Banchan: Korean Side Dishes, Types and 10 Easy Recipes
Banchan (반찬) are the small side dishes that come to the table with rice at every meal in Korea: kimchi, seasoned vegetables, braised potatoes, fried anchovies, pancakes. Everyone at the table shares them, and you take from each little bowl with chopsticks as long as the rice lasts.
What belongs to a Korean meal
An everyday meal in Korea consists of rice (bap), a soup or stew (guk or jjigae) and several banchan. At home there are usually three to six small bowls, at festive meals ten or more. You prepare many banchan in advance and eat them over several days, and cook only one or two sides fresh. Kimchi is on the table at almost every meal.
The mix makes the meal: a spicy banchan sits next to a mild one, a braised one next to a raw one, a salty one next to a sour one. You season with a few basics found in every Korean kitchen: soy sauce, garlic, scallion, toasted sesame oil, sesame seeds, chili flakes (gochugaru) and gochujang.
The categories of banchan
| Category | Preparation | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Namul (나물) | vegetables blanched or raw, dressed with sesame oil, salt and garlic | spinach, soybean sprouts, bracken shoots |
| Muchim (무침) | dressed raw, often spicy and tangy | cucumber, radish, napa cabbage |
| Kimchi (김치) | salted and fermented | napa cabbage, radish cubes, cucumber |
| Jorim (조림) | braised in soy sauce, sweet and salty | potatoes, beef, lotus root |
| Bokkeum (볶음) | pan-fried and glazed | anchovies, fish cake, squid |
| Jeon (전) | dredged in flour and egg or fried as a batter | zucchini, kimchi, fish |
Namul and muchim overlap, and cooks don't draw the line in the same place everywhere. Roughly, namul tastes mild and nutty, and muchim tastes bold and spicy. Kimchi itself has its own basic recipe: Napa Cabbage Kimchi.
10 easy banchan to cook
- Sigeumchi Namul: blanch spinach for 30 seconds, squeeze it out and mix with sesame oil, salt, garlic and sesame. Ten minutes of work.
- Kongnamul: cook soybean sprouts covered for five minutes and dress them like spinach. Don't lift the lid in between, or they smell beany.
- Oi Muchim: salt cucumber slices, squeeze them out and mix with gochugaru, vinegar, sugar and sesame.
- Mu Saengchae: radish in fine strips, spicy and tangy, keeps for three to four days.
- Gamja Jorim: braise potato cubes in soy sauce, sugar and water until the sauce turns glossy. Kids like them too.
- Jangjorim: beef braised in soy sauce and shredded, often with quail eggs. Keeps for a week.
- Myulchi Bokkeum: small dried anchovies, dry-toasted and glazed with syrup and soy sauce. Crunchy and long-lasting.
- Gyeran Mari: rolled omelet with vegetables, best fresh.
- Kimchi Jeon: pancake of ripe kimchi and flour, a way to use up kimchi that has turned too sour.
- Kkakdugi: radish cube kimchi. It ferments for one to two days at room temperature and keeps maturing in the fridge afterward.
For most namul, you need a basic seasoning that you can remember. For 300 g of blanched, squeezed-out vegetables, use 1 to 2 tsp toasted sesame oil, 1/2 tsp salt or 1 tsp light soy sauce, 1 small pressed garlic clove, 1 tbsp finely sliced scallion and 1 tsp toasted sesame. Mix everything with your fingers so the seasoning reaches every leaf. For a spicy version, add 1/2 tsp gochugaru, and for muchim add 1 tsp rice vinegar and 1/2 tsp sugar as well. With this pattern you can also make namul from zucchini, broccoli, bok choy or carrots.
If you want to meet all the sides at once, cook Heotjesabap: rice with many small sides that you spread over it.
Banchan in stock: shelf life
A stock of banchan saves you a lot of time during the week. One afternoon of cooking on the weekend is enough for four to six kinds. Store each kind in its own glass or plastic container with a lid so smells don't mix, and take them out with clean chopsticks or spoons.
| Banchan | In the fridge |
|---|---|
| Namul from blanched vegetables | 2 to 3 days |
| Muchim from raw vegetables | 1 to 4 days, cucumber the shortest |
| Jorim | 5 to 7 days |
| Bokkeum from dried fish | 1 to 2 weeks |
| Jeon and omelet | 1 to 2 days, best fresh |
| Kimchi | weeks to months, gets sourer over time |
A sensible weekly stock: one kimchi, one jorim, one bokkeum and one namul. Add a fresh muchim or an egg each day. Take the sides out of the fridge 15 minutes before eating, and they taste rounder.
Shopping and allergens
You can buy gochugaru, gochujang, dried anchovies, Korean radish (mu) and soybean sprouts at an Asian grocery store. If you have to, replace the radish with white radish from the supermarket, which contains more water and is sharper. Toasted sesame oil and soy sauce are also in the Asian aisle of the supermarket.
Many banchan contain sesame and soy, plus gluten from the soy sauce. Kimchi is often seasoned with fish sauce or fermented shrimp, and myulchi bokkeum contains fish. Jeon and omelet contain egg and usually wheat flour.
Common mistakes
- Vegetables not squeezed out: Blanched spinach or salted cucumber water down the seasoning. Squeeze them out hard with your hands.
- Too much sesame oil: One teaspoon per portion of namul is enough. More covers the vegetables.
- Everything spicy: Plan mild sides too, or in the end everything tastes of chili.
- Into the fridge warm: Let jorim and bokkeum cool before you close the container, or condensation forms.