Tag: Sprouts

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Kimchi Avocado Roll with Spicy Dipping Sauce

Kimchi Avocado Roll with Spicy Dipping Sauce | cHowDivine.com

I made some simple but super delectable Kimchi Avocado Rolls last week, all thanks to a subpar experience at a restaurant. And it’s become my (new) favorite way to enjoy kimchi. Let me explain. A few weeks ago, I tried a kimchi roll (Gimchi Gimbap) at a restaurant at the urging of the server. He called it “fantastic” and “probably the most popular item” on the menu. You don’t have to twist my arm to try a kimchi dish, but I was a little trepidatious about trying it at a non-Korean restaurant. But we tried it anyway. I’ll say that the dish had a lot of potential. It, however, left me confused.

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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.

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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!

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Vegetarian Bibimbap with Gochujang Sauce

Cooking in a tiny NYC kitchen can be a challenge. Most of the kitchens in the home renovation magazines that are described as tiny are palatial compared to a small NYC kitchen. I guess it’s all relative, because some NYCers would say our kitchen is “roomy”. We have most of our bowls and plates still packed in boxes, because we just don’t have the storage for them. We make due with 3 bowls (my husband broke one), 3 salad plates (ditto on the husband), and 4 dinner plates. So nope; I’m not exaggerating when I say TINY.

When there is a lot of prep work involved, it’s a challenge – not only because of the lack of space, but also because my dinnerware often doubles as my prep bowls. I wasn’t surprised when I ran out of my bowls prepping for this Bibimbap. So I ended up serving this dish on plates. Bibimbap, which is normally a “rice bowl”, ended up being a “rice plate”. But it was so satisfying and delicious just the same…

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Kongnamul Muchim (Korean Soybean Sprouts Banchan)

I was not a fan of Kongnamul Muchim (Korean Soybean Sprouts Banchan/Side Dish) when I was young. I hated beans of any and all kinds. I couldn’t stand the taste, texture, and the smell of them. In fact, I used to take the “Kong” – which directly translates to “bean” in Korean – off of the Kongnamul and eat only the sprout end. That was then. This is now.

Maybe your taste buds change as you get older. But there are so many things I hated as a kid that I actually love today; Kongnamul is one of them. You may think that Kongnamul and Sukju Namul are so similar in appearance that their taste may also be indistinguishable. So if I liked Sukju Namul, how could I not have liked Kongnamul? Au contraire. Kongnamul has a unique crunchy texture, nutty aroma and taste that is completely different from anything else.

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