Bimbimbap - serves 6 (or 2-3 very hungry people)

We first made this recipe as a special request from a friend we were having over for dinner. She knew we loved to cook and decided to take us up on that. Well as it turned out, we loved it so much we ended up making it again with chicken the next night! Any time we remember this recipe it ends up getting cooked that night. It is also a go-to whenever we have house guests now since we get to flex a little bit. Our last guest told us that she would have paid for the meal in a restaurant… That is all I think we can ever ask for in a compliment over a home-cooked meal.

Things to watch out for/take note of:

Start by prepping all the veggies ahead of time. This takes… a while. Andrew’s knife work is on point, so he almost always ends up taking on the bulk of this work.

We think the baking soda is a bit unnecessary but if you want a bit of extra crisp, go ahead and keep it in there.

Everything gets fried in a 1:1 ratio of soy sauce to sesame oil. About 1tsp of each per veggie. Only the 2tbsp of soy sauce really needs to be measured for marinating the veggies

This likely would work with tofu, but at the time of writing, we haven’t attempted it yet.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup Shiitake mushrooms, bite sized/sliced
  • 1 carrot, matchsticked
  • 1 zucc(hini), matchsticked
  • 1 cup bean sprouts, left alone
  • 2 cups baby spinach, ideally fresh
  • 16oz meat/protein - sirloin, chicken, or even ground beef - cut up into strips
  • 2 tsp baking soda (to coat meat in if desired)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 3-4 tbsp soy sauce, divided - 2tbsp used for marinating meat; rest used for frying in 1tsp increments
  • 2 tbsp sesame oil (1tsp increments for frying)
  • 1 cup kimchi, definitely not optional when serving
  • 1 tbsp gochujang (or sriracha if you can’t find gochujang/you’re in a bind)
  • 6 eggs (one per serving, unless you like eggs… live it up)
  • 3 cups cooked rice
  • Sesame seeds for garnish/serving

Directions:

  1. Cook rice according to directions. Or use a rice cooker. Make sure it’s either close to done or already done before starting to fry up the veggies. That part happens fast.
  2. Toss meat with the baking soda (if using), minced garlic, gochujang/srirache, and 2tbsp of the soy sauce you should have divided up earlier. Let that marinate for a bit while you move on to the veggies.
  3. Saute the veggies one at a time in 1tsp sesame oil and 1tsp soy sauce (a splash of each also works…).
  4. After all the veggies are cooked, heat up just 1tsp of sesame oil (no soy sauce since the meat is already marinated in it) and cook the meat to your liking, about 2-3 minutes for steak.
  5. Drop yet another tiny bit of sesame oil into the pan and fry up the egg(s). Takes about 3-4 minutes to get nice crispy edges and get the whites cooked solid.
  6. Serve! Add some rice to a bowl (pasta bowls for that awesome presentation) and throw a bit of each of the veggies around in a circle. Add the kimchi and the cooked meat, then throw the egg on top of everything. Sprinkle sesame seeds liberally, take a pic for Instagram, and enjoy!