Korean Beansprout Salad

5 from 7 votes

One of my favourite Korean banchan or side dishes is this beansprout salad! I love the texture of beansprouts with its crunchy bite, light savoury taste, and really subtle flavour. This can be made using mung bean sprouts for sookjunamul or soy bean sprouts for kongnamul.

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Prep Time 10

Cook Time 10

Total Time 20

Course Appetizer, Main Course, Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine Asian, Korean

Servings servings

Calories 49 kcal

Ingredients

Cooking the Sprouts

500 g fresh soy bean sprouts or mung bean sprouts
1 tsp salt
5 cups water

Seasoning

2 tbsp chopped spring onions, scallions, or green onions
2-4 tbsp toasted sesame oil (see notes)
1 tsp minced garlic
2-3 tsp toasted sesame seeds
3/4 - 1 tsp salt adjust according to taste
2 tsp sugar or more to taste
1/4 tsp ground black pepper or more to taste
2 tsp gochugaru or Korean chili powder (optional)

Instructions

Wash the beansprouts in running water. Remove the bad sprouts that float. Drain water then set aside.
Heat a pot with 5 cups water. Add in the salt. Once it boils, place the beansprouts and leave to cook for 6-7 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the bean sprouts to cool.
Strain the water from the beansprouts. Run beansprouts through some cold water. Squeeze out any excess liquid from the sprouts. Note that the sprouts will continue to release liquid especally when it sits in the seasoning so it's best to really squeeze out the excess liquid after it cooks.
While the beansprouts are cooking, mix the sesame oil, minced garlic, sesame seeds, salt, green onion, pepper, gochugaru (if using) in a large bowl. Feel free to add some sugar, for a hint of sweetness, if you’d like!
Place the cooked and squeezed beansprouts in the sesame oil mix. Mix well and then taste the bean sprouts. The seasoning is totally up to you and you can always adjust everything to your desired taste by adding more salt and sugar, to taste, as needed. If it's a bit dry you can add more sesame oil and more sesame seeds for extra flavour.
This can be refrigerated and enjoyed for up to 1 week or even longer. Just make sure to keep it in a cold place in your fridge and only scoop out what you want to consume at a time.
Spinach: I also used this same recipe for the spinach salad. But of course I used spinach isntead of the beansprouts.

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Notes

SESAME OIL

I highly recommend to use Korean roasted sesame oil for the best flavour. If your sesame oil doesn't have as strong flavour as Korean sesame oil or if your beansprout salad is a bit dry and lacking in flavour, you can add more sesame oil.

NUTRITIONAL INFO

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