Vegetarian Korean recipes

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Kkwari-gochu jorim

Kkwari-gochu, the small wrinkly peppers the Japanese call shishito, are braised all over Korea into a soft, garlicky, sweet-soy banchan that sits in the fridge ready for the dosirak. Many households add dried anchovies; this version leaves them out and keeps it vegan, with a few toasted sesame seeds for crunch. Most peppers are mild, but about one in ten is surprisingly hot. The common mistake is leaving the peppers whole and unpierced, so they puff up and never take in the sauce. Chef's tip: prick each pepper with a fork once or twice, and the braising liquid soaks right into it.

17 min

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Yuja-cha (citron tea)

Goheung, on the southern coast of South Jeolla, is Korea's yuja country: in November the groves turn gold and families slice the knobbly citrons for yuja-cheong, the honeyed preserve that becomes tea all winter. From December to March a spoonful in hot water is offered to guests, to students cramming late and to anyone with a scratchy throat, as it is traditionally drunk for colds. The tea is sweet, floral and sharp, with soft, chewy strands of peel that you eat at the end with a spoon. The common mistake is leaving the fruit damp or the pith too thick: wet fruit lets mould in, and thick white pith makes the preserve bitter. Scrub, dry completely and pare away any pith thicker than a few millimetres. The cheong is ready after a day or two, when the sugar has dissolved into a clear, glossy syrup around the peel. Keep it in the fridge for up to three months, always with a dry spoon; throw it away if you see fuzzy mould, smell alcohol or it bubbles. No yuja? Japanese yuzu is the same fruit; otherwise use 2 lemons and 2 mandarins. Chef's tip: soak the seeds in a little of the honey and add that liquid back for a silkier syrup.

45 min

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Maneuljjong bokkeum

In late spring Korean markets sell thick bundles of garlic scapes, the curly green shoots of the garlic plant, and they become maneuljjong bokkeum, a sweet-salty, glossy banchan that keeps for days and is a dependable dosirak side. The scapes taste of mild garlic and stay pleasantly snappy. The common mistake is glazing them too early, before they are tender, so the syrup burns and the scapes stay woody. Chef's tip: fry the scapes in oil first until they turn bright green and slightly blistered, then add the sauce and toss for only a minute.

13 min

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Radish and chilli jangajji

Jangajji are Korea's long-keeping soy pickles, made with whatever the season gives: perilla leaves, garlic, chillies, radish. They go in a dosirak lunchbox because they never weep or spoil the rice, and a few slices wake up any meal. This version pickles crisp Korean radish with green chillies, with perilla leaves if you can find them. The common mistake is pouring cold brine over the vegetables, which leaves them limp and short-lived. Chef's tip: after three days, pour the brine off, boil it again and pour it back hot, and the pickles stay crunchy for a month.

30 min

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Mu jorim

In Korean homes, when the winter radishes are sweet and juicy, they are cut into thick rounds and braised slowly in soy, chilli flakes and garlic until they turn amber and almost melting. Mackerel or hairtail is often cooked on top; this version leaves the fish out and uses a quick kelp broth for depth. It is even better the next day, cold, in a dosirak. The common mistake is cutting the radish thin, so it breaks up before it has absorbed the sauce. Chef's tip: simmer the radish in the broth alone first, until a chopstick slides in, and only then add the soy, so the salt does not toughen it.

45 min

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Saesongi beoseot bokkeum

King oyster mushrooms, saesongi in Korean, are cheap and meaty, and this quick stir-fry is a staple in Korean home kitchens for dinner banchan and next-day dosirak alike. The thick stems turn juicy and almost scallop-like, seasoned with just soy, garlic and spring onion. The common mistake is salting or saucing the mushrooms as soon as they hit the pan, which draws out their water so they stew instead of browning. Chef's tip: let the slices sear undisturbed in a hot pan until golden on one side before you add anything else.

13 min

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Ogokbap

Ogokbap is cooked across Korea for Jeongwol Daeboreum, the first full moon of the lunar year, when families share five-grain rice with nine kinds of dried namul and crack nuts to wish for good health. Sticky rice, millet, sorghum, black soybeans and adzuki beans cook together into a chewy, purple-tinged rice with a nutty, gently sweet flavour. It is good any time of year beside soup and banchan. The usual mistake is putting the adzuki beans in raw with the rice: they stay hard while the rice turns soft, so parboil them first. Chef's tip: keep a little of the adzuki cooking water for the rice, as it gives ogokbap its lovely rosy colour.

70 min

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Hobak jjigae

Hobak jjigae is the late-summer stew of Korean home kitchens, made when the garden throws up more courgettes (aehobak) than anyone can eat, and it lands on the table in its own pot next to rice and kimchi on any ordinary weeknight. Potato and soft tofu soften in a red, gently spicy broth of gochujang and kelp, and the courgette turns silky without falling apart. Most cooks start with anchovy stock; this one uses dried kelp and shiitake so it stays vegan. The usual mistake is adding the courgette with the potato, which leaves it mushy and grey by the time the potato is cooked. Chef's tip: a final splash of soup soy sauce (guk-ganjang) seasons the broth more deeply than salt without darkening it.

30 min

Korean Soups

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Heukimja-juk

This charcoal-grey porridge of roasted black sesame and rice is one of Korea's gentlest breakfasts, often made for elders, for people getting over a cold, or simply on a slow weekend morning. It is nutty, lightly sweet and smooth as cream. The mistake is burning the sesame: the seeds are already black, so you cannot judge by colour; toast them only until they crackle and smell nutty, or the porridge turns bitter. Chef's tip: grind the toasted seeds with a little of the soaked rice and water rather than on their own, which turns them into a smooth paste instead of an oily clump.

40 min

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Kongjuk

Kongjuk is the porridge Korean families make when they want something filling but plain: soaked soybeans ground into a milk with rice and cooked until it is thick, pale and creamy. It is a breakfast and a summer staple in the countryside, eaten with a little salt and some kimchi or radish on the side. The mistake to avoid is under-blending the beans: gritty bean skins make the porridge grainy, so blend long and fine, or sieve it. Stir often too, because soy milk catches on the bottom quickly. Chef's tip: skim off the loose skins after soaking by rubbing the beans between your palms under water; the porridge comes out silkier and whiter.

60 min

Korean Breakfast & Brunch

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Gilgeori toast

Outside Seoul subway stations at 7 am, stall owners butter bread on a big griddle, fry a thick omelette packed with shredded cabbage and carrot, and stack it all with a slice of cheese, a sprinkle of sugar and a squiggle of ketchup. Sweet and savoury together sounds odd but is exactly why commuters queue for it. The common mistake is a thin, floppy omelette: make it as wide as the bread and about 2 cm thick so it holds the vegetables. Processed cheese slices are often made with animal rennet; choose a vegetarian slice if that matters to you. Chef's tip: shred the cabbage as thinly as you possibly can, almost like hair, so it softens in the egg in the short frying time.

20 min

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Misutgaru drink

Misutgaru is a fine beige powder of roasted grains and beans, usually barley, brown rice, glutinous rice, black beans and sesame, and Korean mums have shaken it into cold milk for rushed breakfasts for generations. It tastes like toasted cereal and a little like peanut butter, and it fills you up until lunch. The mistake is stirring the powder straight into a full glass, which leaves dry lumps floating on top; shake it in a jar or whisk it into a little liquid first. Honey is not suitable for babies under one. Chef's tip: add a few ice cubes to the jar before shaking, which breaks up any lumps and froths the drink.

5 min

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Konnyak jorim

Konjac, the grey, jelly-like block made from a root called devil's tongue, has almost no calories, and in Korea it is braised in sweet soy until glossy and chewy, a popular dosirak banchan that never wilts. Its texture is the point: bouncy, with a savoury glaze clinging to every scored cube. The common mistake is skipping the blanch, which leaves konjac's slight fishy smell from the alkaline water it is set in. Chef's tip: score a shallow criss-cross on the cubes or tear them with a spoon rather than cutting, and the sauce grips the rough surfaces.

25 min

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Oi bokkeum

Cooked cucumber sounds odd until you try oi bokkeum, a Korean banchan in which salted, squeezed slices are flashed in a hot pan with garlic and sesame. They come out bright green and squeaky-crunchy, like a warm pickle, and they hold up beautifully in a dosirak because the salting has already drawn out the water that would make other cucumber sides soggy. The common mistake is frying too long; past a minute or two the slices go soft. Chef's tip: spread the cooked cucumber on a plate to cool at once rather than leaving it in the hot pan, so it keeps its colour.

25 min

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Gimjaban

Korean children grow up eating gimjaban scattered over rice or rolled into jumeokbap rice balls, and a little tub of it is the easiest way to make a plain dosirak exciting. It is laver seaweed toasted, crushed and stirred in a pan with sesame oil, a little sugar and plenty of sesame seeds until crisp and savoury-sweet. The common mistake is adding the soy sauce while the pan is very hot, which turns the flakes soggy and clumped. Chef's tip: mix the soy and sugar into the oil first, then toss in the crushed seaweed off the heat and return it to a gentle flame just to dry out.

13 min

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Dubu gangjeong

Gangjeong usually means sticky glazed fried chicken, but Korean mothers make this tofu version for the dosirak because the starch coating stays crisp even after a morning in the lunchbox. The glaze is mild, sweet and garlicky, so children love it; add gochujang for the grown-ups. The common mistake is skipping the pressing, which leaves wet tofu that spits in the oil and goes soggy under the sauce. Chef's tip: let the fried cubes cool for two minutes before glazing, and boil the sauce to large, slow bubbles first, so it clings instead of soaking in.

30 min

Korean Vegetarian

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Yachae jeon

Korean fridge-clearing at its best: courgette, carrot, onion and chives shredded thin and bound with just enough batter to hold them together, then fried into lacy pancakes. Hot, they are a rainy-day snack with makgeolli; cut into wedges the next day, they fill a dosirak and taste good cold. The common mistake is too much batter, which gives a thick, doughy pancake; the vegetables should look barely coated. Chef's tip: use ice-cold water in the batter and press each pancake flat with the spatula after flipping, for crisp edges that last until lunchtime.

30 min

Korean Snacks & Starters

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Mayak gyeran

The name means "addictive eggs", and these soy-marinated eggs with their soft, fudgy yolks went viral in Seoul before landing in lunchboxes across Korea; one egg on a bowl of rice is a whole dosirak. The marinade is loaded with garlic, chilli and spring onion, and is spooned over the rice too. The common mistake is peeling the eggs warm, which tears the soft whites; chill them in iced water first. They need at least 6 hours in the fridge. For pregnant women, young children and anyone with a weakened immune system, boil the eggs for 10 minutes until fully set. Chef's tip: start the eggs straight from the fridge into boiling water and time them exactly, so every yolk sets the same way.

22 min

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Sungnyung (scorched rice tea)

Before electric rice cookers, every Korean pot of rice left a golden crust, nurungji, stuck to the bottom. Rather than waste it, cooks poured in water and simmered it while the family ate, and the warm, cloudy sungnyung was drunk at the end of the meal in place of tea. Older Koreans still describe it as the taste of home, and many Seoul restaurants that cook rice in stone pots finish by pouring water over the crust at the table. It tastes of toasted grain and has a faint natural sweetness, with soft pieces of crust to spoon up at the bottom. Without a stone pot you can make the crust from leftover rice in a frying pan. The common mistake is rushing the crust over high heat: it blackens on the outside and turns the drink bitter while the middle stays soft. Keep the heat low and patient, and aim for even golden-brown. The crust is ready when it lifts away from the pan in one sheet and smells like popcorn; the sungnyung is ready when the water is milky and pale gold. Chef's tip: make extra crust, dry it completely and keep it in a jar, so you can make sungnyung in ten minutes any evening.

35 min

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Ssanghwa-cha (herbal tonic tea)

Ssanghwa-cha is the strongest thing on the menu of an old Korean dabang. From the 1960s these smoky tea rooms served it in thick ceramic cups, dark as coffee, with pine nuts, slivered jujube and walnut floating on top; in winter some still slide a raw egg yolk in, which this recipe leaves out. The brew comes from Korean herbal tradition, where ssanghwa-tang is drunk to warm up and recover from tiredness after hard work or a cold. It tastes earthy and bitter at first, then sweet from licorice and jujube, with warmth from cinnamon and ginger and a celery-like perfume from angelica. Herbal shops sell the roots in pre-measured packs. The common mistake is boiling it hard: the liquid reduces too fast and turns harsh. Keep a gentle simmer with the lid ajar for two hours. It is ready when it is very dark brown, reduced to about a third and smells of cinnamon and roots. Because it contains licorice and angelica, skip it if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, have high blood pressure, or take blood thinners or other medicines unless your doctor agrees. Chef's tip: a second, lighter brew from the same roots is good with honey.

135 min

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Nurungji porridge

Every Korean home knows the golden crust that sticks to the bottom of the rice pot, and on cold mornings it is simmered in water into nurungji, a nutty, soothing porridge that tastes faintly of toast. Grandmothers serve it with kimchi and a few banchan for breakfast, or as a gentle meal after a heavy night. You can buy dried nurungji sheets in Korean shops, but it is easy to make your own from leftover rice. The common mistake is pulling the crust too soon: pale rice gives a flat, starchy porridge, so wait until it is deep gold. Chef's tip: break the crust into pieces before simmering but keep a few larger shards back and add them in the last minute, so the bowl has soft and slightly crunchy bits.

25 min

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Maesil-cha (green plum tea)

In early June the hillsides of Gwangyang are picked clean of hard green maesil, and Korean kitchens across the country fill with jars of plums buried in sugar. Over about a hundred days the sugar draws out the fruit's juice and becomes maesil-cheong, a golden syrup that is both a cooking ingredient and a drink. Iced, it is the summer cooler; hot, it is traditionally drunk after a heavy meal for digestion. It tastes bright and tart, like green apple and apricot, rounded by the sugar. The common mistake is putting damp plums or plums with stalks into the jar: water and stalk ends invite mould and unwanted fermentation. Pick out each stalk with a toothpick and dry the fruit completely. The syrup is ready when the plums have shrivelled and float in clear amber liquid. A little foaming early on is normal, but if it smells strongly of alcohol, grows fuzzy mould or turns slimy, discard it. Remove the plums at 100 days, because their stones contain natural compounds best kept out of a long-stored syrup. Chef's tip: use half white and half light brown sugar for a rounder, toffee-edged syrup.

40 min