The BEST Hi Protein Vegan Kimchi Jjigae

Over the next eight minutes, I'm gonna show you how to make this incredible kimchi jjigae, and it's gonna be easy. I made this kimchi jjigae the other day, and I kid you not, it is literally the best kimchi jjigae I have ever eaten. And now you're going to be able to make it too. Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of My Kitchen Stories. I'm Joanne Molinaro, a James Beard Award-winning cookbook author and recipe developer. And yes, that was me in my garage retrieving my homemade kimchi. I made this kimchi with my family back in December, and it is now ready to make jjigae out of it. Look at it. I mean, that's aged kimchi right there. What is kimchi jjigae? Well, kimchi jjigae literally translates into kimchi stew. It's a hearty, veggie, and protein-filled stew that you typically eat with a bowl of rice. So first things first, we're going to get our rice on. Kimchi stew or kimchi jjigae typically has either pork or beef or some other kind of animal protein. This vegetarian version is going to be a little bit lighter than the typical version. And in lieu of meat, I'm actually using these very meaty and delicious-looking shiitake mushrooms. We're also gonna have some fresh garlic, of course, and I'm gonna dice up a red onion. You can also just use a regular onion. I just used a red one because that's all I had on hand. And finally, I'm also going to be adding some potato. I know what you're thinking. If you're Korean, you're like, potato? Look, I love potato. I love potato, and I will put it in every savory dish imaginable. We're also gonna grab a few scallions to prep for our kimchi jjigae. When you are chopping your scallions, make sure you separate the whites from the greens. The greens you're only gonna use for garnish while the whites will flavor our stew. Okay, I know you guys are not judging my fridge, but you guys are totally judging my makeup, right? Yeah, every time I put that little bit of glow on the tip of my nose, my husband always indubitably says, babe, you have something on your nose. So I'm taking this time to put together all of the ingredients that I need for my jjigae. I don't know if you guys do that or do you just kind of like go with the flow, like, oh, I need gochugaru, oh, I need gochujang, and get it when you need it, or do you like to prep in advance? I take it you can tell what kind of person I am. Yes, you saw that correctly. I am adding black beans to this kimchi jjigae. Now, before you have me strung up, tarred, and feathered, and stoned for this anathema, just hear me out. It actually tastes really good, and it adds more protein. I think I knew I made it in life when I was able to purchase a rice cooker that talks to me in Korean. Okay, so you've probably noticed I'm using soft tofu here. You can pretty much use any kind of tofu you want. If you use silken or sundubu, well, then it'll be kimchi sundubu jjigae, but typically people use medium firm, or firm, or something on the firmer end of things. I just had soft. That was all I had. I like to cook all of my jjigae or stews in a ttukbaegi, which is a Korean earthenware pot. You can also use a Dutch oven if you want. We're gonna start with a little bit of sesame oil, and that's gonna be over medium heat, and even before it gets too hot, we're gonna add some gochugaru, which is Korean pepper powder, and that's because we don't want anything to burn. Sesame oil has a low burn point, and gochugaru also tends to burn rather quickly. We're gonna add our shiitake mushrooms, and we're just gonna get everything coated, and then we'll add our scallion whites, a little bit of greens got mixed up in there. And some of our regular onions, as well as garlic, and then our potatoes. Next, we're gonna add our kimchi. Again, I'm using the dong kimchi that I made with my family, but if you recently made my mak kimchi, or my I don't give a kimchi, then you don't need to use scissors to cut it up into bite-sized pieces. You can just dump two cups of aged kimchi into your kimchi jjigae. You do wanna use aged kimchi. I have used not-aged kimchi, and it was one of the worst kimchi jjigae's I ever ate. Then we're gonna add some gochujang, which is Korean pepper paste. We're gonna mix everything together so that all the veggies and the kimchi are evenly coated with that gochujang, as well as the sesame oil, and the flavor from the garlic and the onion. And the reason we do that is because later when we add liquids, like soup soy sauce and the gold, i.e. kimchi juice, all of those flavors are gonna be stuck to the surface of these vegetables and the kimchi, and then they'll infiltrate the surface of the potatoes and the mushrooms and the kimchi while they're cooking in this rich stew. I'm gonna add some dashima, or dried kelp, to our kimchi jjigae because it sort of mimics the anchovy broth that kimchi jjigae is usually made with. And while my kimchi jjigae is cooking for about 10 minutes, you know, we got potatoes in there, so those need to cook, I'm gonna just use this time to tidy up. It's been about 10 minutes, and look at that. Like, tell me your mouth isn't watering. We're gonna add our tofu, and I like to display it kind of pretty like that. And then what I like to do is to just baste the tofu with a little bit of that kimchi broth. My mouth is watering so badly right now. And there we go, we're adding about half a cup of those black beans. And now for the fun part, we're gonna do some fun add-ons. I had some frozen mandu, or dumplings, as well as some frozen udon noodles. The dumplings go right in, and of course the udon noodles also. I'm just gonna fit them in where I can. I got this directly from my dad. My dad adds udon noodles to every jjigae ever, ever. And then I'm gonna add in some enoki mushrooms. We're gonna drop in some scallion greens here, and then we're just gonna cover the pot and let it cook for a couple more minutes. We just want a little bit of time for the tofu to suck up some of that absolutely, ridiculously, outrageously delicious broth. And that is easy, high-protein, vegan kimchi jjigae. I mean, how mouth-watering does that look? And it was so easy to make, especially if you have your own kimchi on hand, which all of you do, because you all made my kimchi recipe. Okay, Umma, I'm using the bowls that you bought for me for my YouTube video, so there you go. And of course, we have to have rice. It's really hard to eat kimchi jjigae without rice, because it is such a bold, intense, and spicy flavor. That's like half a serving of rice for Korean people, but, you know. And look at that udon noodle. Like, how sexy is Korean vegan food? It's like the sexiest food ever. So I'm gonna take the pieces out of my kimchi jjigae that I want to eat, and then I'm gonna pour the broth over it. I think this is the most efficient and sensible way of serving yourself a bowl of kimchi jjigae. Okay, what do we have here? Kimchi jjigae. I always like to start with a big honkin' spoon of rice, because that first little bit of broth, it's a doozy. Don't take any tubu or anything. Just try the broth first. Oh, my God. That broth is unreal. Good. Tubu, whatever you want. Well, there you have it. The best kimchi jjigae you will ever eat in your life. I promise. Thanks for watching, and follow for more ridiculously sexy Korean vegan recipes.