Spicy, flavorful and delicious, this recipe is great for fall or when you're sick and need to beat that stuffy nose.
Kimchi Jjigae is one of my favorite Korean soups!! To give y'all some background, my grandma is from South Korea, my grandpa met her when he was stationed in South Korea during his Air Force career. They got married and had my mom in Korea, before they had to PCS to the states. Fast forward about 25 years later and I was born here in Virginia....
Growing up, my grandma would make all kinds of Korean foods for me and needless to say, I love them all! I am not a picky eater and I can thank my mom and my grandma for that, because they would always tell me, "You don't have to like it, you just have to try it." So I will literally try anything before I turn my nose up and say I don't like something.
“You don't have to like, you just have to try it.”
The key to making good kimchi jjigea (according to my grandma) is using old kimchi. For the kimchi I used, it had been sitting in my fridge for about three months, but I did this on purpose to make kimchi jjigae.
The finished meal would not be complete without rice! Rice was and still is a staple in my house when I'm eating. Calories and carbs be dammed, I love enjoying rice with kimchi, chicken dishes, you name it, rice is probably a side dish.
What Is Kimchi?
Kimchi is definitely a staple of Korean culture and foods. It is made from cabbage, cucumbers, radishes, etc. You salt and season your cabbage with spicy red Korean chili peppers, garlic, and other seasonings... Then you ferment the kimchi in glass or plastic, air-tight sealed containers, so it soaks in all of those spicy, delicious flavors. Kimchi can last for a very long time, and the process of fermenting kimchi has been done for thousands of years in Korea.
Kimchi also has many health benefits, it's crazy! It's loaded with vitamin K, A & C which is good for our bone health, and it's also a great probiotic. Probiotics are good for maintaining a healthy gut.
Tips and Tricks
To make Kimchi Jjigae, you need to make sure you have a few staples on hand: gochugaru, gochujang, sesame oil, and tofu.
Gochugaru and gochujang can be picked up at your local Asian/Hispanic food market. In Northern Virginia, where I am from, my favorite places to go for these are either H Mart or Lotte Market. Both of these grocery stores are great and have a wide selection of Asian foods. For Gochugaru, I used the Tae-kyung brand, and for gochujang I used the Sempio brand.
Sesame oil can also be purchased from Walmart. I bought mine at H Mart. They had a spicy sesame oil that I purchased last year while visiting family.
The tofu is actually from Kroger! The closest Asian mart to me is ten minutes away and I was feeling lazy, so I looked around Kroger and found firm tofu!
Once you have all of these ingredient assembled, we're ready to make our delicious and spicy Kimchi Jjigae!
Kimchi Jjigae Recipe
Course Dinner, Lunch Cuisine Korean Keyword dinner, lunch, healthy
Prep Time 15 minutes Cook Time 30 minutes Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 4 Author Sara Garvin
Ingredients
1 cup kimchi and kimchi juice
1/2 can of spam, sliced and diced.
1 tbsp gochugaru
1 tbsp gochujang
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
4 green onions, chopped
1/2 package firm tofu, patted dry and sliced
2 cups chicken broth
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 white onion, diced
1 cup jasmine rice, cooked
Instructions
Prep your onions, spam and garlic (if not using minced from a jar).
Place kimchi, kimchi juice, onions, garlic, and spam into a medium size sauce pan on medium heat.
Mix the kimchi and let the pot heat up, about 10 minutes.
Add salt, sugar, pepper, gochugaru, gochujang, sesame oil and chicken broth to the pot and let cook covered for another 10 minutes
Prepare your tofu while this cooks, make sure to pat dry half of the tofu and slice.
Make 1 cup of jasmine rice on the stove (1 cup of jasmine rice and about 1 1/2 cups water)
After 10 minutes have passed, stir the kimchi stew and add the tofu slices on top. Cover and cook for an additional 5-8 minutes.
Rice should be cooked in about 15 minutes and once the rice is done, you're ready to serve and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
If you don't like spam, pork belly is usually the meat used in Kimchi Jjigae, I just didn't have that on hand. If you decide to use pork belly, you have to cook it first, before following the recipe steps.
Feel free to add some nori with this or even bean sprouts as a side to enjoy with the kimchi jjigae.
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