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Traditional Korean Recipes

Pasta and NoodlesSoups, Stews, and Side DishesTraditional Korean Recipes

Vegan Kimchi Fried Rice

So, this Vegan Kimchi Fried Rice is the culmination of having lots of odds and ends (like one single solitary kale leaf) in my fridge and not enough energy in my body to come up with anything else for dinner. I remember, when I went paleo for a little bit (it was a very bad decision, guys, don’t recommend it), my meals consisted of a daily dump (wow, bad imagery, but so appropriate) of random meats into a big pan, together with whatever veggies I had on hand. While it didn’t always taste that great and left my stomach feeling even worse, it was easy and somewhat thoughtless. Funny enough, I think some of the most popular Korean recipes are those that were derived by people who simply didn’t know how to, or didn’t have adequate brain power, to cook.

You see, every Korean kitchen will have rice and kimchi. Start with those two things, and you’re like 90% there. Then just add in oil and every vegetable known to man in your fridge, and you’re done. Basically, that’s how I came up with this Vegan Kimchi Fried Rice.

Where’s the egg? Well, go ahead and add your favorite egg replacer in there, but honestly, I made this Vegan Kimchi Fried Rice last night with like 50 ppl on Chibo, and none of them missed the egg.  My husband—who gobbled up about 80% of it before I could get in a spoonful—certainly didn’t miss no eggs.  So, do yourself a favor.  Make this Vegan Kimchi Fried Rice and find out what all the fuss is about!

Vegan Kimchi Fried Rice

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Ingredients
  
1x2x3x

  • 2 + 1 tbsps vegetable oil
  • 3 cups day old/cooled rice
  • 1/4 medium onion (diced)
  • 3 cloves garlic (thinly sliced)
  • 1 cup kimchi (chopped)
  • 1 whole carrot (diced)
  • 1/2 head broccoli (chopped)
  • 3-4 shiitake mushrooms (chopped)
  • 1 small Yukon gold potato (diced)
  • 2 Leaves kale (julienned)
  • Salt & pepper
  • 2 tbsp gochujang*
  • 1 tsp maple syrup
  • 1 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 green onion chopped
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tsp sesame seeds
  • optional garnish: roasted nori strips

Instructions
 

  • Begin preparing kimchi fried rice by mixing sauce—2 tbsp gochujang, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp maple syrup.
  • Add 2 tbsp vegetable oil to a very large pan over highest heat setting.
  • When oil begins to shimmer, add 1 cups of day old or cooled rice. Do not crowd the pan. Season with salt and pepper.
  • Fry rice in oil until it starts to toast and remove and set aside. Repeat with remaining rice.
  • Add 1 tbsp of oil. Sautee all veggies, including kimchi. Season with a little salt.
  • When veggies start to brown, add sauce and stir until all veggies are coated.
  • Add back fried rice and mix until fully incorporated. Turn off the heat and add 1 tsp sesame oil for shine.
  • Sprinkle with sesame seeds and roasted nori.
  • Snip a little green onion over the top of both the kimchi fried rice.
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Gluten FreeTraditional Korean Recipes

Savory Pancakes – Gluten Free!

While at a food styling and food photography workshop with one of my favorite foodbloggers, Timothy Pakron, The Mississippi Vegan, we decided to make and shoot these beautiful kimchi pancakes, using Timothy’s homemade kimchi, the dragon carrots from his garden, and garlic scapes we picked up from the Jackson, Mississippi Farmer’s Market that morning.  For the pancake, I modified my gluten-free recipe for chocolate chip pancakes and it turned out just perfect.  Enjoy!

Savory Pancakes - Gluten Free!

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10 pancakes

Ingredients
  
1x2x3x

Pancakes

  • 1/2 cup sweet white rice flour (do not replace with regular white rice flour)
  • 1/2 cup blanched almond flour (almond meal will result in less fluffy pancake)
  • 2 tbsp cornmeal
  • 1/4 cup potato starch
  • 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tbsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tbsp onion powder
  • 3/4 cup non-dairy milk
  • 2 tbsp white wine vinegar

Dressing

  • 1/4 cup soy sauce (tamari is a GF soy sauce)
  • 1 tsp maple syrup
  • 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp mirin
  • 1 tbsp sesame seeds
  • 1/2 jalapeno or Fresno chili pepper (seeded and thinly sliced)
  • 1 tbsp garlic (minced)
  • 1 tbsp Korean pepper powder (optional)

Instructions
 

  • Stir white wine vinegar into non-dairy milk and set aside. In a large bowl, mix together all dry ingredients with whisk or fork. Add in non-dairy milk mixture and whisk until dry ingredients are fully incorporated. Batter will be very thick (almost like cake batter), but if it's too thick to work with, add 1 tbsp of non-dairy milk at a time until it gets to a workable consistency.
  • Add a little oil to a skillet (we used a cast iron skillet) to medium high heat. When the pan is hot, pour small ladleful of batter and THEN add toppings of your choice (we used julienned carrots, homemade kimchi, and garlic scapes--you can use just about anything you like, as long as they are thinly sliced). Lower heat to medium-low and wait for a few minutes before flipping. Cook until both sides are evenly browned and serve with dressing (which you make just by mixing all the ingredients together).
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Gluten FreeSaucesSoups, Stews, and Side DishesTraditional Korean Recipes

Kimchi Chigae Reigns Supreme.

Ok, so the other night, my boyfriend was out and it was just me for dinner.  Normally, on nights I don’t need to cook for anyone but me, I stick to something easy–like bread and almond butter (sadly, this is not an exaggeration).  But, there was a ripe old jar of kimchi calling my name just sitting in my fridge, so I decided it was a great opportunity to make some kimchi chigae.  My boyfriend–an Italian American–has been a real trooper about trying all the different veganized Korean foods I make, but the one thing that hasn’t quite enthralled him (yet) is kimchi [guys, no one is perfect stop judging him].

Kimchi chigae is basically like many other Korean recipes–it’s aimed at making sure nothing goes to waste.  Like bibimbap, it’s about taking what’s in your fridge that you would otherwise not serve at the table and putting them into a pot until they become delicious again.  The trick with any chigae (stew) is to make a kick ass broth.  Here, that starts with good kimchi [duh]. But I also add some red onions (which are healthier than the white variety), garlic, and shiitake mushrooms to do some of the legwork.  The final piece to the puzzle, though, is my mom’s Korean BBQ Marinade.  I use this delicious concoction to take basically every savory dish I make to that next level.

If you like spicy food, you will love love love this recipe. It’s easy, delicious, and healthy to boot!  You can find a step by step video demonstration of this recipe (along with a bunch of others) here.  

Kimchi Chigae.

...for that time you don't know what to do with all that left over kimchi that's too sour to eat...
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4 people

Ingredients
  
1x2x3x

Chigae

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/4 red onion diced
  • 6-7 shiitake mushrooms sliced
  • 2 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 cup kimchi** overripe
  • 1 1/2 tbsp gochujang*
  • tbsp Omma's Korean BBQ Marinade see below
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 cup black beans
  • 3 oz. extra firm tofu sliced
  • green onions for garnish

Omma's Korean BBQ Marinade

  • 1/2 red onion
  • 6 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce use Tamari sauce for GF version
  • 2 tbsp mirin
  • 1/2 Korean apple pear
  • 1/2 red bell pepper
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup optional
  • 1 tbsp liquid smoke optional

Instructions
 

  • Blend all ingredients for Omma's Korean BBQ Marinade in blender, until smooth and slightly frothy. It will smell freaking delicious and you will want to use it in everything you cook.
  • In a medium size pot (I use the traditional Korean stone pot, but you can also use a dutch oven), over medium high heat, add 1 tbsp olive oil. Once the oil is nice and hot, add red onions and mushrooms. Cook until brown. Add garlic and salt and stir until garlic softens.
  • Add kimchi and some of the kimchi juice. Feel free to slice the kimchi into bite sized pieces if it doesn't come that way already. Make sure the kimchi is overripe--as in, not the kind that you want to eat raw. The kimchi should be a dull orange (as opposed to the beautiful bright orange you see when served at a meal) and smell like your brother's dirty socks. If you use underripe or even just ripe kimchi, the stew will not come out as good.
  • Add gochujang and Omma's Korean BBQ Marinade and stir until all the veggies are evenly coated. It should smell like heaven in your kitchen.
  • Add water and bring to a boil. Then add black beans, tofu, and a little green onion for garnish. Do not let your stew cook too long--the longer you cook, the soggier your kimchi becomes. You want your kimchi to retain a nice satisfying "crunch" even when the stew is done cooking.

Notes

  1.  You can get gluten free gochujang here.  If you have no probs with gluten, you can pick up a few other brands of gochujang that I really like here and here.
  2. If you don't have an awesome mom who makes you vegan kimchi (like my mom), you can buy vegan kimchi here.
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DessertsTraditional Korean Recipes

Dduck, Dduck, Goo Rice Cake For New Year’s.

Cooking Time: 80 minutes
Recipe Difficulty: Very Easy
Servings Amount: 20

Recipe Lead: …for when you want to impress your Korean friends on the Lunar New Year…

Ingredients

Cake

  • 1 box (454 g) Mochino sweet white rice flour* (not to be confused with white rice flour)
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 3 cups non-dairy milk
  • 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp mirin sake**
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  • 1/2 cup chopped pecans
  • 1/4 cup pine nuts
  • 1/2 cup chopped pistachios
  • 1/2 cup roasted chestnuts
  • 1 can sweet red bean paste^

Topping (optional)

  • 1 cup chopped pecans
  • 1/2 cup chopped pistachios
  • 1/4 cup raisins
  • 1 tbsp mirin sake
  • 1 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  1. Mix together non-dairy milk and white wine vinegar.  Set aside.
  2. Soak raisins in mirin soju.
  3. Place all dry ingredients in stand mixer bowl or large bowl and stir using paddle attachment (or wooden spoon).
  4. Add red bean paste.
  5. Add sesame oil and slowly incorporate vegan buttermilk (mixture created in step 1) until batter forms.
  6. Fold in remaining ingredients (nuts and raisins) with rubber spatula.
  7. Scoop into muffin tray or place in large cake rectangular cake pan (sprayed with cooking oil or lined with parchment paper).
  8. Optional topping: mix together all ingredients and gently spoon onto your batter.
  9. Bake at 350° F for 1 hour, until outside is golden brown and firm.

Your dduck will be crunchy on the outside and ooey-gooey on the inside.  

*You can pick up sweet white rice flour here.
**You can pick up mirin sake here.
^You can pick up sweet red bean paste here.

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FoodLifeTraditional Korean Recipes

The Korean Vegan = Vegan Kimchi.

 

Can you recall your first day of kindergarten? To be honest, I’m not sure I can. I think I somehow mish-mashed a bunch of memories from that first year of school into what I now call my “first day.”  Here are the fragments that have stuck with me from that first day:

I didn’t speak English.  Everyone else did.

I had long black hair, black eyes, and yellow skin.  Very few others sported this ensemble.

I had to wear sok-neh-bok (Korean long underwear).  No one else’s grandmother appeared as concerned with the cold.

My grandmother packed for me kimbap and kimchi. Everyone else’s lunchbox contained ham sandwiches and potato chips.

I came home after that “first day” of kindergarten crying.  I hated my mother, my father, my grandmother, and everyone else who was “responsible” for making me so painfully different from everyone else, so Korean.  I fearlessly told my mother from that day forward,

“I am not Korean, Mommy.  I am American.”

Fast forward to my first day of college, at the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign.  The first thing I hunted down was a decent Korean restaurant, to ensure that I would have sustenance for the next few years.  Thank goodness for Dorcas, the teensy-tiny family run Korean eatery on Green Street, that served unlimited quantities of kkong-namul-gook (bean sprout broth) through a water dispenser and made the best damn soon-doo-boo chigae of ever (…besides my mom’s, of course).  I could have stuck a chopstick in my “Korean-ness.”

Over the years, my palate continued to be my “tell.”  My favorite meal consisted of three things: rice, water, kimchi.  If I was feeling fancy, I’d have a few sheets of keem (roasted nori) to wrap around my rice.  And every time my mother saw me eating this way, she’d remark with a great deal of joy that, for some reason, continues to pierce my chest,

“You are definitely Korean.”

So, when I went vegan about a year ago, all I could think about was how my mother used to massage the great big heads of bright cabbage with handfuls of saewoojeot (fermented baby shrimp) on Kimchi Days…  and I wondered,

If I can’t eat kimchi anymore… am I still Korean?

As I’ve written about earlier, The Korean Vegan is, in large part, a project that aimed to prove to everyone and to me that I didn’t have to shed my identity together with meat.  Thus, figuring out a way to make vegan kimchi not just look like kimchi but taste like the kimchi I grew up eating was critical.

My favorite kimchi of all kimchi (there are many many different kinds of kimchi) is invariably chonggak kimchi, made with Korean baby radishes.  So, I knew when I decided to finally tackle kimchi, I would be making chonggak kimchi.  But first, I would have to figure out a way to mimic the fish sauce that was called for in every single recipe of chonggak kimchi I’ve ever seen.

Now, you might ask, “Why not just omit the fish sauce?  Surely, it can’t make that much difference!”  My mother took this approach when I first went vegan.  She spent hours making me a huge batch of regular kimchi without fish sauce.  She lugged it all the way to my house in a large kimchi jar to store in my new home.  We both agreed,

“This isn’t very good.”

I was thereafter pretty intimidated.  Despite receiving hundreds of requests from followers of the blog for my vegan kimchi recipe, I deflected.  I made vague assurances that one would be forthcoming, without any real plan in mind for how that would materialize.  But, after watching my mom and everyone else in my family chomp down on mouthwatering kimchi, and finding zero non-fish-sauce options at the Korean grocery store, I determined that the only way to address this gaping deficiency in my fridge was to make my own.

Starting with my own vegan fish sauce.

Google vegan fish sauce, and you’ll find plenty of recipes.  I’ve tried a bunch of them, but none of them provided the requisite tang for my kimchi–which is literally the only reason I would ever had any need for fish sauce.  So, after trying a few things here and there, I put together a bunch of flavors that I thought might work. After some trial and error, my Fishy Sauce was born.  I added it to my kimchi, and voila:

I had chonggak kimchi that tasted almost as good as I remembered it when I was busy trying to convince my mother that I was American.

Recipe for My Favorite Kimchi Of All Time.

 

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Traditional Korean Recipes

My Favorite Kimchi Of All Time.

Cooking Time: 105 minutes
Recipe Difficulty: Intermediate
Servings Amount: 15

Recipe Lead: …for when you feel like wearing your mother’s kitchen gloves…

Ingredients

Fishy Sauce.

  • 6 cups water
  • 2 sheets dashima*
  • 1 cup clamshell mushrooms
  • 1 medium shallot
  • 6 cloves garlic
  • 1 tbsp black peppercorns
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 2 tbsp mirin

Kimchi.

  • 2 lbs (5-6) Korean baby radishes`
  • 1/4 cup course sea salt
  • 1/8 cup sweet white rice flour^
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1/4 cup Korean pepper powder
  • 1/8 cup Fishy Sauce
  • 6 cloves garlic (minced)
  • 1/4 onion (julienned)
  • 1 cup garlic chives***
  • 2 stalks scallions (chopped)

Fish Sauce.

  1.  Place dashima, shallot, garlic (crushed), mushrooms and peppercorns in large pot and add water.
  2. Bring to boil and then simmer for at least one hour.
  3. Remove dashima, garlic, mushrooms, etc. and place liquid in medium saucepan.
  4. Add remaining ingredients and bring mixture to boil.  Let simmer until sauce becomes concentrated and viscous.
  5. Strain through mesh sieve into mason jar or other container.  Place in fridge or freezer and use as substitute for fish sauce.

Kimchi.

  1.  Peel and rinse baby radishes.  Cut radishes lengthwise, without removing the greens.
  2. Place radishes in a large bowl and add salt, ensuring that the radishes are evenly coated.
  3. Allow radishes to sit for 30 minutes.  Flip radishes and allow them to sit another 30 minutes.
  4. After about one hour, you will notice fluid at the bottom of your bowl and your radishes will be “bendy.”  Give them a thorough rinse to remove excess salt and dirt (from both the radishes and the leaves).
  5. In a small saucepan, dissolve rice flour into 1 cup of water over low heat.
  6. Once water begins to thicken, add 2 tbsp of sugar until sugar dissolves.  Remove from heat.
  7. Add minced garlic, Korean pepper powder, and Fishy sauce and stir, until you get a thick red paste.
  8. Add kimchi paste, scallions (chopped), onions (julienned), and Korean chives to radishes and, using your hands (gloved!), coat each radish.
  9. Place radishes and remaining kimchi paste into air tight container and store in fridge for several days (it can take 10-14 days) until “ripe.”

*Dashima is dried kelp.  You can get some here or at your local Asian grocery store.
**Do not confuse sweet white rice flour with rice flour.  You can get sweet white rice flour here.
***Korean chives are also referred to as garlic chives.  You can usually get them at your local grocery store.  If not, head over to your Asian grocery store.
^You can get Korean pepper powder here.
`Korean baby radishes look like this.

You may be able to get some at your local grocery store; otherwise, you’ll have to head over to your local Asian grocery store.

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Traditional Korean Recipes

Another Kind of Sort Of Kimchi: The Pickled Perilla Leaf.

Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Recipe Difficulty: Very Easy
Servings Amount: 6

Recipe Lead: …for that time you bought this green leaf but had no idea what to do with it…

Ingredients
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce (to keep it GF)
  • 1.5 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp Korean pepper powder*
  • 1/2 Fresno chili (sliced)
  • 2 scallions (chopped)
  • 2 cloves garlic (minced)
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 1 tbsp black sesame seeds
  • 20-30 fresh perilla leaves**
  1.  Mix all ingredients together to make brine/dressing.
  2. Place one perilla leaf in an airtight container (like a large mason jar or tupperware).  Spoon a little of the dressing onto the top of the leaf.  It does not need to be neat and it does not need to cover the entire leaf.
  3. Place a second leaf on top of the first one and repeat until all leaves are stacked and covered with dressing.
  4. Pour any remaining dressing over the top of the stack.
  5. Place in fridge for one day and enjoy with rice.

*You can buy Korean pepper powder here.
**This is what perilla leaves look like.  You can buy them at your local Asian grocery store.

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Traditional Korean Recipes

Your Favorite Tofu Recipe EVAR.

Cooking Time: 30 minutes
Recipe Difficulty: Very Easy
Servings Amount: 4

Recipe Lead: …for when you don’t know what to do with that lonely box of tofu in your fridge…

Ingredients
  • 1 13 oz. box extra firm tofu (cut into 1/2-inch cubes)
  • 1 tbsp potato starch (can sub corn starch)
  • 3 tbsp sesame oil*
  • 4 cloves garlic (minced)
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup (corn syrup, if you dare…)
  • 1 tbsp Korean pepper powder**
  • 1 1/2 tbsp gochujang^
  • 1 tbsp Korean BBQ marinade
  • 1 handful dried chilis`
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 scallions (chopped)
  1.  Coat tofu with potato starch.
  2.  Cook tofu in sesame oil over medium-high heat until all sides are browned.  Remove from heat and set aside.
  3. In same pan, add 1 tbsp sesame oil and add garlic, maple syrup, Korean pepper powder, gochujang, dried chilis, Korean bbq marinade and stir.
  4. Add back the tofu, together with 1/2 cup of water.  Cook over low heat until sauce thickens (should take about a minute).
  5. Throw on some scallions as garnish and serve while warm.
  6. Repress the urge to send me a thank you card for this recipe.  Or don’t. 😉

**You can get Korean pepper powder here.
^You can get gluten-free and vegan gochujang here.
`You can get dried chilis here.

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Traditional Korean Recipes

Kimchee For Noobs. Using Not Cabbage.

Cooking Time: 60 minutes
Recipe Difficulty: Very Easy
Servings Amount: 20

Recipe Lead: …for when you want to impress your friends with kimchee….

Ingredients
  • 2 large zucchini
  • 2-4 tbsp Korean salt* (you can also use sea salt or pink Himalayan salt, but use less salt)
  • 1/4 onion (sliced thin)
  • 1 clove garlic (minced)
  • 2 tbsp Korean pepper powder**
  • 2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tbsp mirin
  • 1 tbsp sesame oil
  • 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
  1. Split each zucchini lengthwise first, and then chop each half into half moons.
  2. Place zucchini in a large bowl and add in salt.  Stir until all zucchini is well coated in salt.  Let sit for approximately 40 minutes until zucchini gets “bendy.”
  3. Rinse zucchini thoroughly under cold water to remove excess salt.  Squeeze dry with paper towel (zucchini should not be dripping water) and place back into large (dry) bowl.
  4. Add all remaining ingredients and stir until well coated.
  5. Place in jar for a few days OR eat right away.  Either way, it tastes so freaking good and you just made yourself some kimchee.  BAM.

You can watch me make this here.

*You can find Korean salt here.
**You can find Korean pepper powder here.

 

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