Vegan Joomuk-bap (Fist Rice) Recipe!

We’ve just finished up the K-drama, Princess Prosecutor! It is really good – the amazing Park Shi Hoo from Queen of Reversals and Family of Honor, along with Dr. Champ‘s and IRIS‘ heroine Kim So Yun are in it. I watched it alone last year, and I loved it so much, I asked Bill to watch it again with me. :p He enjoyed it as well.

So there is this one episode where his royal hotness, Park Shi Hoo, makes a big batch of Joomuk-bap for Kim So Yun, so she can go have a little picnic with her crush (it’s before she realizes that she likes Park Shi Hoo). When Park Shi Hoo was making joomuk-bap, I was determined to make myself and Bill some as well!

Joomuk-bap is a picnic food for Koreans. When you’re going on a picnic with your friends or for a date, you make kim-bap (basically the Korean version of a sushi roll without the fish) or joomuk-bap. If you make joomuk-bap for your date, it is considered to be very sweet and romantic. 😉 And of course, it’s the same when Korean mothers send their kids on a field trip at school or a picnic with their friends.

When literally translated, joomuk-bap means fist rice. We call it joomuk-bap because we use our fists to make the fist shaped rice ball. It’s a very nutritious, colorful and yummy dish. And it has to be accompanied by miso soup – they are soooooo yummy together!!! So here you go, maybe you can make it for your loved ones when the weather turns a bit warmer for a picnic!

Vegan Joomuk-bap (Fist Rice) Recipe (serves 3-4)

Ingredients:
5 cups cooked brown rice
1/8 cup soaked shitake mushrooms (diced)
1 large carrot (diced)
1 large bunch broccoli florets (diced)
other leftover veggies (optional, diced)
flaxseed (or other vegetable) oil
1 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp lemon juice
salt and black pepper
1/2 to 1 Tbsp sugar (to taste)
1 Tbsp black sesame seeds (regular sesame seeds if you don’t have black sesame)
2 sheets roasted nori/kim (crumbled)
2 Tbsp sesame oil
flax seeds (optional, for garnish)

Directions:
1. Dice the mushrooms, broccoli, carrot and other left over veggies (like perrilla leaves).
2. Start stir frying the diced veggies with flaxseed/vegetable oil.
3. Add soy sauce, salt and black pepper and stir until veggies are cooked.
4. In a larger bowl, add brown rice, some salt, lemon juice, and sugar and mix well with hand.
5. Add the stir fried veggies and black sesame seeds to the rice bowl and mix well.
6. Add the crumbled nori/kim with sesame oil and mix well. Taste and add salt if needed.
7. Shape into small rice balls/bites (I find it easier to make the rice ball shape with those disposable plastic gloves you get at Asian grocery stores for like a dollar, although I try my best not to use them. Such a waste and not good for the environment. If you can, try putting some sesame oil on your hand first and then try shaping them, that could work better than just using your hand without the oil, as the rice can stick).
8. Sprinkle some flax seeds over them if you’d like. Serve with miso soup (or a light doengjang guk) and some kimchi or Korean radish pickles! 😉

Dice the veggies and stir fry until cooked!

Add the stir fried veggies into the brown rice bowl.

Mix all the ingredients well, and then add nori/kim crumbles and then mix again.

These are black sesame seeds! They are used for a fancy traditional porridge and all sorts of other dishes in Korea -considered even better quality than the yummy and nutritious regular sesame seeds. Sesame seeds have tons of calcium in them!

Shape them into little rice balls!

Yummmy…. ;P

Don’t forget to serve with Miso soup and some radish pickles!