Bachelor Bap – Lazy Vegan Recipe

So there are quick and easy recipes and then there are lazy recipes. This is my “I’m too tired or lazy to put anything into fixing a meal” recipe. Around our house, I don’t tend to cook if I’m only cooking for myself, and Sunnie is the same way. But sometimes there is nothing in the fridge, and you have to eat. So this recipe, which I call Bachelor Bap because it’s so easy to prepare and perfect for lazy vegan guys (or girls) or a late night snack, arose out of one of my lazy episodes. At first, Sunnie would make fun of me for eating it all the time, but I started to notice that suddenly I wasn’t the only one eating it when I made and soon she was making it for herself all the time too. Now it’s become a frequent option at our dinner table, and not just because Tevyn is keeping us so busy all the time – it’s because it’s seriously yummy.

There’s not really an equivalent in Korean, but we had a request for hangul in our recipes from David on our Facebook page, so much like bachelor’s kimchi (총각 김치), bachelor bap is 총각 밥.

This is a lazy man’s bibimbap, as you just toss in the ingredients with rice and stir it up. The ingredients are really simple – sheets of kim (roasted seaweed or nori in Japanese), perilla (kkaennip) oil, and perilla (kkaennip) rice seasoning mix.

Bachelor Bap (총각 밥) Lazy Vegan Recipe

Ingredients:
Enough rice for each serving (fresh or reheated if you’re feeling particularly lazy)
2 or more sheets of roasted seaweed (kim, 김)
perilla oil (들기름) to taste
perilla rice seasoning mix, called shiso in Japanese, to taste

Directions:

1. Scoop enough rice to fill you up into a bowl (reheat if you’re too lazy to make fresh rice and there is some in the fridge).
2. Tear sheets of kim into roughly bite sized pieces. Don’t try too hard; it’s good enough.
3. Sprinkle perilla rice seasoning mix on top to taste (you can always add more later if it’s not strong enough).
4. Drizzle perilla oil on top to taste (you want a decent amount, I’d say at least one and maybe a couple of tablespoons). Again, you can always add more later.
5. Stir up until the seasoning and oil are well mixed in and the kim shrinks down.

This is the perilla oil that we use. Kkaennip is traditionally more of a peasant food. Sesame oil was preferred by the court and is more commonly used in bibimbap, but we definitely prefer perilla oil in bibimbap as well as bachelor bap!

This is the perilla (called kkaennip in Korean, shiso in Japenese) rice seasoning mix that we use. It is essentially just dried and crumbled kkaennip leaves, salt, and sugar. You could probably make your own, but this is bachelor bap, and that’s too much work.

Dump all the ingredients on warm rice. The rice seasoning and oil are to taste, and you can always add more later, but don’t be skimpy. This is a salty-fatty tasting dish.

This is basically a lazy bibimbap, so you’re just mixing (bibim) everything up!

And there you have it, bachelor bap! Despite being a lazy vegan’s dish, it is really yummy and kind of addictive. Give it a try!