Korean Banchan Recipes You Won’t Forget

Kimchi is a staple Banchan dish for Korean meals. The fresh ingredients, bold flavors, and fermentation process make it a popular option for cleansing the palate between bites. To make kimchi, prepare your napa cabbage and other vegetables by chopping them into bite-sized pieces and salting the cabbage for a few hours to draw out excess moisture. To season the vegetables, you’ll need gochugaru (a Korean chili flake), plenty of garlic, kosher salt, onion, and ginger. Once combined, this mixture should ferment for a few days before being stored in the fridge.

This dish is a light and easy Korean side dish to prepare quickly before a meal is served. Crunchy, fresh cucumbers make a versatile side. Typically, cucumber salad is served spicy or savory with seasonings like gochugaru, sugar, vinegar, and soy sauce. Start by chopping up a cucumber into even slices, and then season before refrigerating. As they marinate, the flavors will intensify to make a more flavorful cucumber Banchan dish.

While soy bean sprouts are more common across Americanized Asian dishes, this Banchan plate highlights a lesser-appreciated sprout: the mung bean sprout. Seasoned sprouts don’t need to be too complex, and this bean sprout Banchan is elevated by simple flavors like scallion, garlic, sesame oil, and pepper. Mung bean sprouts grow all year round, so Sukju Namul is popular throughout the seasons.

You may be catching on to the pattern: most Banchan dishes consist of minimal ingredients elevated by a strategic seasoning mix. For spicy radish salad, the produce may be the star of the show, but the flavors are heightened by onion, garlic, Korean red chili pepper, sugar, salt, ginger, and sesame. You should serve this dish cold after the seasoning marinates in the refrigerator.

This dish is made from acorn starch, water, salt, and sesame oil. By itself, the dish has a mild and nutty flavor that is easily overpowered by other plates on the table, but it is commonly elevated with soy sauce, gochugaru, and green onions to create a dish called Dotorimuk Muchim. This palette cleanser brightly pairs with savory and umami dishes.

Soy braised beef with quail eggs is a popular Banchan dish for even the pickiest of eaters. In fact, this side plate is commonly served in schools and work cafeterias as a safe option. As with most Banchan, this dish focuses on a select few ingredients and elevates them with spices. To empower the natural flavors of the beef and quail eggs, this dish is seasoned with vinegar, bay leaves, ginger, garlic, and onion. The dish is usually served at room temperature, but it can be eaten hot or cold.

Kelp noodles are a refreshing side dish that comes from the jelly extracted from seaweed — kelp. They are mild in flavor and have a distinguishable crunchy texture that is fun for the palette during rich and meaty courses. Because there is no potent flavor, you can customize the exact taste by tweaking your seasoning profile. For kelp noodle salad, you’ll need ingredients like imitation crab meat, mayonnaise, and cucumber to get the perfect creamy and crunchy combination.

Potatoes are the base for a filling Korean side dish. Because they soak up flavor, you can marinate potatoes with plenty of different complex flavors to make a cravable but easy Banchan. Like many Korean side dish recipes, this one calls for a sweet and savory sauce to compliment a main course. The thick sauce is made of soy sauce, sugar, corn syrup, rice wine, and garlic. Enjoy these braised potatoes hot!

Fried foods are warming for the heart and soul. Tuna pancakes are a comforting dish that seem complex but can be prepared with just a few simple ingredients. Start by combining your tuna with onions, carrots, garlic, eggs, cheese, and flour, season to taste, then fry! How’s that for a spin on a Korean fish cake side dish?

Tofu is a popular meat substitute, but in Asian cuisine, it is often used as the star of recipes for its unique texture and customizable flavor. You can eat tofu alongside meat, vegetables, or carbs. Tofu is high in protein and vitamins like calcium, iron, zinc, and magnesium. Spicy tofu highlights the fun, creamy texture of tofu while elevating the flavor with spices and savory ingredients like gochugaru and scallions.

Scallions are usually an ingredient added to dishes for brightness or a punchy onion kick. It isn’t so common for green onions to take the spotlight as the main ingredient in the dish, so that’s what makes Pa Muchim so special. Green onions, or Pa in Korean, have a uniquely versatile onion flavor that is easy to dress up in its raw form. For this salad, you’ll shred green onions and toss with sesame, gochugaru, soy sauce, vinegar, and sugar.

Simplicity is often the key to a perfect soup. A warm and savory bone broth can be the perfect umami craving for a cold day. Thankfully, a Seolleongtang recipe should also be quick and easy to make. The most grueling part of the cooking process is boiling the scum off of them before refiring for another boil. All in all, Seolleongtang only takes a couple ingredients like marrow, brisket, and seasoning to taste. A perfect recipe for winter!

Traditionally eaten to bring good luck at Lunar New Year celebrations, Tteokguk is a savory rice cake soup with beef broth and toppings like cuts of meat and scallions. Rice cakes are soft, pillowy pieces of condensed rice that are typically eaten in soups or covered in a sweet and spicy sauce. Thankfully, the recipe is easy to make. Simply add the ingredients to a pot and wait for the flavors to mingle. While it is a traditional holiday recipe, you can enjoy it all year round!