A Korean meal often involves several side dishes: banchang. These are made over the course of the week. Any leftovers will be kept in the fridge, resulting in a lot of different banchang to choose from. If you don't eat Korean food daily, you probably don't have a stash of banchang in your refrigerator, and it will take some extra time to prepare delicious side dishes for your meal. Caroline Hwang's Korean food made easy ️ contains several recipes for banchang. This is a combination of two of those recipes, and a recipe from koreanbapsang.com ️.

This is still a very simple recipe, where by swapping vegetables and ingredients you can make 3 different banchang in no time. The ingredients are mostly similar, yet the dishes all have their own taste. The base consists of spring-onion, garlic, sesame oil and sesame seeds. For some extra heat, add a teaspoon of soy sauce and half a teaspoon of gochugaru.

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ingredients

for 3 people

100 g

verse (baby-)spinazie grove spinazie in iets kleinere stukken gehakt
1

spring-onion chopped
1 clove

garlic chopped
3tsp

sesame oil
1.5tsp

sesame seeds
salt
100 g

bean sprouts
1tsp

soy sauce
0.5tsp

gochugaru (korean chili flakes)

Preparation

step 1

It is easiest to make the spinach banchang first, followed by the mild version for bean sprouts and lastly the spicy version. This way you only need one mixing bowl that you don't have to wash in between

step 2

Blanch the spinach for 2 minutes until shrunken. Put in a colander and squeeze out as much moisture as possible

step 3

Divide the spring-onion and garlic into 3 equal parts. Put oen part into a mixing bowl, and mix in 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and ½ teaspoon sesame seeds. Loosen up the spinach and add to the mixing bowl. Mix everything well, season with salt and transfer to a serving bowl

step 4

Blanch the bean sprouts for 2 to 3 minutes with the lid on the pan. Do not remove the lid in between, as the bean sprouts smell will fill your kitchen. Drain the bean sprouts in a colander, rinse with cold water and drain

step 5

Put the rest of the spring-onion and garlic in the mixing bowl. Mix in 2 teaspoons of sesame oil and 1 teaspoon sesame seeds. Season with a bit of salt. Transfer half of the bean sprouts over to a serving bowl

step 6

Add soy sauce and gochugaru to the remaining bean sprouts. Mix well and transfer to a serving bowl

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