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Korean Vegetarian Dishes

That Are Perfect For The Adventurous Eater's Next Meal

Quick Summary

Korean vegetarian dishes are quite underrated, given how the push for anything kimchi, crispy fried Korean chicken and instant ramen is a rage in Korean media. Beyond fermented Korean food, which dominates Korean food and dishes, these vegetarian foods are worth trying if you are a vegetarian yourself or want to try vegetarian food from the peninsula country. From the likes of army stew to a special kind of tteokbokki that features rice cakes, there are many vegetarian dishes that you can sample from Korean cuisine. 

Deep Dive

Korean cuisine gets typecast, thanks to Korean dramas and visuals on social media that show off the best of the country’s food, with the likes of a spicy and fermented banchan on one side, meat piled onto a tabletop grill (for Korean barbecue) on the other. What that reputation leaves out is the smattering of vegetarian Korean food, which is eaten in Buddhist temple kitchens, sold on rainy-day street stalls, to winter convenience-store counters. While many meat-heavy dishes can be made vegetarian, most of these dishes on this list have always been vegetarian, and centre around tofu, rice cakes, red beans, soy milk and batter, each tied to a specific moment in the Korean day, season or calendar. So, here are some traditional Korean vegetarian dishes you should know and try, what they're made of, and when Koreans tend to prepare them.

An Overview Of Some Vegetarian Korean Dishes

1. Dubu Jorim

Firm tofu is sliced into steak-like pieces, pan-seared until golden, then braised in a sauce of soy sauce, gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes), garlic and a little sugar, often finished with sesame oil and scallions. It's a banchan, which is one of the small side dishes that accompany almost every Korean meal. It is also substantial enough to double as a quick lunch or dinner over rice. The dish is savoury, with a spicy and sweet taste to it from the chilli sauce and the tofu’s crisp, browned edges giving way to a soft, custardy centre.

2. Pajeon

When it rains in India, people scramble to get the pakoras started, and in Korea, when the rain showers happen, locals crave pajeon. This vegetarian Korean food is a scallion pancake that was popularised by the K-drama Bon Appétit, Your Majesty, where the royal head chef prepares it during a downpour to win over an elusive inventor. The dish is made from a simple flour-and-water batter loaded with scallions and pan-fried into a large, crisp and flat round. In its vegetarian form, it skips the seafood or meat some versions include and lets the scallions carry the dish, though mixed vegetables are just as common.

3. Vegetarian Army Stew

Budae jjigae, or ‘army base stew’, has a complicated history, which originated after the Korean War, when Koreans stretched surplus American rations like Spam and hot dogs into a spicy communal stew. The vegetarian version keeps the same recipe, but skips the meat and builds its umami from plant sources like browned mushrooms (shiitake in particular), along with tofu, kimchi and a gochujang-based broth, finished with a handful of instant noodles dropped in at the table. So you could treat this vegetarian Korean food as a vegetarian Korean ramen dish too, but just make sure to check the pack of noodles and the rest of the packaged ingredients to rule out any non-vegetarian elements. This hot-pot dish is meant for sharing and is usually the centrepiece of a dinner rather than a side. The broth is spicy and deeply savoury, closer to a stew than a soup, with the mushrooms giving it the same richness the original gets from meat.

4. Danpatjuk

This vegetarian Korean food is a sweet red bean porridge with a smooth and velvety mouthfeel and a mildly sweet taste, eaten warm. It is usually served with small glutinous rice balls called saealsim (meaning bird's eggs) folded in. It's the sweet counterpart to the savoury patjuk, traditionally eaten on dongji, the winter solstice, with the belief that the colour of the red beans wards off bad luck. The beans are simmered until soft, then mashed and strained for a silky texture, with sugar added at the end. The rice balls are chewy and a nice contrast to the smooth porridge.

5. Hoppang

What was a way to sell bread through Korea's slow winter season in 1971, introduced by a South Korean food and baking company, became a cultural fixture soon after. Hoppang is a steamed bun sold hot, out of cylindrical steamer cabinets at convenience stores across the country, and while it now comes in sweet potato, pizza and vegetable fillings, the original and most iconic version is filled with sweetened red bean paste. This sweet bun is eaten on the walk to school or work, or picked up on a cold evening. Its texture is soft and pillowy, almost cloud-like, and tearing it open releases a burst of steam before you get to the smooth, mildly sweet filling

6. Gireum Tteokbokki

Most people picture tteokbokki as rice cakes drenched in red gochujang sauce, but gireum tteokbokki takes a different route. ‘Gireum’ means oil, and here the rice cakes are boiled briefly, tossed in a marinade of either a soy-sauce-and-sugar mix or a gochugaru version, and then pan-fried until the outside caramelises and turns glossy. Made with the soy marinade alone, it's a non-spicy tteokbokki, closer in spirit to the royal-court style ganjang tteokbokki than the fiery street-stall version. Like the ones you see on K-dramas, this one too is a street snack staple, associated with market stalls like Seoul's Tongin Market.

7. Kongguksu

Cold noodle dishes are often not the highlight when it comes to Korean noodle dishes, so here’s kongguksu, which has a chilled, creamy base made from blended soy milk, poured cold over wheat noodles and topped with julienned cucumber, sometimes tomato or a boiled egg. Its roots are widely traced to Buddhist temple cuisine, where vegetarian, plant-based eating was the norm. This vegetarian Korean food, thanks to its chilled nature, is a warm-weather dish, eaten as a cooling lunch when Seoul's summer heat and humidity make hot soup unappealing. Ice cubes are often dropped straight into the bowl to keep it properly chilled through the meal.

Delicious Korean Vegetarian Dishes 

Vegetarian Korean food might not be as inherant like India has many specific vegetarian dishes, but there are quite a few of them that are perfect for those who follow a vegetarian diet. Just make sure you read up on the ingredients, which might be unfamiliar, as many sauces and pastes might use seafood in them, like kimchi, so you are not in for a bad surprise later.