This Korean rice bowl with beef, vegetables and a properly delicious sauce, all topped with a fried egg, is comfort food taken to the max.
It looks awesome and is great for feeding a crowd (so perfect when you have guests over!) and lots of the elements can be made in advance.
The leftovers are absolutely incredible whisked up with egg and fried as an omelette – give that a go!
There are lots of ingredients and steps to this recipe, but it is quite simple – get ahead as much as you can with the vegetables and sauce, and you’ll just need to cook the beef, rice and eggs when you’re ready to serve.
This is my version of a bibimbap (a Korean rice bowl with beef), and is slightly different to the traditional one but extremely tasty!
Ingredients, Substitutions and Variations
- Beef, garlic, soy sauce, honey, sesame oil – the garlic, soy, honey and sesame oil make a marinade for the beef. Leave this for 20 minutes or 24 hours – up to you! But the longer you leave it, the tastier it will be.
- Beansprouts, spinach, mushrooms, carrots – these are the vegetables I chose to use for my Korean rice bowl today. You can use lots of different vegetables, but be sure to finish them all in the same way (with a drizzle of soy sauce and sesame oil) to make them delicious.
- White rice, eggs – cook the rice just before serving. The eggs can be cooked to your preference depending on whether you like a runny yolk or not.
- Miso, mirin, chilli oil, rice vinegar, soy sauce, white sugar, sesame oil – these ingredients make your sauce and it is lip-smackingly tasty! A traditional bibimbap sauce would use Gochujang, a Korean miso sauce, but my local shops don’t sell this so I replace with miso and chilli oil.
Top Tips
- Get ahead
Make your vegetables during the day. Store in bowls at room temperature until you’re ready to eat. You can heat them in the microwave for one minute when you’re just about to serve. The sauce can be made 5 days ahead – store in the fridge.
- Cooking the egg
Cook to your liking! Runny egg creates a lovely yolky sauce, but egg that is cooked through provides great texture too – totally up to you.
- Eating
Bibimbap is best when everything is stirred up together – make it messy after you’ve served it! And enjoy those big tasty mouthfuls.
Get the cook books:
Korean Rice Bowl (Bibimbap)
Save This RecipeIngredients
For the beef
- 350 g beef sliced thinly
- 3 cloves garlic diced
- 2 tbsps soy sauce
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
For the vegetables
- 400 g bean sprouts
- 200 g spinach
- 1 tsp sesame seeds
- 200 g shiitake mushrooms
- 3 carrots
- 4 tsps sesame oil
- 4 tsps soy sauce
For the bibimbap
- 600 g cooked white rice warm
- 6 eggs
For the sauce
- 2 tbsp mirin
- 3 tbsp miso
- 1 tbsp chilli oil
- 2 tbsp rice vinegar
- 2 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp white sugar
- 3 tbsp sesame oil
Instructions
- Mix together the beef marinade ingredients (garlic, soy sauce, honey, sesame oil) and cover the beef with it. Marinate for 20 minutes to 24 hours.
- Mix together the sauce ingredients in a bowl until well combined. Leave to one side.
- Stir fry the bean sprouts in 1 tsp sesame oil for 2 minutes. Drizzle with 1 tsp soy sauce and transfer to a bowl.
- Wilt the spinach in a dry pan until cooked. Shake over the sesame seeds, drizzle with 1 tsp sesame oil and 1 tsp soy sauce. Transfer to a bowl.
- Cut the carrots into matchsticks (or grate). Stir fry in 1 tsp sesame oil for 6-7 minutes until soft. Drizzle with 1 tsp soy sauce – transfer to a bowl.
- Cut the mushrooms in half. Cook in a dry pan until golden – drizzle with 1 tsp sesame oil and 1 tsp soy sauce. Transfer to a bowl.
- When you’re ready to serve, tip the beef (and marinade) into a hot wok. Stir fry until cooked through. Cook the eggs to your liking.
- Spoon the warm rice into bowls. Top with the beef, vegetables and fried egg. Drizzle over 2 tbsps of the sauce.
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