Bibimbap and Bibimbap Tacos

Surprisingly, bibimbap was rather time-consuming to make from scratch. I never realized that whenever I had bibimbap, it was always because we had leftover spinach, bean sprouts, gosari, etc. already seasoned for banchan the previous day. However, it is still really worthwhile to make, as you end up with a meal packed with vitamins, protein, fiber, and all that other good stuff! We usually just dump in whatever roots, vegetables, etc. we have on hand in the fridge, so the following recipe is merely an example of what you might want to put in your bibimbap. However, given that bibimbap literally translates to "mixed rice," the world is your oyster with this one!
Do you notice a trend? There is a lot of mixing and combining of all sorts of ingredients in Korean cuisine. Koreans are firm believers that everything ultimately ends up in the same place, but they sure know how to make it taste amazing!

Mama Lee's Bibimbap Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 bowl of rice
• 1/4 cup spinach
• 1/4 cup zucchinis, shredded
• 1/4 cup bean sprouts
• 1/4 cup fernbrake (gosari), shredded into 2 in strips
• 1/8 cup carrots, shredded
• 2 shiitake mushrooms
• 1/3 cup ground beef
• Garlic
• Soy sauce
• Hot pepper paste and sesame oil, to taste

Instructions:

1. Rinse bean sprouts and cook for around 15 minutes with a pinch of salt. When they're ready, drain the bean sprouts and season with some sesame oil and minced garlic. Set aside.
2. Boil water in a small saucepan. Boil spinach for a minute before rinsing in cold water. Mix with a little bit of salt, garlic, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Set aside.
3. Salt the zucchini strips and saute over high heat until somewhat translucent. Set aside.
4. Saute gosari in oil. Add some soy sauce and garlic. Set aside.
5. Cook ground beef over high heat with some garlic, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Set aside.
6. Fry the egg sunny side up.
7. Place your rice in a medium-large bowl. Place all the other cooked ingredients around it and place the fried egg at the very top. Use hot pepper paste and sesame oil to taste (I usually like a heaping teaspoon of each in mine).

Bibimbap can easily be refashioned into taco form, if you happen to have a hankering for some tortillas.

Bibimbap Tacos Recipe

Ingredients:

• All the ingredients from the bibimbap recipe
• 3 soft (or hard) taco shells
• 1 tsp taco seasoning
• 1/4 cup tomatoes, diced
• Lettuce

Instructions:

1. Mix the rice and taco seasoning together in a small bowl.
2. Place a couple of tablespoons of the seasoned rice onto each taco shell and place a little bit of all the root/vegetable ingredient on top
3. For the egg, you may choose to fry a whole egg and place it over each taco, but that tends to get messy, so I like to scramble the egg and pour the egg over a small frying pan, allowing it to cover the entire bottom of the pan. Cut the egg into flat strips and place into the taco shells.
4. Mix the tomatoes with 1 teaspoon of gochujang and sprinkle onto taco.
5. Add some lettuce if you would like.