(My Korean Culture- Part 2)
Korean bulgogi is my family’s favorite, my daughter and husband love it. It is simple to make and you can be creative while making it healthy. When you are short with time, it’s best to add vegetables in with the meat, soak it all with bulgogi sauce and finally bake it in the oven.
Bulgogi is simple to make
Sound too simple? It is very simple. My little Korean mom likes to make her own sauce from scratch. But you can buy the sauce from most Korean grocery stores. H-Mart is a fantastic Korean grocery store in Torrance, California. The place is massive and they have everything you can think of!
Add Vegetables to Bulgogi and bake
Yes, it’s good to add whatever vegetables you wish to this dish and bake it in the oven together to save time. You can choose whatever veggies you wish. Here is my creative version:
Ingredients 
- 1 lb of bulgogi meat thinly sliced
- 1 Korean sweet potato/yam
- ½ lb of brussel sprouts
- A pack of extra hard cubed tofu
- 1 bottle of bulgogi beef sauce (There are sauces for chicken bulgogi too.)
- A pack of mixed mushrooms or you can choose just one type of mushroom. The mushroom pack I purchased already came with a variety.
Just take a pan or glass cooking container deep enough for all the ingredients. I put the meat in first, then layered the rest of the veggies in and bake at 250 degrees for 3.5 hours. Slow cooking bulgogi with veggies is so juicy and tasty. You will not be sorry you took the extra time!
There’s no real science behind it or hard fast rule. Except you need the type of thinly sliced beef that you should get from a Korean grocery store. Also, you need the right sauce, because the bulgogi sauce and meat are the most important.
The veggies you choose to add is completely up to you. This is if you wish to make the meal non-traditional. Usually bulgogi is served with white steamed rice and sides of kimchi. Of course I purchased a couple of sides of kimchi: shredded radish and cucumber (cucumber kimchi is my favorite!) Personally, I like finding ways to transform most recipes into healthier versions like adding greens, extra protein such as tofu, and eating vitamin D from the mushrooms.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with some recipes because making Korean bulgogi isn’t hard, you just need to take a special shopping trip to a Korean or Asian market.
Happy Cooking!
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