Kongnamul: Soybean Sprout Salad

Sundays are sometimes a blur. There is laundry, grocery shopping, bills, sifting through piles of random paperwork and receipts (why do I even keep these?) and cleaning the kitchen floor and then suddenly it's 4:30pm and I haven't even thought of what I should make for dinner.

I did manage to sneak in a wonderful Anusara Yoga class at Yoga Tree. It was hard work, but I felt so proud of myself for stretching through the tight spots and taking some time to breathe and clear the clouds, so to speak.

The rain clouds have been rollin in this week and it's been a little cold and gloomy around here. Perfect for some Korean Tofu Kimchi Stew. And definitely some banchan, which I like to call vegetable snacks that are generally very easy to prepare. You know I love me some Korean food.

Kongnamul is one of my favorite types of banchan. It's a crunchy soybean sprout salad with a hint of sesame.

It's really cheap, too-you can buy a whole pound of sprouts at almost any asian grocery/market for about $1.20. I like to buy the loose ones and not pre-bagged sprouts because those tend to get soggy and rancid very quickly.

Note: I made that cute little ceramic plate at Color Me Mine.

INGREDIENTS:

* 1 pound of soybean sprouts
* 1 Tbsp. sesame oil
* salt to taste
* Optional: small amounts of chopped green onion, red pepper flakes, sesame seeds, soy sauce


DIRECTIONS:

* Fill a medium pot about 2/3 full with water and 1 tsp. of salt and bring to a boil.
* Rinse the sprouts and discard any wilted sprouts.
* Toss in the sprouts, cover and cook for 4-5 minutes.
* Drain and rinse in cold water until cooled (or plunge them into a bowl of ice water if you like it extra crunchy).
* In a bowl, combine the drained, cooked sprouts, sesame oil, salt and any other optional items you may be using.

Ta-da! So easy.

This dish will not keep more than a day or so in the fridge (it becomes soggy pretty quickly), so I highly recommend eating it up fresh!