Spicy Korean Gochujang Bowl

Spicy Korean Gochujang Bowl

Lately, I have been cooking 500-calories- or-less-per-serving meals that can be served in room temperature since the weather has been so hot this summer.  I use a calorie count website to calculate the calories for each serving.  I've been trying to limit my lunch and dinner to 500 calories or less which still contain nutritious ingredients and delicious but keep me full for long hours.  My breakfast usually is about 250 calories or less.  I do have low calorie snacks of fruits or veggies in between.  Hence, I lost 10 lbs. It's working!

This dish, Spicy Korean Gochujang bowl, is one of my 500-calories-or-less-served-in-room-temperature creations.   I love Gochujang (Korean Hot Pepper Paste)!  I love its hot, sweet, and fermenty taste.  It is so great mixed with sesame oil, garlic, ginger, soy sauce, sesame seeds, rice vinegar, and agave nectar.  The paste is thick and gooey like peanut butter.  It can be found in Korean markets.  There is a brand of gochujang sauce called Annie Chun's Gochujang sauce but this was not what I used.  That one is a sauce and not a paste.  It has been mixed with brown sugar,  sesame oil, and other ingredients.  I am making my own gochujang sauce from the gochujang paste I bought in a red tub.  You can use the store-bought gochujang sauce if you'd like and use it on this bowl.  The paste I bought at the Korean market came in a red plastic box such as below.

Gochujang paste in red plastic container.

The ingredients of my Spicy Korean Gochujang Bowl  start with cooked short grain brown rice on the bottom.  Then, it is topped with gochujang scrambled tofu, pan fried baby spinach, pan fried baby bella/cremini mushrooms, sliced fresh Persian cucumber, and fresh grape tomatoes.  Then, drizzled with gochujang sauce/dressing, sprinkled with roasted black sesame seeds, and served with seasoned seaweed lavers.  I am combining fresh vegetables such as fresh cucumber and grape tomatoes with  cooked spinach and mushrooms in one bowl.  Each item in this dish can be prepared and stored separately and bring them to a room temperature before they are assembled to a bowl.  This is a great dish to bring for a lunch without heating it.

From left, clockwise: baby spinach, ginger, gochujang paste in a red container, persian cucumbers, garlic, baby bella or cremini mushrooms, grape tomatoes.  Cooked short grain brown rice, tofu, sesame seeds, and seasoned seaweed laver are not pictured.

Seasoned seaweed lavers have become so popular as snacks. It is so tasty and yummy with rice and gochujang sauce.

Seasoned Seaweed Laver

This is how the Spicy Korean Gochujang is eaten on top of or rolled in a seasoned seaweed laver.

Spicy Korean Gochujang Bowl
Serve 6
Note:  Each item in this dish can be prepared and stored separately and bring them to a room temperature before they are assembled to a bowl. This is a great dish to bring for a lunch without the use of a microwave. 

Ingredients:
4 cups cooked short grain brown rice
Gochujang scrambled tofu (recipe below)
6-8 cups baby spinach
8 oz. cremini/baby bella mushrooms, sliced
8 oz grape tomatoes, cut in half, horizontally,
4-5 Persian cucumbers, medium size, slice horizontally
1 tsp. Toasted Sesame Oil
Gochujang sauce (recipe below)
Salt
6 Seasoned seaweed lavers
Toasted black sesame seeds

1. Pan fry baby spinach with 1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil, sprinkle with a little salt, until spinach is brigh green and wilted.   Set aside.
2. Pan fry cremini/baby bella with 1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil, sprinkle with a little salt, until mushrooms are brown and all the juice evaporated.  Set aside.
3. For each bowl, put 3/4 cup brown rice on the bottom, add gochujang scramble tofu, spinach, mushrooms, tomatoes, cucumber slices. Drizzle gochujang sauce and sprinkle with some toasted black sesame seeds.  Serve with seasoned seaweed laver.

Gochujang Sauce:
2 Tbsp. Gochujang paste
Note: this dish is spicy so to make it less spicy and hot, use 1 Tbsp only.
1 Tbsp. Toasted Sesame Oil
1 Tbsp. Soy Sauce/Tamari
1 Tbsp. Agave Nectar
1 Tbsp. Rice Vinegar/Brown Rice Vinegar
2 tsp. Roasted Sesame Seeds
2 Tbsp. water

Combine all ingredients above and stir until smooth. 

Gochujang Scrambled Tofu:

1.5 block of water packed firm tofu (20 oz), drained and pressed water out
1 tsp. Toasted Sesame Oil for pan frying

Marinade sauce for tofu:
2 Tbsp. Gochujang paste
Note: this dish is spicy so to make it less spicy and hot, use 1 Tbsp only.
1 Tbsp. Toasted Sesame Oil
1 Tbsp. Soy Sauce/Tamari
1 Tbsp. Agave Nectar
1 Tbsp. Fresh Ginger, finely chopped
1 Tbsp. Fresh Garlic, finely chopped

1. Crumble drained tofu with your hands or a fork into a bowl.
2. Combine all the ingredients of the marinade sauce and mix until smooth.
3. Add the marinade sauce to the crumble tofu and set a side to marinade for 20-30 minutes.
4. Pan fry seasoned tofu onto a non-stick frying pan with the 1 teaspoon of sesame oil on a medium high heat.
5. Leave the tofu alone for 4-5 minutes before stirring.  This will create a brown crispy scramble tofu.  Keep doing this for 15-20 minutes until scramble tofu is dry (all the water evaporated) and tofu is brown.  Set aside.

  

Gochujang scramble tofu before it is pan fried.



Gochujang scramble tofu after it is pan fried.

Amount Per Serving:
Calories 464  Calories from fat 120, Total Fat 13.4g (Saturated Fat 1.6 g),  Cholesterol 0 mg,
Sodium 564 mg,  Total Carbohydrate 72.3 g, Dietary Fiber 8.6 g, Sugar 13.2 g, Protein 17.7 g.