Korean Soybean Sprout Salad – A Traditional Korean Dish with a Modern Twist

Hey there! You are going to love this Korean Soybean Sprout Salad recipe, also known as Kongnamul Muchim. Served as a side dish in Korean households, this dish is loved for its fresh and vibrant flavours. What’s even better is it’s completely vegan!

To make this salad, you'll need to wash the soybean sprouts and remove any bad ones. Then, you’ll boil them for just four minutes. Once that's done, mix in sesame oil, salt, garlic, green onions, carrots, and sesame seeds. The result is a mouthwatering dish that can be enjoyed on its own or as a part of a larger meal, like Bibimbap.

A spicy version with Gochugaru is available, and a mild version without the pepper flake is available as well.

Let's rustle up this delicious Korean Soybean Sprout Salad and enjoy!

As this is a side dish, it is pretty much served on the side - no shit Sherlock. But to appreciate its taste, it is probably best served alongside other traditional Korean meals like Bibimbap, Bulgogi or Kimchi. Once you've made it a few times, maybe experimented with the Gochugaru, you will maybe get a feel for what other dishes it will compliment. We'd love to hear what you come up with 😉

• 300 grams of Soybean Sprouts
• 1 litre of Water
• 1/2 tablespoon Salt
• 2 tablespoons Sesame Oil
• 2 tablespoons Sesame Seeds
• 1 Garlic Clove, Minced
• 1 Green Onion, Cut Thin
• 1/2 Small Carrot, Cut Into Matchsticks

For the spicy version, you can add Gochugaru (Korean red pepper flakes). Depending on how hot you like it, will depend on how much you add, but we suggest adding a few flakes at first to get an idea of how spicy it will taste.

• To start off, you should always run the soybean sprouts under cold water in order to wash them thoroughly.
• The next step is to sort the soybean sprouts and to remove any that are going bad from the batch. Any spot that is squishy to the touch, or has browning, needs to be removed.
• After that, boil the soybean sprouts for no more than four minutes. In addition to killing any food-borne illness, this ensures that the bean sprouts remain crispy for a long time.
• Don't forget to keep the pot's lid on while cooking. You will often find that sprouts give off an unpleasant odor when they are cooked, and nobody likes a strong, smelly kitchen!
• After draining the boiling water from the sprouts, rinse them under cold water. The purpose of this is to prevent the items from continuing to cook while still hot! It should be noted that in traditional Korean cooking, they don't rinse the cooked bean sprouts. This ensures optimal flavor and texture. However, in Korea, they cook this dish ALL the time (at least once a week in every household) and are used to timings to boiling the soybean sprouts - which we aren't. If you want to do it the traditional way, you are probably going to have to do a few trial runs to get it right. We'll let you decide how you proceed with this step.
• Keep the water you used to cook the sprouts. You can use this to make a soybean sprout soup called Kongnamul Guk, which is a Korean vegetarian dish (I’ll do a recipe on this soon).
• Remove excess water from the sprouts by gently squeezing them. Ensure that you do this before mixing with other ingredients to avoid the salad becoming too soggy.
• Lastly, add sesame oil, salt, garlic, green onions, carrots, and sesame seeds to the sprouts. Serve as soon as possible.

• Soybean sprouts are an excellent source of vitamins and minerals, such as protein, vitamin C, vitamin K, and folate, which can help support the immune system and promote blood clotting.
• Sesame seeds are rich in healthy fats, proteins, and fibre and contain important minerals like calcium and iron, which can benefit bone health and energy production.
• Health benefits of garlic include improving heart health, boosting the immune system, and reducing inflammation.
• Green onions contain vitamins A and C as well as antioxidants, which are helpful in protecting the body against oxidative stress.
• Carrots are high in beta-carotene, a beneficial antioxidant that converts into vitamin A in the body, which is great for vision, immunity, and skin health.

• In Korea, it is common for home cooks to cut off the ends of the soybean sprout roots. The stringy brown-looking roots don't always look good on the table, so this makes the salad look more appealing.
• Don’t like smelly kithcens? Don’t forget to keep the lid on the pot when cooking the sprouts 🙂
• The leftover soybean sprout salad should be stored in an airtight container. After that, store it in the refrigerator. You should eat the salad within a few days of making it.