Gimbop is considered one of the most popular and nutritious Korean meal. It consists of rice and strips of vegetables, egg, and meat, rolled in laver (dried seaweed) and then sliced. This is a popular snack or lunch that can be made with infinite variety of ingredients using different kinds of meat and/or vegetables. Popular ones include bulgogi, spinach, pickled radish, and eggs.

At first glance, gimbop often resembles a Japanese maki or a sushi roll. However, there are a few differences between the Japanese sushi roll and the Korean-style gimbop. The main difference is that Japanese sushi rolls are rather minimal in ingredients. Sushi rolls usually consists of just tuna or salmon within the roll whereas gimbop contains a variety of ingredients as mentioned earlier. Also, while the Japanese use raw fish (sashimi) in their sushi rolls, Korean gimbop do not contain any raw fish. Lastly, Japanese sushi is often dipped in wasabi while gimbop usually has sesame oil.

Korean 101: Gim refers to the sheets of dried seaweed, and bop is the Korean word for cooked rice.

Recipe Ingredients

• 1 bunch spinach, steamed
• 2 carrots, cut in long thin strips
• 1 yellow pickled radish, cut in long thin strips
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 piece thick sliced ham or Spam, cut in long thin strips and fried
• 1 egg, fried like omelet and cut in long thin strips
• 3 cups of cooked rice
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 package roasted seaweed sheets
  

Cooking Directions

1. Stir fry carrots with salt and pepper.
2. Mix radish with vinegar and sugar.
3. Mix rice with the sesame seeds and sesame oil.
4. Place one seaweed sheet on a bamboo sheet. Put rice on half of the sheet and add 2 pieces of spinach, 1 carrot strip, 1 radish strip, 1 ham strip, 1 egg strip on top of rice. Roll in a log and squeeze tight. Use some rice to stick the seaweed together to keep it rolled.
5. Place a little sesame oil in your hands and rub it on the seaweed roll.
6. Put a little sesame oil on knife to cut roll.