Rice Cooker Meal: Bibimbap Rice

because we all love gochujang

IN THIS NEWSLETTER:

• Inner monologue: Community <3

• Recipe: Gochujang “Bibimbap” Rice

Happy New Year! I hope you had a nice holiday season. If you’re in LA, I’m sorry, and I hope you’re safe from the fires.

We did a gift exchange in the Friendly Veg Discord. We sent each other $20 gifts. It’s the second year of our gift exchange. Last year we opened our presents async and sent pics of what we got. This year some of us did a video call together to open our presents. It warmed my heart!!

If you’re looking for a community of like minded vegan/plant curious people, then check out my Discord. It’s free! We’re nice!

---

Because I used to work in data at a grocery tech startup, I find grocery stores fascinating. I enjoy browsing the ailes, seeing what’s new, what’s no longer, what are the prices, the packaging, etc.

I learned some surprising things about grocery stores at that job. For example, did you know that when products go on sale, it’s because the brand put them on sale, not the store? That blew my mind when I learned it. I always thought stores themselves were responsible for determining sales. (This is a generlization and I’m sure there are edge cases, but still).

And did you know you can tell what’s popular on social media by going to the grocery store? Brands are constantly developing new products and testing them in select locations.

How do they come up with these products? Through market research. Forecasting future trends, identifying current trends, that sort of thing. Seeing what’s popular on social media.

Of course, it’s a lagging indicator if they’re capitalizing (literally) on an existing trend - by the time a product has been developed, shipped, and put on shelves, that trend may no longer be popular.

Anyways, on a recent grocery store trip I noticed gochujang chicken wings in the freezer section. Strange combination, at least in my opinion. I of course am not the target market, so maybe this is an incredibly normal and well known grocery store product and I’m just being a naive vegan. Who knows.

But seeing gochujang used that way reminded me that I had a tub of gochujang in my fridge that I hadn’t touched for months.

So I decided to also add gochujang to one of my favourite meals. I decided to make Gochujang “Bibimbap” Rice.

Gochujang “Bibimbap” Rice

Serves: 2-4
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 45 minutes or so (depending on how long your rice cooker takes)

Tools:

• A rice cooker (any kind works)

Ingredients

Rice and “sauce”

• 1 1/2 cups rice, washed

• 1 3/4 cups water

• 1 tbsp dark soya sauce (or 2 tbsp regular)

• 1 tsp sesame oil

• 2 - 2.5 tbsp gochujang (I use 2.5)

Add ins

• 1/2 zucchini, diced, about 1/3 cup

• 1/2 carrot, diced, about 1/3 cup

• 3 shiitake mushrooms, diced, about 1/3 cup

• 1/4 pack firm tofu, diced, about 1/3 cup, or 60 g

Method

1. Prep your veggies and tofu: Dice the zucchini, carrot, shiitake mushrooms (rehydrate them before if needed), and firm tofu.

2. Wash your rice. This is important! I like to wash my rice 3 times. Instead of discarding the water you could water your plants.

3. Add the washed rice to your rice cooker. Add in the water, then the soya sauce, sesame oil, and gochujang (the star of the show!).

4. Add everything else: zucchini, carrot, mushrooms, and tofu.

5. Arrange everything so it’s submerged, but the add ons (the veggies) should be sitting on top of the rice.

6. Cook how you would normally cook your rice.

7. That’s it! Enjoy :)

Gochujang Rice

73.6KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

Link to printer version.

---

• Want to make it even tastier? Add more sesame oil. Or sesame seeds. Or even more gochujang.

• Want extra protein? Mix in 1/2 cup red lentils (rinse them first). The lentils will disintegrate so you won’t really notice them.

• What if I don’t like [zucchini/carrots/mushroom/tofu]? No problem! Substitute them or leave them out.

• Meal prep: This keeps in the fridge for a few days, like how any rice dish would. So, it works well for meal prep.

• Can I make this in an instant pot? Yes! Cook how you would normally cook rice.

• Can I make this on the stove top? Once again, yes! No need to do anything different from normal rice.

---

• Soya sauce: Feel free to use a bouillon cube if you’d like instead. Or use broth. If using a bouillon cube, use enough for the 1 3/4 cup of water called for in the recipe.

• Gochujang: I wouldn’t suggest it, since the dish is supposed to star gochujang, but you could use vegetarian oyster sauce if you want.

• Sesame oil: Feel free to leave out. It’s mostly for taste.