Kimchi-Jjigae Recipe

We’ve been loving Kimchi-Jjigae. It’s a spicy, sweet, ferment-y Korean stew. My starting point was this Maangchi recipe but I stray from it quite a bit.

Ingredients
Neutral oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
3 heaping tablespoons of Gochujang
about 200g of kimchi (you can roughly chop is the pieces of cabbage are very big)
a couple of cups of shrimp stock
a heaping tablespoon of white miso
a few shakes of fish sauce
salt, pepper, red pepper flakes (to taste- ideally, use Gochujaru instead of red pepper flakes)
400g of soft tofu
4 scallions, roughly chopped
eggs (optional)
Sticky rice or rice noodles (optional, for serving)

Instructions
Heat up some neutral oil over medium heat, in a medium saucepan.
Saute the onion for a couple of minutes, until softened. Add garlic, about 30 seconds, until fragrant.
Add gochujang and fry for about 30 seconds.
Add kimchi, stock, miso, and fish sauce. Season with some salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes (to taste).
Stir so everything is mixed together and simmer until flavours combine (about 20 minutes).
Add tofu into the saucepan and mix to combine. The tofu will naturally break up. Cook for about 10 minutes.
If you would like to add an egg, crack right into the pot and simmer for about 6 minutes for a set egg but runny yolk.
Scatter with scallions and serve over sticky rice.

Serves 2-4

Udon Soup

We haven’t been able to find the soup base lately, but if you can get your hands on it (or something similar), this is an easy, fast, delicious dinner. Add whatever vegetables you want and udon noodles (the frozen ones are way better than the dried) and you’re good to go.

Our favourite lasagna

Lasagna is a true favourite for us. It’s comforting, filling, and can be stretched over a few meals. The other day, we made the best lasagna we’ve ever made. Over the years, I learned that the key to good lasagna is: ample tomato sauce and bechamel, a lot of layers, and always having sauce + one dairy component between each sheet of pasta.

Dinner Ideas 8/31-9/6

Breakfast is easy. It’s almost always oatmeal and occasionally a smoothie bowl. Lunch time is very low-maintenance (leftovers, toast, eggs, salad). But dinner is tough.

The past few months it’s become more and more of a struggle to figure out what to cook. So, I’m going to start keeping a record of what we eat for dinner. My hope is that this will provide some inspiration for my future self and whoever else wants to follow along.

For the week of August 31-September 6, we ate:
-A tweaked version of Smitten Kitchen’s corn fritters. They were great. I made a bunch and froze them for an easy, quick meal. We had some salad and sweet potato fries on the side.

-Some Greek salad, which is a little heartier because of the feta. We ate it with sourdough, smothered in the sundried tomato pesto from this video (the soup is also one of our favorites).

-I made a big batch of my vegan bolognese. I froze 2/3s of it for later use.

-A quick hashbrown (grated potato, onion, salt pepper, fried in a pan), topped with some avocado and scrambled egg.

-Our favourite lasagna.

-We snacked on a date and coconut version of these chewy granola bars.