Gimbap (Korean Seaweed Rolls)
Gimbap is the ultimate Korean picnic/street food! Made with rice, seaweed, seasoned veggies, egg, pickled radish, and your choice of protein.
Servings: 5 rolls
Ingredients
- 4-5 sheets of seaweed
- 4-5 strips yellow pickled radish
- 4-5 strips burdock root
- 1/2 can spam or fish cakes, tuna, bulgogi
- vegetable oil for pan frying
- sesame oil for brushing over rolls
- 8-10 perilla leaves optional
Rice
- 4 cups fresh cooked rice short grain
- 1 tsp sea salt or kosher salt
- 1 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp crushed sesame seeds
Spinach
- 10 oz spinach
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 1 minced garlic clove
Carrots
- 8 oz carrot julienned thinly
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
Egg
- 3 eggs
- pinch of salt
- pinch of sugar
Instructions
Prepare the rice
- Make a fresh pot of rice. Mix the rice with crushed sesame seeds, sea salt and sesame oil then set aside.*Always use fresh rice, but let it cool before making the rolls. Do not spread hot rice on seaweed.
Prepare the spinach
- Thoroughly wash the spinach and blanch them in boiling water for 20 seconds, then immediately drop the spinach into an ice bath to prevent it from cooking more. Then gently squeeze out as much water as you can.
- Mix the spinach with sea salt, sesame oil, and minced garlic. Set aside.
Prepare the carrot
- Thinly julienne the carrots and add salt to draw out water. Let it sit for 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, discard the water and gently squeeze out the moisture from the carrots.
- Pan fry with a little vegetable oil for 2-3 minutes. Set aside.
Prepare the egg
- Whisk together 3 eggs, a pinch of salt, and a pinch of sugar. Pour about 1/3 of it into a hot pan with oil on medium-low heat. Spread the egg evenly.
- When the top is almost set, begin folding the egg over, gently pulling it to the opposite side of the pan as you fold it over. Keep adding the egg in batches and repeat until all the egg has been used and folded over.
- Cut the egg omelet into 1 cm thick strips and set aside.
Prepare the protein
- Cut the spam into 1 cm thick slices. Pan fry the spam on both sides until crispy. *If using fish cake, pan fry in a little oil for a couple minutes.
- Cut the spam into 1 cm thick strips. Set aside
Make the gimbap roll
- On a bamboo rolling mat, set the seaweed sheet shiny side down and evenly spread about 3/4 cups of rice, leaving 2 inches at the top. *If you find that the rice is too difficult to spread, set aside a little cup of water to dunk your fingers in to make the rice spread easier.
- Neatly arrange all the fillings in the center. I really like yellow pickled radish so sometimes I add two. I also added some perilla leaves. *You can add whatever fillings you like! Sometimes I use fish cakes, canned tuna, or bulgogi.
- Lift the bamboo mat from the bottom and begin rolling, tucking in the fillings as tightly as possible. Then using the bamboo mat, apply pressure while rolling and pulling the top of the bamboo mat forward to continue rolling.
- Drizzle over a little sesame oil and brush all over the rolls.
- Cut into 1/2 inch thick pieces using the sharpest knife you own.
- Enjoy right away or cover in plastic wrap for later. I recommend eating within 1 day. Do not refrigerate unless reheating later (see notes below).
Notes
To reheat:
I honestly do not recommend reheating gimbap. It is best when eaten on the day it was made. However, I do have some tricks that I learned from my mom when it comes to reheating gimbap to make it edible again. Is it really good? In my opinion, no. But it's decent and prevents food waste.
To reheat, you can either pan fry to make the rice crispy, or dip into an egg batter to make gimbap jeon.
