Korean food has become increasingly popular in the UK, as more people discover the delicious flavours of dishes like bulgogi, Bibimbap and kimchi. You can cook Korean food at home too with our easy guide and recipes shared by our talented home cooking community.
Korean cupboard staples to stock up on
Korean cooking centres around rice, vegetables, fish and meat. Commonly used ingredients include soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic and ginger.
There are also some ingredients more specific to Korean cuisine that are increasingly available in larger supermarkets and online shops in the UK. These ingredients will really help you to experience the full flavour of Korean cuisine at home:
- Gochujang - a fermented chilli paste that is red in colour and smooth in texture. Gochujang paste brings a complex sweet, sour and spicy flavour to food. Use your gochujang paste in soups and stews, or to ramp up your dipping sauces and marinades.
- Doenjang - a fermented bean paste. If you love miso, you should try doenjang. Made with soy beans and salt, this thick, coarse brown paste is pretty funky - but don’t be put off! Using doenjang paste in your dishes brings an amazing depth of umami flavour to soups, stews and the popular dishes described below.
- Gochugaru - available as dry chilli pepper flakes or powder, gochugaru is a vibrant red colour and is available at a range of different spice levels. Gochugaru is sweet, spicy and slightly smoky and is famously used to make kimchi. However this complex chilli powder can also be used as a seasoning, added to marinade and dipping sauces, or as a rub for meat.
Easy Korean recipes to try at home
Bulgogi - translates as ‘fire-meat’ and is often cooked using wafer thin slices of marinated beef or pork. You can also make bulgogi using beef or pork mince, simply marinate the mince in the bulgogi sauce before cooking.
- Fina Dwi’s version of Beef Bulgogi is a very simple recipe that uses beef mince and common store cupboard ingredients like soy sauce, ginger, garlic and sesame oil. Delicious!
- Sweet Cabe’s twist on Beef Bulgogi brings in the additional flavours of mirin and apple or pear, used alongside wafer thin slices of beef ribeye steak.
Find more bulgogi recipes on Cookpad here
Bibimbap - is a warm mixed rice dish where the rice is topped with a mix of meat and vegetables. Traditionally the bibimbap is served with raw beef and a raw egg yolk, but if you don't fancy this, why not try it with a fried egg and cooked meat and vegetables.
- Nadine Schweitzer’s Korean Vegetarian Bibimbap brings in the flavours of gochujang and tamari sauce and is topped with fried eggs.
- Eli Yeung’s Korean Bibimbap can be made with beef, pork, chicken or tofu and rice. "The secret to tasty bibimbap is the sweet and savoury sauce that is mildly spicy” says Eli, and we couldn’t agree more!
Find more Korean Bibimbap recipes on Cookpad here
Korean fried chicken - is hugely popular and for good reason. Tender succulent chicken that is deep fried with a crispy coating and then covered with a thick sweet tangy sauce - this is a must try!
- Nadine Schweitzer’s’s Spicy Korean Fried Chicken recipe - crunchy coated chicken wings with a sweet and spicy dipping sauce
- Dapurmpoknobi’s Korean Fried Chicken recipe - chicken marinated in buttermilk then fried and coated in a sticky sweet sauce
If you'd like to make Korean fried chicken with our home cooks, check out our Zoom community workshop where we made Natalie Marten's sticky Korean-style fried chicken together. See how their dishes turned out, read their reviews, then cook along with the Zoom workshop recording to try it for yourself.
What is Kimchi?
Kimchi is essentially spicy fermented cabbage (a bit like sauerkraut), which is delicious alongside many Korean meals like bulgogi and bibimbap and can be adapted to many other dishes too. The components of kimchi vary but generally include ginger, garlic, chilli, salt and fish sauce. You can also mix up the veggies and swap in carrots, radish, cucumber or spring onions, for example.
Below are some tasty and easy recipes that use kimchi shared by our community cooks to get you started.
If you’d like to try making your own kimchi, try Eiko’s simple kimchi recipe with full photographic instructions.
Find more kimchi recipes on Cookpad here
We hope you are inspired to try cooking Korean food at home. You can find many more Korean recipes on Cookpad here.