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.
As always we love Beth’s recipes! This was really easy and delicious. Recommend topping with kimchi, so good. We will definitely add this to the rotation. The only thing we did differently was no egg because I was extra lazy tonight.
Great recipe! My bf and I make this a lot and love it. Very filling and nutritious
Loved this Bibimbap. Made basmati rice in pressure cooker while prepping. Subbed gochujang for chili garlic sauce, Tamari for soy & sauteed bean sprouts(blanched for a couple of minutes and tossed with a bit of sesame oil) for cucumbers. The recipe received rave reviews Will definitely add to collection!
First time making this dish and we loved it! I’m going to check my store for the kimchi and gochujhang to add on it next time.
Super flavorful! You can taste all the ingredients individually and then it all comes together in one big flavor explosion! I had to substitute the cucumbers with raw zucchini and it worked well. My 7 yo, 4 yo, and 2 yo LOVE IT!
Followed the recipe with the following changes – subbed caulirice, didn’t add brown sugar to ground beef, guochang instead of kimchi (too lazy to go buy it) and I used the pickled carrots recipe linked above the recipe. So good and a super quick recipe too! Will definitely be adding this one to my rotation.
Do you have a specific brand of kimchi that you prefer?
My favorite brand right now is Wildbrine. It’s a little expensive, so I have to stock up when it’s on sale. It’s a vegan kimchi, so it doesn’t have a strong fishy flavor like a lot of kimchi.
I really love bibimbap. The first time I tried this Korean rice dish, I was in love of this food. Its delicious and healthy. Can’t wait to try it at home
This was DELICIOUS! Time after time, your recipes save the day for me. I have Celiac and get super bored with the same old food. Every time I come here I’m like “Ohhh that looks really good!” And it is!!! Thank you for all these amazing recipes!
Thank you so much Bex!
Would you recommend using a lean ground beef? Haven’t made anything close to this. I don’t have much to compare it to but, I’m just guessing with the flavor profile of the meat a lean grind would lend itself better to the sweetness?
FYI, this is delicious and easily made vegetarian by using crumbled tofu or seitan crumbles prepared with (a little more) of the seasoning recommended for the beef!
We cook this once every 2 weeks in my house! Absolutely flavorful, healthy with good vegetables, easily modified for what you have on hand! Delicious flavor with such variability in taste- YUM!
Good God this is delicious and now a staple dish in my house
My family was thoroughly impressed with the turnout. It was absolutely delicious and incredibly easy to make. I added some gochujang to the meat but otherwise left the recipe as is. Thank you so much for what you do.
I prefer to eat with soy sauce with and chili. Great recipe btw
All in all, this is a good recipe, but it was a little too sweet for me.. I’ll try again and cut back the sugar used in the pickling process, and use the traditional sauce instead of the chili/soy/brown sugar mixture