Korean Bibimbap Vegan

Here at vegan.io we love comfort food and we love Korean food. So we came up with a Korean bibimbap vegan version of one of their most well-known dishes.

In Korea and many Korean restaurants, you will easily find the original version of this dish. Unfortunately, for us, Korean bibimbap vegan can be a bit hard to find when eating out. The word bibimbap means mixed rice with meat and assorted vegetables so not many places will accommodate since it's a given that the dish has meat in it.

But this is what makes my heart skip a beat: coming up with vegan recipes from non-vegan dishes. If I can't find a vegan version of something that looks absolutely delicious I will make it happen.

To be honest, it wasn't all that hard to come up with this Korean bibimbap vegan recipe. Rice and veggies with a lot of spices kinda do the work on their own. I just had to make sure that it really tasted like a typical Korean dish, something you'd find in the streets of Seoul. With a little bit of experimenting, we found the sweet spot.

The first element of our Korean bibimbap vegan is fresh veggies. In Korea, a lot of families use whatever vegetables they have in the fridge or those that will go bad soon. I love this concept, it is a great way to avoid wasting food, which I absolutely hate. 

I like using frozen spinach, kimchi, mung bean sprouts, and shiitake mushrooms. But if you already have other veggies you want to use, go for it. Or if there's something you can't find don't let that be what stops you from making this awesome recipe. Go without it or switch it up!

We are frying some veggies in sesame oil, this is what's going to give our batch of veggies that Asian taste we're after. Sesame oil can be quite potent and has a strong flavour, so be careful in not overdoing it. 

Mixed veggies and rice seem a bit simple, luckily there's more to this recipe. To really give our Korean bibimbap vegan an authentic taste we are making a super easy and delicious sauce. It goes drizzled on top of everything and you can add as little or as much as you prefer. 

Most ingredients for the sauce are easy to find except the gochujang sauce. Sometimes, you can find it in the Asian food isle at the supermarket or you can always make a trip to an Asian market. If you don't have the time or there isn't one near you don't worry. 

Gochujang sauce is a chili paste that won't add much flavour to our dish. It adds more of a kick to it so you can easily make it work with a bit of hot sauce. 

Lastly, fried tofu will provide the protein to make a balanced meal out of this recipe. You will have everything you need to fuel in a single bowl!