The Grain-Free Stuffed “Shells” recipe I shared with y’all was elaborate and delicious and something I would make over and over again as a special dish for our family or company.
But I’m gonna be real with you for a minute. I live off-grid in a 300 square foot home. I have three small children whom we homeschool. There are gardens and over 40 chickens. I work as a freelance writer so that we can build this homestead from scratch, without debt. I love to cook, but right now I try to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible, while still creating nourishing food for our family.
So, I make simple meals.
Bibimbap is a Korean dish that literally translates to “mixed rice”. It is a bowl of white rice with fresh and fermented vegetables, egg and sometimes meat, and often a chili or other sauce to top it off.
So I put on a pot of rice to boil, and head out to the kitchen garden to grab carrots that need thinning. I meander down to the main garden and pick a bowl of greens – purslane, moringa, cilantro, garlic chives.
When I get back, I give them a rough chop. Then I throw my fussy toddler on my hip, turn off the rice, crank up the cast-iron skillet, brown up a bit of meat we have lying around, and fry 6 eggs in the tallow left in the pan.
It doesn’t get any simpler than a bowl of rice topped with homegrown eggs, whatever vegetables are ready in the garden or hanging out in ferment jars in my pantry, and any meat we may have lying around.
Here’s how I make it.
Easy Homesteader’s Bibimbap Recipe
serves 4 generously
The Players
- 3 cups raw jasmine rice (or whatever variety you prefer)
- 1/2 – 1 lb of pork, chicken, or beef strips or ground meat, cooked (from wild or pasture-raised sources)
- lard, tallow, or butter for frying eggs (where to buy grass-fed lard, tallow, or butter)
- 4-8 fresh pastured eggs, depending on the addition of meat (read why “organic” and “free-range” labels aren’t enough)
- 1-2 cups chopped crunchy vegetables such as carrots, radishes, cucumbers, zucchini, etc.
- 2 cups leafy greens and herbs, chopped roughly (cooked if spinach, collards, or kale)
- fermented kimchi or raw aromatics such as scallions, chives, or garlic (where to buy probiotic-rich, naturally-fermented kimchi)
- hot chili sauce of choice for serving
The How-To
- Cook rice according to package directions. Fluff with a fork and add butter if desired.
- Prepare vegetables by chopping into bite-sized pieces and arranging in small dishes or on a larger platter.
- Fry meat quickly in any fat needed, remove from pan and set aside.
- Fry eggs in fat, preferably sunny side up or over easy.
- Bring everything (and everyone) to the table with some fermented vegetables and hot sauce. Everyone gets a bowl of rice and can add proteins, vegetables, and sauce as desired.
ENJOY!
(photo credit: Nourishing Days)
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Yum!!
We currently live in Korea (my hubby is in the Air Force) and we love to get Bibimbap. Here Bibimbap is often served in a hot ceramic bowl and the egg is plopped on the top raw. Once you get the steaming hot bowl, you quickly stir the egg, veggies and rice, cooking the egg in the heat of the bowl. Yum!!
That sounds delicious, Jessica. I’ve heard of the raw egg being used and I might try that in the future, perhaps using cast-iron as the “hot bowl” you mentioned.
Love it!!!
You have the best posts. This looks great.
Great post. What a refreshingly different approach to planning a meal based upon what’s in your garden etc.
I LOVE bimbimbap.
I do the raw egg thing too – luckily I have my own chickens…
You can really use any veggies on the rice or use brown rice if you want…
We make ours in the hot cast iron pot so the rice on the bottom gets nice and crunchy.
Proud eater of bimbimbap for almost two decades!
imo, bibimbap is not bibimbap without sesame oil 🙂 Add sesame oil and hot pepper paste to any mix of foods and it can become bibimbap (though the paste often has sesame in it).
Sounds yummy.
Glace – I hadn’t heard that. I don’t usually keep sesame oil on hand, but the lard rendered from a neighbor’s pig is absolutely delicious to fry the eggs in and drizzle over the rice.
I second the hot pepper seasoning!
Love this post!!! Thank you!!!
sounds really good. how do you pronounce bimbimbap?
We too are lil homesteaders. We built our home from the ground up with our own hands and the cash we had in the bank. Its an awesome feeling isnt it? We raise jersey cows, dexters cows, a million chickens, turkeys, and pigs along with lots of fruits and a large garden on 3 acres in the mountains of W North Carolina. This recipe sounds great. I’ in the throws of early pregnancy with our third lil farmer and this sounds so easy I think we’ll have it tonight!
Man ! Love this family. This is how it should be – all the best to you folks !
Oh I love Bibimbap! Ate it all the time when I lived in Korea. 🙂