veggies and meat can be used, and if you are vegetarian than tofu or mushrooms can be substituted for meat.

Most commonly in the Korean households, it’s served in stainless steel bowls, but you may find bibimbap served in dolsot -stone bowls, too.

Bibimbap has several traditional versions, depending what region of S. Korea you are in; with marinated clams, raw yolk on top of bibimbap and cooked against the hot dolsot with sizzling rice, or rice cooked in rich beef broth…

whatever you find in the pot, I am sure that your taste palate will be happy as much as your stomach, oh and the eyes too, because it is colorful and truly feast for the eyes.

But just to add one more thing that the goal in Korean cuisine is to serve a meal with 5 colors (red, yellow, white, black and green), and 5 flavors (hot, sweet, salty, sour and bitter). It is magical cuisine that most of the foodies go crazy over!

With Thanksgiving being over, I am imagining that many of you still have leftovers, so give this recipe a try, and again you do not have to use exact ingredients but Korean Chili Red Bean paste(gochujang) is a must in my opinion and you can find it in Korean or in International markets, so stock up on that because gochujang is amazing.

My ingredient list is quite large but that just tell you how healthy this is. I had many leftover veggies as well as grilled beef, so I just sauteed for less than minute with a drizzle of soy sauce and oil. The recipe was of course success and I got to tell you very delicious, spicy and fulfilling too!

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Korean Mixed Rice Bowl—Bibimbap

Course Main Course

Cuisine Asian, Korean

Keyword rice, bowl, beef, asian, korean, healthy

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 4

Author Sandra | Sandra’s Easy Cooking

Ingredients

• 1 cup per person Steamed white rice
• Bulgogi recipe below
• 1 Carrot julienned
• 1 cup Bean Sprouts
• 1 cup Spinach
• 5 Shiitake Mushrooms
• 1/2 Cup Kimchi chopped
• 2 Spring Onions
• 1 Cucumber English is similar

Rolled egg omelet:

• 4 eggs
• Dash of Ground Sea Salt
• Oil for greasing the frying pan
• Mix eggs and salt

Garnish:

• 1 Tbs. sesame seeds 1/2 Tbs. Toasted Sesame seeds and 1/2 Tbs. Black Sesame Seeds
• 1 Tbs. Sesame oil
• Dried Seaweed
• Soy sauce to taste
• 1 Tbs. Gochujang paste mix or more per serving.

Gochujang Paste Mix:

• 1 Tbs. Red Chili Bean paste gochujang
• 1 Tbs. Rice vinegar
• 1 Tbs. Soy Sauce low sodium
• 1/2 tsp. Sugar
• 1/2 Tbs. Sesame Oil
• 1/2 Tbs. Toasted Sesame Seeds
• 1 Spring Onions finely chopped

Instructions

Bulgogi (Meat):

1. Bulgogi (bul-fire gogi-meat or grilled marinated meat, you can use ground beef too-30 minute marinate: 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/2 cup Sprite or clear sweet soda, 1 tablespoon sugar,1 Asian pear, 1/2 onion, 3 garlic cloves, 2 inches fresh ginger, and sesame oil; seafood, chicken, tofu or even turkey can be substituted for a beef.

Vegetables:

1. Julienne Carrot/s then sauteed for about 30 seconds with sesame oil and 1/2 tsp. Sugar to bring bit more sweetness.
2. Blanch and Drain Bean sprouts, then sauteed in a little sesame oil and seasoned with a splash of soy sauce.
3. Blanch and drain baby Spinach, then sauteed in a little sesame oil and seasoned with a splash of soy sauce. You may use thawed frozen spinach as well, but make sure to squeeze out all the additional moisture before sauteeing.
4. Shiitake mushrooms, thinly sliced and sauteed in sesame oil and seasoned with salt. If you are using dry shiitake then soak them for 15 minutes in water; then slice and saute for a minute (or you might use whatever is available to you)
5. Zucchini, julienned and saute for 1 minute in Sesame oil with a bit of salt
6. Cabbage Kimchi, chopped and sauteed for less than minute in sesame oil (or you can use it cold without sauteing)
7. Spring Onions, cut Lengthwise and sauteed with sesame oil and dash of salt for 30 seconds.
8. Cucumber (English is similar), cut the same length as other vegetables, No sauteing. Cucumber gives you a wonderful flavor.

Rolled egg omelet:

1. Break 4 eggs into the bowl and mix it well. Grease the pan and pour it in the hot frying pan half of the egg mixture.
2. Wait until the top is almost dry. Flip and roll. You can put in the middle of omelet dry seaweed before you flip and roll if you desire. Cut into equal strips for bibimbap. Other option you can fry sunny side up egg and add to the bibimbap; one to two eggs per person.

Gochujang Paste Mix:

1. Add Gochujang paste mix, fried egg if you desire, dried seaweed, more sesame seeds, drizzle bit of sesame oil and soy sauce, and mix it all up to code each veggie, rice, and meat with delicious gochujang mix just before eating. Personally, for myself I added about 1/2 cup of kimchi juice and more gochujang, it was that much more delicious but if you don’t like too spicy keep it as it is.

Assemble:

1. Place a cup of rice into the bowl, the start adding each ingredient next to each other. Assembling it so the bowl looks pretty and colorful.
2. Lastly, add gochujang sauce and a drizzle of sesame oil and mix it all up to marry each ingredient, so it is very well mixed and combined before eating.

Recipe Notes

• All veggies that are noted to be sauteed should be sauteed separably, for less than a minute, just to loosen up a bit and bring more color or to add one more layer of flavor. Use sesame seed oil or any oil on hand if you desire, but I think that sesame seed oil gives a very unique flavor.
• Also always season it with a drizzle of soy sauce, or sea salt and pepper. If you are serving to other people, I would recommend putting everything separately on a tray so they can add what they would like in their bibimbap, and how much Red Chili Paste mix they want because some people cannot tolerate spicy food.
• It looks like a lot of sesame oil in the recipe but actually, you are using just a few drops of oil each time when you sauteing vegetables. With any leftover Bibimbap if not mixed together you can make Kimbap (Gim or Kim mean Seaweed and Bap-Rice), which are similar or the same as Japanese Maki(Makizushi or Nori-Maki–rolled seaweed).
• You can use any veggies that you prefer. This is just what my family likes and what I use the most. I love doing seasonal bibimbap bowls, as well as a simple bowl with only a couple of protein and veggies on top, fish bowl, chicken even vegetarian. It is really something that you may personalize to your own liking.