What's
New
Korean Spinach Salad (Sigeumchi Namul)
This Korean-style spinach salad (Sigeumchi Namul), alongside the earlier featured soya bean sprouts salad, is one of the components for my favourite bibimbap. It is a popular banchan (side dish) to complement any Korean meal. It is super nutritious as you will be eating a lot more spinach than you realised. As a spinach lover, I absolutely love that I can taste the freshness of the spinach due to the light seasonings. Besides Korean food, it can be a all-side dish to any meal and a lunch box. You can also prepare this the night before for meal prep.
See Also:
- Ingredient Spotlight: Baby Spinach
- Recipe: Bibimbap (Korean Mixed Rice)
- Easy Korean Recipes
- Korean Banchan Recipes
This was my spinach namul made using regular spinach, while the topmost featured pictured was made using baby spinach (salad leaves).
Steps-by-Steps (Sigeumchi Namul)
(1) Blanch spinach in a boiling pot of water for about 30-45 seconds.
(2) Take them out, run them under running tap water to cool down and remove the last bit of dirt. Trim and discard the bottom ends.
(3) and (4) wring out the excess water and you’ll have a dense spinach ball that is very much reduced from the amount you started with.
(5) Cut the spinach ball into 4 or more parts.
(6) Season the cut spinach with sesame oil, garlic salt (or salt + minced garlic), onion powder (or chopped spring onions) and lots of roasted sesame seeds. In place of salt, you can also use light soy sauce but that will give a more brownish look to the banchan.
Noob Tip
As a short-cut, baby spinach salad leaves can be used. The pros are that they are 99% dirt free. If you buy ready-to-use pre-washed baby spinach, you don’t even have to rinse them. Their leaves are also so tender that they cook instantly in the boiling water – take them out as soon as they enter the boiling water. The flip side is the cost – baby spinach leaves are many times more expensive!! But you ever see a great deal at the supermarket for baby spinach, don’t miss this great opportunity to make sigeumchi namul!
Uses of Spinach Namul
(1) Served in a dolsot (hot stone):
The seasoned spinach salad is one important component in a dolsot bibimbap (click here for the recipe).
(2) Served in a dinner plate :
This was my simplified bibimbap recipe (click here for the recipe) with supermarket bulgogi beef and only a few toppings.
I love this Korean banchan too. To make a full Korean meal is really not easy since we have to prepare lots of banchan to go with it. Even though it is easy to prepare but when I have to make a few banchan in a day, that’s a lot of work.
you are right. I always marvel at the 1 main dish with 10 banchan meal I see at K drama. Even at the restaurants here, we usually get only 2 or 3 banchan with every main.
I have made broccoli the same way before (cos I happened to enjoy a broccoli banchan served in one of the Korean restaurants here) , like what you have done to your soy bean sprouts & spinach banchan :)
The advantage of using broccoli is that you don’t have to squeeze out too much excess liquids :P compared to spinach.
Oh, that’s a great idea. I’ll try it with broccoli next time. thanks for sharing :)
Hi Wiffy,
I saw some seed-like ingredient on the spinach . What are they ? Not mention in your receipe? Are they Sesame seeds?
opps, I left out the sesame seeds. have amended the recipe. thanks for pointing it out :)
Love baby spinach! Tender and sweet, this is a yummy side dish.
My daughter love Korean bibimbap. Wonder where can I purchase the Korean spinach in order to prepare this dish?
Hi, would appreciate more varieties of quick vegetarian meals if u have to share. Chinese style of vegetarian getting to be bit dull now. If u have vegetarian Korean or Japanese meals that be most wonderful.
Thanks in advance.
Daryl
If the spinach Salad keep chilled, how long can I keep in the fridge?
recommended not more than 1-2 days.
Noted. Thank you wiffy. ????