Cooking: Greens and Other Side Dishes Make for Great Home-made Bibimbap

I tried to recreate all the amazing greens and namul (side dishes) that some of the best home-cooks made in Korea. Not surprisingly, the ingredients weren't as good out here so it definitely wasn't the same, but they were still good.

I made my version of bibimbap (rice mixed with vegetables -- usually meat is added but I left it out to keep it healthy) out of the bean sprouts, spinach, radish, nengi (aromatic greens attached to a tiny root that is cleaned and consumed), carrots, shitake mushrooms and sauteed kimchi, topped with an oozing fried egg. Since all the vegetables had been blanched, boiled or stir fried with some garlic, green onions and slightly seasoned, they melded well together, as some less salty veggies complemented the saltier ones I seasoned with duenjang, fermented soybean paste.

It also made the rice very healthy, using brown rice and adding barley, red beans, black beans, millet and other grains and beans packed with fiber and other nutritious stuff. I also added buchu, a green I had raved about in a recent Korea post.

Usually a red pepper paste mixed with sesame oil is added to mix the rice and vegetables but I didn't need it here because the sauteed kimchi did the trick. I added extra sesame oil, and it was good. I felt so nourished after eating this and I didn't get sick of it despite eating it over and over again. It's that good.

I won't post the recipes for each of the vegetables because they're so simple. Check out the post I did on the nengi namul using duenjang as seasoning.

Or, you'll just have to buy my cookbook someday!