You guys know that I love my bowl meals, right?? They have everything you need in one bowl, with more flavor, texture, and color than you can shake a stick at. But the more I make bowl meals the more they resemble Bibimbap, the mother of all bowl meals. If you haven’t yet discovered the awesomeness of bibimbap, read on to get all the details. While my bibimbap is not authentic, I was able to use what I had on hand to make something similar enough to kick that craving.
What is Bibimbap?
If you’ve never heard of Bibimbap, it’s a Korean dish that combines rice, seasoned vegetables, meat, egg, and a variety of other toppings. The awesome concoction is cooked in a stone bowl so the bottom gets deliciously crispy, adding even more color and texture to the meal. It’s truly the best bowl meal around.
Try These Authentic Bibimbap Recipes
Because I didn’t have all the ingredients and tools that traditionally go into bibimbap, I want to provide you some links to real bibimbap recipes so you can see what it in all its glory. Check out these traditional bibimbap recipes:
My Interpretation
As I mentioned above, I didn’t have all the ingredients or tools that are usually used for bibimbap, so I had to get a little creative. I didn’t have a stone bowl, so I had to sacrifice that crispy rice bottom. 😭 Also, I didn’t have any gochujang, so unfortunately I didn’t have that wonderfully salty-spicy-sweet sauce to go on top. I ended up adding some kimchi, which is not usually served on bibimbap, but it was still delicious.
Make Your Bibimbap Your Own
This dish is totally flexible and you can add or remove ingredients as you see fit. Pickled vegetables are fantastic in bibimbap, so if you want to take a few extra minutes to pickle your carrots or cucumbers, you won’t be sorry. You can find directions on how to pickle carrots here, and you can use this cucumber salad as a guide for the cucumbers.
While it looks like there is a lot going on in this bowl, I promise it’s super quick and easy. If I hadn’t been stopping to take photos every few minutes I probably could have finished prepping the ingredients for the bowls in about 30 minutes!
Meal Prep it!
Bibimbap is perfect for meal prepping. Simply pack up about four bowls at a time in resealable containers and refrigerate the grab-and-go lunches. You can either fry up an egg fresh each day, or substitute the runny-yolk fried egg with a hard boiled egg.
Love bowl meals? Check out our Bowl Meal category for more easy one-bowl meals that work great for meal prep!
Bibimbap – The Ultimate Bowl Meal
Servings 4Ingredients
RICE
- 4 cups cooked jasmine rice ($0.75)
SAUTEED SPINACH
- 1/2 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.02)
- 6 cups fresh spinach, loosely packed ($1.72)
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil ($0.11)
- Pinch of salt ($0.02)
CHILI GARLIC BEEF
- 1/2 lb ground beef ($1.99)
- 2 Tbsp chili garlic sauce ($0.13)
- 1 Tbsp soy sauce ($0.09)
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar ($0.04)
FRESH VEGETABLES
- 1 carrot ($0.11)
- 1 cucumber ($1.69)
- 2 green onions ($0.21)
OTHER TOPPERS
- 4 large eggs ($1.08)
- 1/4 cup kimchi ($0.82)
- 1 Tbsp sesame seeds ($0.08)
Instructions
- If your rice is not already cooked, begin that first and prepare the rest of the bowl ingredients as the rice cooks. You’ll need 4 cups cooked rice.
- Prepare the sautéed spinach next. Heat a large skillet over medium flame and add the cooking oil. Swirl to coat the skillet, then add the fresh spinach. Sauté the spinach for a few minutes, or just until it is wilted. Drizzle the sesame oil over top and season lightly with a pinch of salt. Remove the spinach from the skillet to a clean bowl.
- Add the ground beef to the skillet used to cook the spinach. Cook the beef until fully browned, then add the chili garlic sauce, soy sauce, and brown sugar. Stir and cook for about one minute, or until everything is evenly mixed and the beef is coated in sauce. Turn the heat off.
- Prepare the fresh vegetables. Peel and grate the carrot using a large holed cheese grater. Thinly slice the cucumber, and slice the green onions.
- Fry or soft boil 4 large eggs (Or however many bowls you plan on eating immediately. If meal prepping, cook the egg fresh each day.)
- Build the bowls by first adding 1 cup cooked rice to the bowl, followed by 1/4 of the cooked spinach, 1/4 of the ground beef, some sliced cucumber, shredded carrots, a cooked egg, an a tablespoon or so of kimchi. Sprinkle sliced green onions and sesame seeds over top. There are no hard measurements needed for each ingredient per bowl, just divide the ingredients evenly or as you see fit.
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Nutrition
Scroll down for the step by step photos!
Bowl meals are so great because every bite gives you a unique mix with a little of this or a little of that. No two bites are the same!
How to Make Bibimbap – Step by Step Photos
Cook your jasmine rice first so that it can you can prepare the rest of the ingredients as it cooks. You’ll need four cups of cooked jasmine rice.
Add 1/2 Tbsp cooking oil to a large skillet and heat it over a medium flame. Add 6 cups of loosely packed spinach and sauté just until it’s wilted (this only takes 2-3 minutes). Once wilted sprinkle 1 tsp toasted sesame oil over top along with a pinch of salt. Stir to combine.
This is the ingredient that I get the most questions about, so I want to show it here. This is toasted sesame oil, which is made from sesame seeds that have been toasted before pressing. Toasting the seeds gives them a super strong nutty flavor. It’s best to be used as a finishing oil (after cooking) and a little bit goes a long way. Some brands don’t specifically say “toasted” on the label, but you can tell it’s toasted by it’s darker brown color and it’s usually sold in a very small bottle. Regular sesame oil (untoasted) is less expensive, usually comes in larger bottles, and is a light straw color. You can usually find this in the International food aisle of major grocery stores and I’ve found great prices at Whole Foods (365 brand) and Trader Joe’s.
Remove the spinach from the skillet and add 1/2 lb. ground beef. My skillet still had enough residual oil from the spinach that I didn’t need to add any more for the beef (WIN). Cook the beef until fully browned, then add 2 Tbsp chili garlic sauce, 1 Tbsp soy sauce, and 1 Tbsp brown sugar. Stir and cook for 1-2 minutes more, or until everything is well mixed and heated through. Remove the beef from the heat.
This is the chili garlic sauce I used. It’s super inexpensive and can be used in a lot of sauces and marinades. It’s basically just a chunky mix of red chiles, garlic, and vinegar. You can also use sambal, or in a pinch Sriracha.
Finally, prepare the fresh vegetables. Peel and shred one carrot (I use a large-holed cheese grater). Slice one cucumber, and slice two green onions. Make sure to slice those cucumbers very thin. You can cook your egg(s) while you do this. I suggest either frying or soft boiling so that you have a nice runny yolk.
And then just throw everything together in a bowl! There is no hard or fast rule for proportions of the ingredients, just divide them up evenly or however it works for you. Start with a cup of rice, then 1/4 of the beef, 1/4 of the spinach, some of the shredded carrots, some sliced cucumber, about 1 Tbsp kimchi, and your egg. Then just sprinkle some green onions and sesame seeds over top and you’re done!
Seriously. Best. Meal. Ever.
I love bibimbap and this looks so good! We recently did a kind of Mexican riff on bibimbap (tho everything was cooked) and it was a bit inspired by you! :)
Chorizo, onion, white corn, spinach, and some of your super tasty enchilada sauce (I already had some leftover in fridge along with these other ingredients that needed to be used up) over rice with a fried egg and some avocado slices on top and, of course, a sriracha swirl! DELISH!
Thanks for all that you do! I love this site and am constantly recommending it to friends.
I love it! Great idea! :D
Made this tonight, WOW this is good! I served mine over cauliflower rice, yum.
This is the best dish I’ve ever made. So delicious! I will make this again and again.
I made this last night and it was FANTASTIC! If I had more ingredients, I’d just make it again tonight. Definitely going into the regular rotation!
Tweaks that worked out well:
– Per the suggestion of other commenters, I bought some gochujang and swapped it in for the chili garlic sauce.
– Because I made a bit too much rice and spinach, I cooked an entire pound of ground beef (so I doubled the beef seasoning ingredients).
– I quick-pickled the carrot and cucumber in white vinegar with a bit of sugar (a trick I learned from a banh mi recipe).
Thanks so much for sharing this!
Beth, my husband says he doesn’t like kimchi. I haven’t tried it – is there something else I could sub? Pickled red onions? Thanks!
Yes, any pickled vegetable would be great in this bowl. :)
I had to change some ingredients due to what I had on hand, but this dinner was a hit in my house. My husband tasted it, looked at me, said, “Damn woman, hot damn.” (which is considered the highest compliment).
I’m looking forward to making this again, but next time with fresh ginger too! Great job!
Hahaha I love it! :D
I made this recipe last night. My girlfriend and I loved it! The flavors were fantastic. I will make this again for sure! Thank you Beth
Can I make it with frozen spinach? Fresh one is hard to come by where I live this time of the year.
Yes, you could sauté a little frozen spinach and toss it in your bowl. :) The texture won’t be quite as good, but it will work in a pinch.
This was really excellent! Very satisfying and filling. Pickling the carrots the night before was worth it – not hard to do and added great flavor. I ended up using ground turkey instead of beef because that’s what I had on hand. Can’t wait to eat it again for lunch tomorrow.
I was actually quite shocked at just how delicious this was! I didn’t add any chili garlic sauce because of my husband but did add a bit of garlic powder. I put sriracha on mine. My 2 & 4 year olds gobbled it down and one cried because there were no left overs :)
Yum! Made this tonight, Beth — and it’s a winner! I was a little worried about all that chile garlic sauce being too much for 1/2 pound of ground beef but it was fine. Next time I’ll do the egg for my son (I don’t do runny yolks). To sub the kimchi, I used “Southern-style kimchi” also known as chow chow! It was delicious! And I think next time I will make my Refrigerator Pickled cucumbers to go with this recipe — there’ll be a next time!
Thanks for all your great recipes!
I like making bibimbap with sauteed mushrooms and fresh bean sprouts. The last time I made it, I wasn’t vegan yet and could put an egg on it. If i wanted to recreate a similar dish, I think I’d make some pan-fried and seasoned tofu to replace the egg and then come up with some kind of savory sauce to replace the runny yolk (although a runny yolk is so hard to replace ;D)
I made this today, it was so yummy and easy! I don’t have gochujang, but I did have chili garlic sauce. I went to the store and gochujang was $5.99 so I said no thanks and used what was already in my pantry :) very good!
LOL….I suggest you get a better paying job
Beth (and all)–
Love the meal bowl concept but almost all pictures of the bowls are taken from directly above. No real sense of depth or breadth of the bowl itself. Is there a standard size for such bowls? Are we talking 8 oz, 16 oz, 32 oz? Two inches deep, four inches deep, etc? Help!!
You can get an idea of the size of the dish, Perry, by looking at the ingredients and dividing by the number of servings specified. In my mind, I’m calculating that you would want a sixteen ounce or a little bigger container, three or four inches tall. Remember, a ‘bowl’ recipe may be served in a bowl or a plate. The beauty is that it can be served in one dish and eaten with just a fork so it is easy to arrange and pack. Hope this is helpful!
The particular bowl that I was using is rather wide and shallow, but I would say that this bowl meal is about 2-3 cups in volume. :)
Speaking as a half-Korean who lived in Korea, bibimbap is often served in big bowls. Like, the food shouldn’t fill more than 2/3 of the bowl. The first thing you’ll do when you eat bibimbap is give it a real good stirring to mix up the rice, vegetables, egg yolk, and gochujang (fermented chili and bean paste). The big bowl helps ensure you don’t have ingredients flying all over the place when you stir.
Also, I haven’t tried the sauce Beth recommends, but if you can get your hands on some gochujang, I’d recommend trying it. It’s used in lots of Korean food, and I personally think it tastes great with eggs.
Made this last night – yum! Boyfriend had never heard of the dish and loved it, too. I found some kimchi at the Asian store but forgot to add it. Didn’t bother pickling the vegetables, but I bet that would take it to the next level. Next time.