BIBIM GUKSU with KIMCHI ~ Korean Cold Noodle Salad

This Korean cold noodle salad comes together quickly if you do the julienning and dressing the day before. The layers of flavors come from the sweet and slightly warm Korean chili paste called gochujang, pungent kimchi, mint, salty-nutty notes from tamari, sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds and then all the fresh vegetables piled high around cold soba noodles. Bibim guksu means mixed noodles in Korean. It’s very similar to a Portland food cart favorite, bibimbap which is made with rice rather than noodles. This colorful abundant salad makes for a great brunch or potluck dish if you have any or those coming up this summer.

Makes 4-6 servings

FOR THE DRESSING

½ C kimchi radish or cabbage, plus 1 C more for salad assembly
1/3 C kimchi juice (from jar)
3 T gochujang (found at most grocery stores)
3 T rice vinegar
1 T brown sugar
2 T organic tamari
2 T sesame oil
2 fresh garlic cloves, minced
2 T toasted black or white sesame seeds, plus 2 T more for noodles

FOR THE VEGETABLES

1 organic orange carrot, 1″ julienne
1 organic white or purple carrot, 1″ julienne
1-1/2 C organic red radish, julienned
1 Persian or English cucumber, 1″ julienned with skin
2 C organic baby spinach (or other leafy green)
2 C purple cabbage, thinly cut about 1″ lengths
1/3 C fresh perilla leaves (or fresh mint), rough chopped
8-10 sorrel leaves (optional)
The additional 1 C kimchi radish
5 green onions, cut in 2 ” lengths (or chopped)
The additional 2 T toasted white or black sesame seeds

FOR THE NOODLES

16 oz soba noodles (we used Hakubaku organic soba noodles).

PREPARATION

If you’re able to prep your vegetables and sauce early, it helps to quickly pull this together.

Don’t over cook your noodles. You want them to have a bite to them. The noodles will definitely soak up the dressing so you don’t want them cooked too much and fall apart. Once cooked, rinse with cold water, put in container and into fridge until ready to assemble

When preparing your vegetables, keep each one in separate piles or zip lock bags if doing the night before.

ASSEMBLY

In a large mixing bowl, combine the noodles and the sauce. Incorporate well. Divide the mixed noodles into 4 big dinner salad bowls or pasta bowls. You need room to display all the vegetables, so a wider bowl as opposed to a deep bowl works better for the showing off all the colorful vegetables. Assemble each bowl with equal amounts of each vegetable, surrounding the noodles in a colorful display. Add in your leafy greens and finish the assembly with kimchi radish on top of noodles and sprinkle the additional sesame seeds over all the ingredients.

Serve with extra dressing on the side. Chop sticks are our preferred utensil for eating this salad, but forks will do. Once guests are served, encourage them to toss their ingredients together and add more dressing!

COOK’S NOTES

These are big salads, so if you wanted to stretch this into 6 servings, you can use smaller bowls for each serving.

Proteins like pork belly or hard boiled eggs are a common addition to this salad

If don’t have soba noodles, you can use a vermicelli noodle

Shiso, basil, Thai basil or cilantro can be added as well

For a potluck or brunch service, you can assemble all the ingredients on a big platter or in a big bowl with sauce on the side and let guests serve themselves. It’s a salad that would appeal to almost everyone, particularly since you can select vegetables you like best.

Did you like this salad? Please let us know. We LOVE receiving your feedback and reading about any additions you made or tricks to making the recipe more unique! Thank you!