A Three-Week Journey into Korean Home Cooking

 

Vegan cooking may seem like a modern movement, but plant-based food has deep roots in Korean cuisine.

Vegetables, grains, beans, tofu, mushrooms, seaweed and seasonal greens have long been an important part of the Korean table. Namul — vegetables and greens prepared and seasoned in different ways — and sanchae, dishes made with seasonal mountain greens, are just two examples of Korea’s rich tradition of vegetable-based cooking. Korean Buddhist temple cuisine also demonstrates how varied and flavourful a meal can be without meat or fish.

During this three-week course, we will explore this tradition through simple, delicious Korean home cooking.

 

A Korean everyday meal usually begins with bap (밥, rice), accompanied by several banchan (반찬, side dishes), and often guk (국, soup) or jjigae (찌개, stew). Rather than focusing only on individual recipes, we will learn how these different elements come together to create a balanced Korean table.

We will also start with one of the most fundamental skills in Korean cooking: making good rice in a pot. What kind of rice should you buy? How should you wash and soak it? How much water do you need, what kind of pot works best, and how long should the rice cook and rest?

 

Week 1 — Rice & Banchan

Building an Everyday Korean Table

We begin with the foundation of Korean home cooking: properly cooked rice and three simple vegetable side dishes.

Through different banchan, we will discover some of the techniques Koreans use every day to turn vegetables into flavourful dishes — seasoning, mixing, blanching and stir-frying.

 

Week 2 — Rice, Jjigae & Banchan

A Korean Home Meal

In the second week, we will build a complete everyday meal with freshly cooked rice, a warming vegan jjigae (Korean stew) and seasonal side dishes.

We will explore how ingredients such as vegetables, mushrooms, tofu, dashima (dried kelp) and fermented soybean paste can create deep, satisfying flavours without meat or fish.

 

Week 3 — Chuseok

The Korean Harvest Festival

For our final class, we move from the everyday table to a celebration table.

Chuseok (추석) is one of Korea’s most important traditional holidays, celebrating the harvest and bringing families together around food.

We will prepare japchae (잡채), sweet-potato glass noodles with colourful vegetables, and nokdu bindaetteok (녹두빈대떡), crispy mung-bean pancakes, in completely plant-based versions.

 

Over the three weeks, you will not only learn new recipes, but also gain an understanding of how a Korean meal is created — giving you the confidence to build your own simple and delicious Korean vegan table at home.