Spicy Mung Bean Sprouts Salad – Maewoon Sukju Namul


I always need at least one spicy side dish when eating dinner. It’s usually kimchi. It doesn’t matter what type as long as it has a spicy kick. I’ve been making oi sobagi almost on a weekly basis. Unfortunately, we finished the oi sobagi within 3 days of it fermenting. But fortunately, the oi sobagi was so good we couldn’t stop eating it. In either case, we were flat out of kimchi.

So I needed something quick, spicy, and tasty. I decided to try something different and make maewoon sukju namul, which translates directly to “spicy seasoned mung bean sprouts.” It’s not the most traditionally Korean way of eating the sprouts, but seemed the perfect solution to my problem. The dish was so easy and quick to prepare. And it had that spicy kick that I wanted.

Continue Reading Spicy Mung Bean Sprouts Salad – Maewoon Sukju Namul . . .

Nokdu Bindaetteok (Mung Bean Pancakes with Dipping Sauce)

Nokdu Bindaetteok (Korean Mung Bean Pancakes) is my maternal grandmother’s specialty. Nokdu Bindaetteok, which directly translates to Mung Bean Pancake, is usually made with sliced pork, kimchi, sukju namul (mung bean sprouts), and sometimes gosari namul (bracken fern shoots). But I’m omitting the pork for this Nokdu Bindaetteok/Mung Bean Pancake recipe, making this dish vegan. And for the base of the batter? Simply, soaked mung beans and rice. Flour-free. Gluten-free. Dairy-free. Just delicious goodness.

Keep in mind; when you dine at a restaurant, mung bean pancakes are not necessarily gluten-free unless specifically stated. Restaurants can add different types of flour to the batter – not a good thing. Additionally, dipping sauces can contain gluten. So always ask. Don’t assume.

Happy Eating!

Continue Reading Nokdu Bindaetteok . . .

Sukju Namul Muchim (Korean Seasoned Mung Bean Sprouts)

All those side dishes you get when you eat at a Korean restaurant? Those dishes, along with the seemingly infinite number of other Korean side dishes, are collectively called banchan. And many of those banchan are used to make traditional bibimbap. I made No-Cook Vegan Bibimbap last week, but now that the temperature has gone down a little bit in NYC, I’m hankering for a traditional bibimbap. So this week, I will prepare some of the vegetable banchan required for the recipe. Sukju Namul (or Sookju Namul), Korean Seasoned Mung Bean Sprouts, is first on the list.

I love Sukju Namul. Whenever there was a traditional Korean function, my grandmother always made this. There are many ways to serve this dish. You can simply serve it with warm rice. You can add it as an ingredient in bibimbap. You can also put it in Moo Guk (Korean radish soup). In fact, when my grandmother used to make this for the traditional ancestral remembrance celebration (“Jaesa”), we used to eat it with Moo Guk on the day of the celebration, in bibimbap the next day, and as a side dish(banchan) the day after if we had any left. It’s a really versatile, simple, and healthy dish.

Continue Reading Sukju Namul Muchim . . .