Mung bean sprouts add refreshing crispness and sweetness to dishes. They can be found in most supermarkets these days. Choose sprouts with the plumpest, whitest stems. It’s best to use them right after buying them, but you can also refrigerate them for a couple of days. Wash just before using. You can also grow your own mung bean sprouts at home.

- Mung bean sprouts
- Korean name: 숙주나물
- Romanized: Sukjunamul
- Other Korean name(s): 녹두나물 (nokdunamul)
- Wikipedia entry for mung bean sprouts (sukjunamul)
My cookbooks
Which to get? Both are best sellers and either one is a good choice if you want to learn Korean home cooking. Maangchi's Real Korean Cooking has all the recipes for all the essential Korean pastes and sauces, but my second book Maangchi's Big Book of Korean Cooking has more recipes, more photos, and more variety.



Hello. I LOVE sukju namul, but when I bought these sprouts at the Korean market, they had a very strange chemical smell. Then I went back and bought more and those also had a smell. I bought them in the plastic package.
Is that normal? Is it something that goes away if you soak it or cook it? It didn’t seem to. I put it Shin Ramen and it still had a strange odor and couldn’t eat it.
Thank you so much! Love your website.
Tracy in Maryland
“Is that normal?” no, it’s not normal. I wouldn’t be happy about the chemical smell.