BM# 44: A-Z Cooking Series — Around the World in 30 days
Country: K for Korea
Dish: Korean Miso Soup & Joomuk Bap
We are staying in Asia and visiting Korea today. I knew from day 1 that I would be doing Korea for K, since I live in a town that has a very high Korean population. We have a Korean grocery store in town and most of the stores have signs in Korean.
I hardly cook Korean food at home even though I have full access to all the Korean veggies, spices and other ingredients. I don’t have much knowledge of Korean cuisine and I thought this is a good opportunity to give some Korean dishes a try.
I was under the impression that all of the Korean dishes have meat in them. But there are a lot of Korean dishes that are actually vegan. Buddhist temple food is completely vegetarian and/ or vegan. I found an amazing Vegan Korean blog called Vegan 8 Korean and they have some awesome Korean dishes. I have tried a few Korean dishes already, check those out here.
I made Korean Miso Soup that uses Korean Miso paste called Doenjang. But a good substitute would be red or brown miso paste. I found quite a few recipes that used anchovies and fish sauce, but I skipped them and used some vegetarian options instead. Most of the ingredients were bought specially for this recipe.
I wasn’t really sure how this dish will be received by the family, so I made only a small quantity. I gave a spoonful to my daughter and she slurped it up. But my son turned his nose up when he tasted. So my daughter and I relished this for dinner. I also made Korean style Rice & veggie balls called Joomuk Bap (Fist Rice) to go along with the soup.
Recipe adapted from here.
- 3 cups Vegetable Stock
- 2 Kelp - pieces
- ¼ Onion onion of - a small
- 2 cloves Garlic - crushed
- ½ Cucumber of a small
- ½ cup Tofu - chopped
- 1 cup Bok Choy Spinach / - chopped
- 2 , 1 Scallions " - cut into pieces
- 1 tbsp Miso Doenjang paste/
- to taste Salt Pepper &
- In a medium sauce pot, combine stock, kelp, onion, garlic, cucumber and 1 cup of water. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for 5~6 minutes.
- Add the chopped bok choy/ spinach and scallions. Cook for another 2~3 minutes.
- Take the miso in a small bowl and add 2~3tbsp of the boiling stock. Mix well to combine thoroughly.
- Add the miso paste to the boiling soup. Mix well to combine, season with salt and pepper. Turn off the heat and serve hot with Joomuk Bap (Fist Balls).
Soup looks delicious and i like the color , so vibrant .
Soup looks great. I have kelp and Japanese miso. I will try it.
This miso soup makes me hungry, wish i get that bowl rite now straight from the lappy.
That looks like a light and healthy soup.We bought our home from Koreans and I literally had to to take our refrigerator out into my backyard and clean to get rid of the smells. I couldn’t throw away / sell the almost brand new steel refrigerator even though my husband told me to do. 🙂 I therefore don’t blame your son for not liking this soup.
I love the pot you served the soup in. Color of the soup is inviting.
Miso has a peculiar flavour and aroma which is not liked by all but whoever likes it likes it to the core. Somehow I have not adapted this taste but I must say it looks wonderful and attractive.
Miso soup really looks so tempting pavani 🙂 I wud love to finish the bowl right now !! very healthy selection of recipe from korea 🙂 Love your props I always keep gawking them !!
it requires special ingredients i agree, but this one looks worth all the efforts and investment..lovely pot
Looks very attractive specially the bowl is too cute!
Nice knowing about your locality Pavani and the soup looks good..though I guess it requires one to get used to the taste!
I tried Japanese miso soup from a restaurant many years ago and hated it so much I could not eat it and since then I have avoided it like the plague or as much as eggplant 🙂 but this bowl is tempting me to try it again and I love bowl you served it in also
Your bowl looks tempting. With so many contrary comments I am worried if I get a chance to taste this soup will I liek it? I hope so… These are all new ingredients to me.
Beautifully presented pavani. Al the ingredients are new to me, though have read them here and at Varada’s space. Would love to give it a try if i can lay hands on the ingredients!!