Faux bibimbap

30 min

We love bibimbap but cooking rice takes too much time. By replacing rice with couscous, we could turn a complex dish into a quick one that is still amazingly tasty. This is a big diversion from the traditional bibimbap: the traditional bibimbap is drier with a distinct taste of each ingredient, our version is juicy, with a more blended taste and full of vegetables.

You could use any fillings you like or available. These are the ones that are easy to get and cook, but still taste great.

Ingredients

Yields 1 portion

For the couscous

40 g of couscous
100 g of water
boiling

For the meat

50 g of ground beef
50 g of ground pork
½ red onion
1 clove of garlic
Gochujang
3 tablespoons of water
hot
olive oil

For the fillings

½ carrot
¼ zucchini
1 handful of green beans
1 handful of sugar peas
spicy quick-pickled cucumbers
kimchi
soy sauce
olive oil

For serving

1 egg
sesame seeds

Warnings

Kimchi could be non-vegan: if not labeled as vegan, it may contain fish sauce.
Soy sauce is likely not gluten-free and contains wheat.

You will need

500 ml container with a tight-fitting lid

Directions

To make the couscous

Put the couscous into a small pot, pour boiling water on top of it and leave covered for 5 minutes.
Remove excess water using a sieve.

To make the meat

Prepare the vegetables. Onion: halve and cut into thin slices. Garlic: cut into very thin slices.
Dilute the Gochujang in three tablespoons of hot water (the amount of Gochujang depends on the desired level of spiciness).
In a frying pan on medium heat, sauté the onion for about 3–4 minutes with olive oil.
Add the garlic and the meat to the pan, increase the heat a bit, and cook until there are no pink spots in the meat, stirring continuously and breaking bigger clumps using a wooden spatula.
Pour the diluted Gochujang into the pan, sprinkle soy sauce over, reduce the heat, and cook for another 4–5 minutes.

To make the fillings

Prepare the vegetables. Carrot: peel and cut into thin matchsticks. Zucchini: cut it into thin matchsticks. Green beans: trim ends, and halve. Sugar peas: nothing.
In a large frying pan, fry with a bit of olive oil until softened and browned a bit. Keep each type of vegetable separately.
Separately transfer the vegetables onto a plate and sprinkle with a bit of soy sauce. (Keep the pan with oil for the next step.)

To serve

Fry an egg on a pan you were using for the vegetables.
Slice pickled cucumbers diagonally (to make large thin ovals).
Put the couscous on the bottom of a large deep plate. Layer the meat on top of the couscous with all its juice. Distribute the fillings over the edge of the plate: carrots, green beans, zucchini, kimchi (feel free to sprinkle a bit of kimchi juice over the meat for extra spiciness and flavor), pickled cucumber, sugar peas. Place the fried egg in the middle. Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Serve. Mix everything before eating.

Notes & tips

The easiest way to peel garlic is to smash it: put a clove of garlic on a cutting board, put your chef’s knife on top of it so the blade side lays on the clove, and hit the side of the knife with your hand. Now you could peel the clove.

Explore ingredients

Ingredients explorer

Name	Kind	Season	Contains
Gochujang	Vegan
Bean	Vegan
Beef	Meat
Carrot	Vegan
Couscous	Vegan		Gluten
Cucumber	Vegan	June July August September
Egg	Vegetarian
Garlic	Vegan
Kimchi	Vegan
Olive oil	Vegan
Olive oil	Vegan
Onion	Vegan
Pea	Vegan
Pork	Meat
Sesame seeds	Vegan
Soy sauce	Vegan		Gluten
Water	Vegan
Water	Vegan
Zucchini	Vegan	June July August