Bibimbap is one of the Korean dishes we make when we have several vegetables in the refrigerator. Traditionally, bibimbap can include Korean-style seasoned vegetables such as fernbrake, bellflower root, shiitake mushrooms, and bean sprouts. These ingredients are delicious, but we do not always have all of them at home.
So this time, we made bibimbap with ingredients that are easy to find at a local grocery store in Calgary. We used zucchini, carrots, mushrooms, onion, radish, spinach, mung bean sprouts, and ground beef. We also added a fried egg on top.
This is not meant to be a strict traditional bibimbap recipe. It is simply the way we make it at home when we want bibimbap without making a special trip to an Asian grocery store.
The nice thing about bibimbap is that you do not need to prepare every vegetable listed below. Three or four vegetables from your refrigerator can be enough. If there are one or two vegetables you really like, use those. We sometimes add chopped romaine or lettuce when we have some in the refrigerator.
Ingredients
For about 6 servings, we used:
300 g zucchini
100 g carrot
300 g mushrooms
100 g onion
300 g radish
200 g ground beef
1 bunch spinach
1 package mung bean sprouts
Eggs
Crushed sesame seeds
Sesame oil
Salt
Soup soy sauce
Fish sauce
Cooking oil
Gochujang, for serving
Soy sauce, for serving
First, we cleaned and prepared each ingredient thoroughly.
Preparing the Mung Bean Sprouts
First, we prepared the mung bean sprouts.
Bring a pot of water to a boil and blanch the sprouts for about one minute. Drain them in a colander and let them cool naturally.
Once they are cool enough to handle, gently squeeze out the extra water with your hands. This step is important because watery vegetables can make the bibimbap too wet.
We seasoned the sprouts with:
1/2 teaspoon soup soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon crushed sesame seeds
We mixed everything gently by hand.
We do not make the seasoning very strong. The vegetables will later be mixed with rice and either gochujang or soy sauce, so strong seasoning at this stage can make the finished bibimbap too salty.
Preparing the Spinach
For the spinach, we brought water to a boil and added a small pinch of salt.
We blanched the spinach just until it softened. Then we rinsed it in cold water and squeezed out as much water as possible.
We seasoned it with 1/2 teaspoon each of soup soy sauce, sesame oil, and crushed sesame seeds.
We like to keep the spinach seasoning simple. The goal is to keep the taste of the vegetable while adding just enough seasoning for the final bowl of bibimbap.
Cooking the Zucchini
We cut the zucchini in half lengthwise and then sliced it into half-moon pieces about 2 to 3 mm thick.
We sprinkled about 1/2 teaspoon salt over the sliced zucchini and let it sit for about 20 minutes. We mixed it once or twice while it was sitting.
After salting, the zucchini releases water. We squeezed out the water gently with our hands.
Then we heated a little cooking oil in a pan and cooked the zucchini over medium heat.
We do not use very high heat for the zucchini. It can cook too quickly on the outside while losing its soft texture. We also do not add more seasoning because the zucchini already has enough salt from the salting step.
Cooking the Mushrooms
We sliced the mushrooms thinly while keeping their shape as much as possible.
We added a small amount of oil to a hot pan and cooked the mushrooms over relatively high heat. We added just a little salt.
Mushrooms release water as they cook. Cooking them over higher heat helps prevent them from sitting in a lot of liquid.
We watched the pan closely and cooked them until the extra moisture was gone.
Cooking the Onion and Carrot
We cut the onion and carrot into thin strips.
Then we cooked them separately in a lightly oiled pan with a small amount of salt.
There is no need to cook these vegetables until they are very soft. We prefer to keep a little texture in them because the different textures make the finished bibimbap more interesting.
Cooking the Radish
For the radish, we cut it into strips about 5 mm thick.
We mixed the radish with 1 teaspoon fish sauce and let it sit for about 10 minutes.
After that, we did not throw away the liquid that came out of the radish.
We put the radish and its liquid into a pan and added a little salt, 1 tablespoon cooking oil, 2 teaspoons chopped green onion, and 1 teaspoon minced garlic.
We cooked it over medium-low heat for about 10 to 15 minutes.
We like cooking radish this way because the radish develops a natural sweetness as it cooks. If you do not have fish sauce, you can simply salt the radish instead.
The radish should become tender without turning completely soft and mushy.
Cooking the Ground Beef
For the ground beef, we mixed together 200 g ground beef, 2 teaspoons soy sauce, 1 teaspoon cooking wine, a little black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon minced garlic, and 1 teaspoon homemade blueberry enzyme.
Then we cooked the beef in a hot pan.
We used high heat and kept cooking until the beef was no longer wet. We wanted the meat to be well cooked without leaving extra liquid in the pan.
The blueberry enzyme adds a subtle sweetness to the seasoning. If you don't have it, you can simply substitute 1 teaspoon of sugar.
Keep the Seasoning Light
One thing we pay attention to when making bibimbap is the amount of salt.
Each vegetable does not need to taste strongly seasoned by itself.
At the end, everything will be mixed with hot rice and either gochujang or soy sauce. We also add a little sesame oil before eating.
If every vegetable is heavily seasoned, the finished bibimbap can quickly become too salty.
For us, lightly seasoned vegetables work better because the final flavor can be adjusted in the bowl.
Putting the Bibimbap Together
Once all the vegetables and beef are ready, we place them around a large bowl of warm rice.
We arrange the vegetables separately so we can see the different colors and ingredients. Then we place a fried egg in the center.
At the table, we add gochujang or soy sauce according to our taste.
We also add about 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil.
Then we mix everything together with the rice.
The egg yolk, vegetables, beef, rice, and sauce come together as we mix the bowl. This is one of the reasons we enjoy making bibimbap at home. The ingredients do not have to be exactly the same every time.
Serving this bibimbap with beef radish soup and kimch makes a perfect meal.
You Do Not Need Eight Different Vegetables
Although we used many ingredients this time, you do not need to prepare this many vegetables.
That is one of the easiest things about making bibimbap at home.
If you have zucchini, carrot, and spinach, you can make it with those three. If you have mushrooms and onion, add them. If you have lettuce or romaine, slice it thinly and add it fresh.
You can also use vegetables that are already in your refrigerator.
We often cook this way because our garden and refrigerator change with the season. Some days we have more vegetables available, and other days we have only a few.
Bibimbap is flexible enough to work with both situations.
A Simple Korean Meal from a Local Grocery Store
When people think about Korean bibimbap, they may first think about ingredients that are harder to find outside Korea.
We wanted to show a different approach.
The vegetables we used for this bowl are common enough to find at a local grocery store in Calgary. The cooking method is still based on the way we usually prepare vegetables for Korean-style bibimbap, but the ingredients can be adjusted to what is available.
For us, that makes bibimbap practical for everyday cooking.
We do not need to wait until we have every traditional ingredient. We can look at what is already in the refrigerator, cook a few vegetables separately, prepare some rice and beef, and put everything together in one bowl.
That is how this version of bibimbap became one of the meals we can make with ordinary grocery store ingredients.
And when there are leftovers, the vegetables can be used for another meal instead of being prepared only for bibimbap. That makes the work in the kitchen feel much more worthwhile.
The most important part is not following a long list of ingredients. Start with the vegetables you have, season them lightly, and adjust the final bowl with gochujang, soy sauce, and sesame oil.
That is the way we make bibimbap at home.