Bibimbap is a Korean dish, and it literally means 'mixed rice'. This is my (very un-authentic)  take on bibimbap, and I've made it into a refreshing, somewhat cold meal! Perhaps I should call it a bibimbap-inspired salad.

Here's the 'rice' I used. As the title of this post states, it's a 'bap-less' (rice-less) bibimbap! This looks like rice (actually more like porridge; my food processor thing didn't work very well for this) but actually it's jicama (turnip) rice! I pulsed jicama chunks in my food processor until it looks like rice. I made about 1 cup for this. Jicama has a mild, very slightly sweet taste with a bit of a crunch. Great for making rice-less sushi too! An alternative for real rice or jicama rice would be cauliflower rice, or caulirice. It's made using grated cauliflower florets. I prefer jicama for the raw taste isn't that strong.

For the toppings, I used raw vegetables -japanese cucumber, alfalfa, cherry tomatoes, yellow bell pepper-, blanched soy bean sprouts (I don't like them raw >< ) and coconutty tempeh - simply tempeh slices pan fried in a bit of coconut oil. I used one that has a stronger coconut scent; the brand is Parachute.

This will work with any vegetables you like! ☺

I assembled everything and topped it with some (store-bought) kimchi.

Then I added some bibimbap sauce (added more later) and mixed everything up! Next time though, I'll cut my vegetables thinner! :x

 

For the sauce, I roughly followed a recipe from Crazy Korean Cooking. I stirred together:

1 tbsp gochujang (red chili paste), 1 1/2 tsp maple syrup, 1 tsp sesame oil and a pinch of sesame seeds.

It was really fragrant because of the sesame oil, and it reminded me of a certain Korean restaurant that I used to work at... I used about half of the bibimbap sauce because it's quite salty!

 

Wouldn't mind making this simple dish again! ☺

Happy MoFo-ing everyone!!