LAZIEST KOREAN MEALS FOR ONE! (Vegan) 🇰🇷 Lazy Korean Recipes

I can't stop. Anyway, that's my protein round. One more bite, one more bite. Okay, I'm doing one more bite. No need to slave in the kitchen. These are delicious. Hi guys, it's Rose and welcome back to Cheap, Lazy, Vegan and another cook with me video. Yay! Today's video, as you can see by the title, I'm gonna show you some lazy AF Korean vegan meals. I can't even call these recipes because you'll see what I mean. Okay, these are just like extremely lazy meals that I wanna show you. I definitely wanna do some sort of a series on this because I feel like I have lots of ideas. So if that sounds appealing to you and you want more recipes later on, make sure you subscribe to my channel. So the first meal idea is going to be bibim guksu but the very lazy version. Bibim guksu stands for mixed noodles. I have an actual recipe for this on my blog and on my YouTube channel so I will link that below. That's gonna be the slightly less lazy version to make it from scratch. It's still lazy, let's be real, okay? But this time I'm gonna show you how to make it extra lazy. First thing you're gonna need is some quick cooking noodles. Quick cooking noodles? So some noodles that cook really fast. I mean, it doesn't have to be fast but if you're lazy, you probably want to make your meal fast, right? My favorite thing to use for this recipe is somyeon or somyeon which are wheat noodles. These are very thin wheat noodles. These cook in like, I swear to God, like three minutes, okay? And these are really yummy, really chewy, really thin but you can also use soba noodles which of course are like my favorite types of noodles. Those are buckwheat noodles and they also cook really quickly within like five minutes or any type of noodle of your choice, okay? And you can basically prepare everything while this boils within like three minutes. So we're gonna do three minutes on the clock and then I gotta add some protein to my meals because I can make this and I'll still be hungry if I don't add protein. So I'm gonna actually add some frozen edamame beans. This is my lazy girl hack, okay guys? Because the thing is, if you keep a bag of frozen edamame beans in the freezer, it's ready to go, okay? You just throw it into whatever and then you got protein. It's so simple, so easy. So I always have edamame beans in the freezer, okay? It is like a must. And then this part is totally optional but I'm gonna chop up some green onion. I just have a green onion here. And then this is the hack, okay? You just need to buy some cho gochujang. So I'm sure you've heard of gochujang which is basically spicy Korean red pepper paste. Now this is cho gochujang which is kind of like vinegary, slightly sweet version of gochujang. So you can make your own cho gochujang. I will leave a recipe for you below. It's super simple and easy but you could also buy cho gochujang in a Korean supermarket, okay? So I'm gonna let you like, I don't know, maybe you can screenshot this or ask for cho gochujang and the Koreans will know what you mean. And the noodles apparently are already ready. See? Maybe like one more minute. One more minute. And when you buy this, you can keep it in your fridge. And whenever you're lazy, you can just put it into your noodles. You could even put it on rice. You could do a lot of things with this. So vinegary, sweet gochujang. The noodles are almost done. So what I'm gonna do is get a strainer ready because we're gonna strain this and we're gonna rinse it in cold water. And then we're going to just add it into our serving bowl. Cause we're gonna eat it right away, right? We can just add however much of the cho gochujang you want, okay? Squeeze that out. I like a lot of it. Mm. And then mix it. Add a little at a time maybe, and then add more as you go. Another thing that is optional is you could also add some roasted sesame oil. This is cham gireum. This is like a Korean crack. Okay, that's what I like to call it. Just add a little bit of that. It adds like such an umami, savory flavor. It's so good. Put it in everything, okay? Okay, mm. This is gonna be so good. Just mix it, mix it, mix it. I'm gonna add a little more cause I feel like I want that reddish, delicious color. Mm-hmm. Mm. So good. Oh. And then you can just eat it like this or as we've prepared, we can add some of that green onion and some, again, this is optional, some roasted sesame seeds. Again, this is like something Korean people always add. And that's it. There's meal number one. Literally, you can make this in like five minutes. It's so easy, so simple. Mm-hmm. All right, should we try this? Mm. I mean, I know it's gonna be good, but there you go. Look at that. You can add as much of the sauce as you want. I was about to blow on it. Mm. Mm-hmm. Oh my God. It's so good. Mm-hmm. Guys, that is so good. Look at that. Mm. It tastes so fresh. Another option, you can add like veggies in here. If you're feeling a little less lazy, add some cucumber, add some other veggies, but like on its own, it's so good. Oh my God. I can't stop. It's so good. Mm. That is good. That's first lazy recipe done. I just had that for lunch, I'm not gonna lie. That was so good. Oh, anyways, next lazy meal idea is going to involve my favorite plant-based protein. Char-fer. Mm-hmm, tofu. So I have here just like this tiny little thing of tofu left. Nice little one-person serving. I seriously make some version of this probably once a week at least. I'm just going to slice up some tofu. I recommend using extra firm, but you can also use just like medium firm if you want. Yeah, you can use whatever type of tofu. Just don't use like soft tofu because then it'll be too soft. So we're gonna just slice it up thinly. What I wanna do is I kinda wanna make sort of like a vegan version of egg rice, like Korean egg rice, not fried rice, okay? So this is basically where you take rice and then you like fry up an egg and then you mix everything with like soy sauce and sesame oil. Instead of that, we're using tofu instead of egg. It gives like a very similar experience. So we have here some sliced tofu. I have the pan heating up. Now I'm gonna add some oil. Now you can add as much oil as you want. I usually do a little oil, but if you really want like a crispy tofu, then you can add more oil, okay? So it's just up to you. For me, that should be enough. That's maybe like a teaspoon of oil. I'm just going to place the lovely, ooh, one of them broke. No hard, it's okay. The lovely tofu pieces on the pan. Now I know there's like tons of tofu recipes out there on the internet. So many different ways of making tofu. I've obviously shown you guys a few different ways here myself, but honestly, this is my go-to method. Super simple and easy, just pan fry. Ain't nobody got time. Marination, coating it with cornstarch. Like I do those things, but this is my go-to method because it's so simple and easy. It's almost like frying up an egg, right? It's like, all you have to do is slice up the tofu, fry it up with some oil, and then just season it. Cook this until each side is nicely golden and crispy. It does require a little bit of patience. Just let it cook, okay, with the oil. Give it a few minutes. I would say probably about, I don't know, maybe three to four minutes per side, depending on how strong your heat is. But yeah, it's up to you. It's not like you can get sick from eating tofu, so. All right, should we have a little look-see? Let's flip her over. Ooh, look at that, nice and golden. Flip her, and I'm just gonna get all that oil. Look at that. So again, we're just gonna let this sit and let this cook. I usually just flip her back and forth a few times. Yeah. So while the tofu is cooking, you can honestly run around, do the dishes, fold some laundry. It's not something that you need to watch over, okay? So as you can see, the tofu is nice and golden on both sides. At this point, you can season it just with salt if you want, but because we're making a vegan egg rice sort of thing, I'm actually gonna use some kala namak, also known as black salt. Now, if you miss egg as a vegan, this is your best friend. This is going to give everything a sulfuric, eggy taste. Ooh, on its own, it smells, ooh, smells questionable. But I love adding it onto pan-fried tofu because it really reminds me of egg. So I just add a little sprinkle of it on each piece of tofu and that's gonna also salt it, okay? So it's gonna give it that flavor, but it's also gonna give it that eggy flavor. So it really is gonna help make it taste like egg. And now we're ready to get the rice. Here's the rice. You do have to have cooked rice ready, okay? I know that's the one key thing. Us Koreans, because we all have rice cookers at home, if you don't have a rice cooker, I'll link one below for you. You need to get a rice cooker if you love rice. Because us Koreans, we all have rice cookers at home, we often make rice all the time. It's already, you know, it's always just kind of there. But one thing I do like to do as well as someone that is lazy but loves rice is every time I cook rice, I make extra. I always make extra and I keep it in the fridge if I feel like I'm gonna eat it within like, I don't know, the next four days. But if I feel like I'm not gonna eat it within the next four days, I can also freeze it. So you can also portion out your rice and then just put it in the freezer. And then whenever you're ready to eat it, you can just microwave it. So highly recommend doing that. But yeah, having a rice cooker is a game changer. Now, onto this rice. You can add the tofu first and then add everything or you could do what I'm doing. So I'm just going to put a little soy sauce on this rice and what did I tell you guys? Korean crack toasted sesame oil or roasted sesame oil. You don't need a lot, a little goes a long way. You can add as much as you want or as little as you want, okay, but a little goes a very long way and then we're just gonna give this a good mix. Even just this, like just this on its own, the rice with the soy sauce and the sesame oil, just that alone is so tasty. All right, oh, that alone just smells so good. And then on top of this, our lovely tofu, okay. Oh, it's gonna be so good. You can add the soy sauce on top of the tofu. The tofu, I don't know why I said it like that. There you go. Now, this is optional once again, but us Koreans, we do love the green onion. So we're gonna add a little bit of green onion for that pop of color as well. But again, totally optional. You don't have to add that, but it would add a little bit of freshness into this. And then you can eat this on its own. You can eat it with kimchi. You can add a little sriracha. And there you go, guys. That is how you make the delicious soy sauce rice with some tofu. Look at this goodness. You just give this a good mix. I'm just gonna grab a piece of tofu here, some rice. Give her a try. Lazy, vegan, Korean recipe number two. It's so good. Extra points if you take some roasted seaweed. You can find these in Korean supermarkets. This is another lazy hack. If you're feeling really lazy, just eat some seaweed with rice. It's all you need. Take a bite here. So good. Oh my God, that is so good. I literally just had lunch, and now I'm just like, give me more. One more bite, one more bite. I highly do recommend the seaweed. Makes it extra special, but even on its own, it's delicious. I think it'd be extra, extra delicious with a little kimchi, vegan kimchi. If you want a vegan kimchi recipe, I'll link my mom's recipe down below. No need to slave in the kitchen. These are delicious. Okay, I'm doing one more bite, because it's so good. So for the next meal idea, we're not even gonna need to cook anything. So I have this big bowl here, because we are going to be making lazy man's bibimbap. Okay, this is gonna be the laziest bibimbap you've probably ever seen. I used to do this when I was living in London, and I couldn't be bothered at all, but I craved bibimbap. So if you don't know what bibimbap is, it's basically Korean mixed rice. Bibim means mixed. Okay, bibimbap is mixed rice. Bap is rice. So basically, it's just rice with a mixture of different veggies, usually some kind of protein, and then you put gochujang, which I have right here, which is Korean red pepper paste, and then you mix everything together. It's a very popular Korean dish, but usually it's like a really long process, okay, because you cook all the veggies separately, you have to chop it up. It's like a lot of work and a lot of love. We're making it super lazy today. If you want some less lazy bibimbap recipes, I have some on my channel, so you can check it out, but this is gonna be the laziest way. All you need, first of all, frozen veggies, frozen mixed vegetables. Pick whatever frozen veggies you have. Because it's already chopped and already basically cooked, all you have to do is heat it up, okay? So you can heat it up on the stove if you want. Oh, this one has like beans in it. That's pretty nice. Okay, so this has broccoli, peppers, you know, whatever. Frozen veggies. I'm gonna heat this up in the microwave so that it defrosts, and then we can get to the next step. I've got my frozen veggies thawed out, and now you can add your rice. There you go. And one thing I recommend, as always, is adding some sort of plant-based protein. I did prepare on the side some chickpeas, okay? So I just opened up a can of chickpeas. I just drained it and I rinsed it. I'm just gonna add that in here. Get used to the idea of adding plant-based protein into every meal, even when it's like a lazy meal, because, you know, you make a lazy meal, and then if it's not filling, you're gonna be hungry in like 10 minutes, and then you're gonna have to eat something more. So like, there's no point in making the lazy meal if you're gonna make a meal that's not filling, you know what I'm saying? So I always like to make sure to add some sort of protein if I can to all my meals, because then I'm just gonna feel more satisfied, more full. Anyway, that's my protein round. Next, I'm gonna add some gochujang. So this is gochujang. If you like Korean cuisine, you're gonna have to familiarize yourself with gochujang. Korean red pepper paste. It's a very thick, spicy paste. You can buy it in any Korean supermarket, any Asian supermarket, probably. It is very good, has a lot of flavor on its own. I wouldn't say it's like super spicy, but obviously everyone has a different tolerance, and it is needed for everything Korean, okay? So we're just gonna add some of that paste in there, and then you also wanna add, of course, the Korean crack, roasted sesame oil. You don't need a lot, just a little bit is fine. Add that in there, and then you mix, okay? You mix it with a spoon, okay? Be patient here. And for the protein, again, you don't have to add chickpeas, that's just the one that I chose. You could also do like the pan-fried tofu that I did earlier. Pan-fried tofu in bibimbap is so good because normally with bibimbap, you get a fried egg on top. So the pan-fried tofu works really well as like a egg substitute. That's what I would do. But I wanted to show you guys a different type of protein to switch things up, just to show you that there are many different kinds of plant-based protein options available to you. So as you can see here, it's mixing really well. There you go, lazy meal number three. Look at that. So lazy man's bibimbap is complete. So quick, so easy. Let's have a bite, yay. Seriously, you're in a hurry, you want some bibimbap, make some of this. It's so good. You could also eat this with seaweed as well. It's gonna be extra delicious. So good. All right guys, so that is it for the lazy AF Korean meal ideas. I hope you guys enjoyed these ideas. If you have, let me know down below in the comments and of course, give this video a big thumbs up. Make sure you subscribe to my channel for more Korean recipes, vegan recipes, easy and cheap recipes. Just hit the subscribe button if you haven't already. Thank you so, so much for watching. I hope to see you guys in my next video. Bye.