Bibimbap recipe: how to make a Korean rice bowl

Oct 5, 2026

By Jihye Dschihä

Bibimbap (비빔밥) is a Korean rice bowl: warm rice topped with seasoned vegetables, often beef and an egg, plus gochujang, the Korean chili paste. Everything is mixed thoroughly before eating. That is exactly what the name says: 비빔 (bibim) comes from 비비다, "to mix," and 밥 (bap) means rice.

In Korea, the vegetables are called 나물 (Namul): briefly blanched or sautéed and seasoned with sesame oil, garlic and salt or soy sauce. According to the Korea JoongAng Daily, vegetables in at least five colors belong on the rice. This recipe makes four servings and follows Korean Bapsang.

What ingredients do I need for bibimbap?

For the rice

Short-grain rice for four servings (Korean Bapsang uses 3 cups, about 720 ml). How to cook Korean rice is explained in our recipe for Korean rice.

For the vegetables

225 g mung bean or soybean sprouts
225 g spinach (about one bunch)
2 small cucumbers (about 140 g)
115 g mushrooms, for example shiitake
2 carrots (about 140 g)
for seasoning, in total: 1.5 tsp minced garlic, 3 tbsp finely chopped scallion, sesame oil, sesame seeds, salt

For the beef (optional)

225 g tender beef, thinly sliced
1.5 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tsp sugar, 2 tsp sesame oil, 2 tsp cooking rice wine, 1 tsp garlic, 1 tbsp scallion, pepper

For the sauce

4 tbsp 고추장 (Gochujang)
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp water

For serving: 4 eggs (optional) and sesame seeds for sprinkling.

There is no fixed recipe for the sauce. Other recipes add rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar. You can find gochujang, sesame oil and Korean short-grain rice at an Asian grocery store.

How do I prepare the vegetables?

Each vegetable is prepared and seasoned separately. Divide the garlic, scallion, sesame oil, sesame seeds and salt among them.

Sprouts: blanch for about 1 minute, rinse in cold water, drain and season.
Spinach: blanch only until wilted, about 40 seconds. Rinse in cold water, squeeze well, cut into pieces about 7 cm long and season.
Cucumber: cut into thin strips, salt for 10 to 15 minutes, squeeze and season.
Mushrooms and carrots: sauté each for 1 to 2 minutes with a little salt and pepper.

If you like, add 고사리 (Gosari), dried bracken fern. According to Korean Bapsang, you boil it in plenty of water for 30 to 40 minutes, cut it into pieces, let it sit with soy sauce, sugar and garlic, and then briefly stir-fry it.

How do I make the beef?

Mix the beef with the marinade ingredients and let it sit for 20 minutes. Then sauté it for 2 to 3 minutes over high heat. For a vegetarian or vegan version, Korean Bapsang leaves out the meat and egg and recommends tofu as a substitute.

How do I serve and eat bibimbap?

Stir the sauce ingredients together.
Fry the eggs sunny side up.
Put rice in a bowl and arrange the vegetables and beef on top.
Place the fried egg in the center, add some sauce and sprinkle everything with sesame seeds.

Bibimbap is served unmixed. At the table, everyone stirs their bowl thoroughly and then eats it with a spoon.

What is dolsot bibimbap?

돌솥비빔밥 (Dolsot-Bibimbap) is served in a very hot stone pot, the 돌솥 (Dolsot). The bottom of the pot is brushed with sesame oil, which makes the bottom layer of rice crisp and golden brown. This crust is called 누룽지 (Nurungji) and is scraped off the bottom at the end. Because the pot holds its heat, the food keeps cooking at the table. A raw egg yolk on top cooks as you stir. According to the recipe blog Kimchimari, you can tell a good dolsot bibimbap by the fact that it is still crackling when it is served.

According to a Korean culture encyclopedia cited by the broadcaster SBS, dolsot bibimbap only appeared in the 1960s at a restaurant in Jeonju.

Where does bibimbap come from?

How old bibimbap is cannot be said exactly. In the diary of Gwon Sang-il (1679 to 1760), the dish appears as 골동반 (Goldongban). The first known recipe is usually said to be one in the cookbook 시의전서 (Siŭijŏnsŏ) from the late 19th century. The researcher Chung Kyung-rhan disagrees in a 2015 paper: according to her, the Korean name is already recorded in a text from 1810, and a related dish even earlier.

There are several theories about its origin, none of them proven:

After the ancestral rite 제사 (Jesa), the food offerings were mixed with rice and eaten.
On the eve of the Lunar New Year, people ate up all the leftovers in a bowl of rice.
Farmers' wives made quick meals this way.
Other stories make bibimbap a dish of the royal kitchen.

What is Jeonju bibimbap?

The best-known regional version comes from the city of Jeonju. There, the rice is cooked in beef broth and topped with 육회 (Yukhoe), seasoned raw beef, ginkgo nuts, pine nuts and a raw egg yolk. It comes with a soybean sprout soup. In 2012, UNESCO named Jeonju a "City of Gastronomy." Jinju has its own version too, with yukhoe and a broth called potangguk.

You can even get bibimbap on a plane: according to the Korea Times, Korean Air began serving it in economy class in 1997 and received the Mercury Award from the in-flight catering industry association for it in 1998.

If you want to cook Korean food without having to gather everything separately: our Dosirak cooking box contains 25 Korean recipes including the ingredients. And why so much Korean food is seasoned with chili and gochujang is explained in Why do Koreans eat such spicy food?