Sigeumchi-namul is a Korean side dish (banchan) made of blanched spinach seasoned with soy sauce, garlic, and toasted sesame oil. The spinach is only slightly cooked, leaving it a little crispy, but still soft and tasty. Because it’s so easy to make and so delicious, it’s a very popular and common side dish among Koreans. For many Koreans an easy, simple everyday meal consists of rice, kimchi, a stew (often doenjang-jjigae), kongnamul-muchim (a bean sprout side dish), and sigeumchi-namul.
It’s on our everyday table and also served at special occasions, family gatherings, BBQ parties—basically anywhere Koreans are gathering with food, sigeumchi-namul is there and among the most popular dishes, often paired with kongnamul-muchim, another favorite.
In this recipe you can replace spinach with bok choy or arugula or experiment with something new if you want. I had a potluck party with my readers a few years ago, and one of them brought his own sigeumchi-namul made with an ingredient I couldn’t recognize. I asked him and he told me it was tender kale! Blanched and prepared like sigeumchi-namul, it was so delicious!
I hope you enjoy this recipe and the remade HD video. Let me know if you make it. If you try your own experiments, let me know in the comments!
Ingredients
- 8 ounces spinach, cleaned and washed
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 green onion, chopped
- 1½ teaspoon soy sauce
- 1½ teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- 2 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
- silgochu (Korean dried shredded red pepper), optional
Directions
- Boil 8 to 10 cups of water in a large pot.
- Blanch the spinach for 30 seconds to 1 minute with lid off, stirring with a wooden spoon.
- Strain the spinach and rinse in cold water a couple of times to remove any residual dirt.
- Squeeze out excess water and cut a few times into bite size pieces.
- Mix the spinach with garlic, green onion, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, and sesame seeds in a mixing bowl by hand.
- Transfer to a bowl or plate and garnish with silgochu, if used.
- Serve with rice.
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I tried this recipe with swiss chard instead of spinach. The swiss chard grows like a weed in my yard! It tasted great! I was worried it would be a bit bitter, as chard can have a bitter quality. But it was very similar to the spinach namul. The chard just had a very slight peppery spice to it, not overwhelming at all. My husband also liked it!
love ur site….. thanks for all those recipe….
I think tonight was my first attempt at making korean food in 15 years. I use to make a mean kimchi bokumbab.
I made your spinach dish today. It taste pretty good.
I actually called my mom today to find out how to make it and pretty much your recipe was like my moms.
Initially, I was a little concern that the spinach won’t last more than 24hours but my mom says it should be ok for 3-4 days. What I love about korean food is the banchan. I miss raiding my moms fridge to find anything i can eat with rice.
Looking forward to trying more recipes in the future.
Vancouver Stephen
Stephen
wow, your mom and I are your good cooking instructors now.
Whatever you make, it should be delicious! : )
More banchan(side dishes) recipes are posted. Thank you!
Hi Maangchi,
Love your site. Had a question for you on the spinach side dish. How much water do you squeeze out of the spinach and what kind of sesame oil do you use? Is it a special Korean brand? My son loves this dish at Korean restaurants, but when I tried to make it, he said it wasn’t the same. I think it might be because I use a Chinese kind of sesame oil. What do you think? I’m trying your mandoo next. Thanks!
don’t squeeze too much. Just squeeze slightly. I don’t have any particular brand for sesame oil. Chinese sesame oil is good, too. Check the ingredients section.
hi there, i love ur recipes just that i haven’t got a chance to try to make it. altho i laid my eyes on a dish that i have no idea what’s the name of it and how to make it. can you help me with this ?? thanks a lot
here are the picture of the dish. it’s food on skewer !!
http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa230/nemo_lovely2002/ukt.jpg
It is called “sanjuk” in Korean which is skewered and cooked on the pan. The ingredients are usually used carrot strips, green onions, mushrooms, marinated beef, and artificial crab meat. The recipe will be posted someday in the future. Thank you!
Elaine,
no, I don’t, but it sounds like an interesting dish!
I have tried spinach salad with with peanut sauce at a Japanese Restaurant, do you happen to have the recipe?
Thanks
Karean,
Welcome to my website!
yes, I posted soybean side dishes.
https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/kimchi-chigae-kongnamool
Thank you for your interest in my recipes!
Years ago I met a woman named, September. I used to take her vegetables for use in her restaurant, as my garden always produces more than I can use and give away. She loved to teach me her recipes. I am making Nakji Bokum for my boy friend tonight and haven’t had it for over 8 years. I am delighted with your website. I also want to make the K’ong Na-Mul but couldn’t find the recipe here. The bean sprout side dish??? Will use the spinach side dish, green onion, black bean, anchovie, and need a less spicy; the bean sprout? If you have time, today, would you direct me? Thank you for this wonderful website. As you know how much prep time this all takes, I had best get to it. xxoo k
Maria,I’m very glad to hear that you are planning to surprise your parents with your Korean food! I’m looking forward to your story about your parents’ reaction! I’m sure they will be proud of you!
Hi Maangchi,
I grew up eating this almost all the time in my household (my mom only cooked Korean food)! Yummmm.
When I moved out of my parent’s house, they would always bring me some kind of ban chan or kimchee whenever they could visit. They worried I was only eating fast food, and would forget the tastes of my childhood.
Well now, I think I might surprise them and make some banchan for them to take back with them!!! I think my parents would be both surprised and pleased that I am keeping my culture close to my heart (and mouth haha).
Thank you for your recipe and video!!! My parents are coming to see me soon, and I am going to use your recipes!!!
Hi Maangchi ,
Thanks a lot,
Your site is very helpful ..
Before I struggled cooking korean food bymyself.
But now everyday its very easy to cook w/ those fantastic menu that you had ..an vedeos..
God Bless You~~
tina,
Yes, you can keep your soybean sprout side dish (kongnamul muchim) in the refrigerator for 1 -2 days?
Thank you !
hi, its me again tina, i have only one question, if i make the kungnamul side dish, can i storage that to the refrigerator?and how long does it good to eat? thanks!
meep.au,
Spinach side dish has to be eaten in a day (24 hours). It goes bad easily even though you keep in the refrigerator. Sujebi(flour dough soup) recipe will be posted soon. Thank you!
hi maangchi
thanks for sharing your awesome recipes with us all! just a question – how long does this spinach side dish usually keep for? and also, could you please post a recipe for 수제비? i really love this dish, but no korean restaurants in the city where i live serve it :(
Hi Maangchi-
Delicious! Check out my sigumchi here:
http://flickr.com/photos/jc-dc/2858201005/in/photostream/
I also made a cucumber side dish (oi namul?) and guessed the ingredients:
http://flickr.com/photos/jc-dc/2859027178/in/photostream/
We ate these side dishes and also gamja jorim with our tonkatsu dinner!
http://flickr.com/photos/jc-dc/2858202403/in/photostream/
Thank you for your delicious recipes
Jeannie
subeedoo,
tofu in spinach side dish? It’s a little strange for me, but who would care as long as it’s tasty! : )
Hi,
I have tried this in a Korean restaurant and they put bits of soft tofu in this too!!! It is soooo good!!!
Dadai Rubia,
Thank you!
Hi Maangchi.I’m sure this is another favorite side dish again.The Kimchi that I made last week is very good.Instead of using fresh oyster, I used oyster sauce, and it turned out just perfect.Now I keep checking your site for new recipe.Thank you for your hardwork in posting these good recipes.Blessings
Hi,Bruce,
I use just regular sesame oil sold at a korean grocery store. And I don’t use sugar in spinach side dish. Thanks!
Maangchi,
I have two questions about this dish. First, you use sesame oil, but I don’t know if you mean regular sesame oil or the more flavorful toasted sesame oil. Second question, I’ve seen similar spinach side dishes with sugar. Do you use sugar? Thank you.
Bruce
Thanks for the recipe. Looking forward to watching all your other new videos.
ruth
Hi, Ruth
I’m glad that your spinach dish turned out good. I think you like cooking. The koren side dishes you mention such as galic stems, egg plant, Tofu, and apple salad are all healthy food.
Yes, I will post it those side dish videos someday. Here is the recipe for garlic stems
* Garlic stem side dish:
1.Rinse and cut them into about 7
cm in length.
2.Put them in a pan and sautee
with a littl vegetable oil
until they are cooked.
3.Add soy sauce,sugar,sesame oil
and seeds.
Thank you for your interest in my cooking recipes.
Thanks alot, I enjoy watching your video very much. I followed your instructions and it was such a success, it tastes exactly like those from the korean restaurant. There’s one korean restaurant here that makes really tasty side dishes, including eggplant, apple salad, garlic stem and many more. Maangchi, can you kindly teach me how to make them please. And also tofu side dish which I used to eat from a korean bbq restaurant when I was a kid. This tofu side dish is not hot or spicy. There’s no chilli there, sort of dry but full of flavour. Will you kindly make videos on these side dishes please? Many thanks.
ruth
Hi, Lillian,
For bibimbab, as you know, we usually place colorful vegetables on top of rice in a big bowl.
Spinach, beansprout(called Kongnaamool), Do raaji(root and the color is white), Go saari(mountain edible fern and its color is brown), carot strips, mushrooms, and sunny side up egg on top, plus beef strips which is up to your taste.
We don’t use fish cake for bibimbab. But who would care if you want! : )
I should make real traditional bibimbab someday for YouTube, but as you hear that, some ingredients are not easy to find unless you have a korean grocery near your house.
Thanks for your interest in my cooking video.
Take care,
Hi Maangchi,
Thanks for another food video. As the weather gets cooler there’s a lot of delicious spinach around, so I’m glad to have this recipe. Could you list the other things that go on bibim bap? I think there’s eggs and fish cake and stuff…what else?
agasuka,
Your spinach dish will look great and taste delicious. Did you post the picture on your blog?
I made it today!
The raw garlic is hot in mouth.
I like it.
Very surprising that after the squeeze, the big bunch of spinach shrinked into the size of palm.
Thanks,Deborah,
Have a nice day!
i LOVE spinach!! that was a fantastic side dish! :)
hi,andreas,
Yeah,it’s very simple dish. When you make “bibim bab”(mixed rice with a variety of vegetables and hot sauce), this spinach is one of vegetable ingredients.
Thank you for your comment as always.
Simple but lovely side dish. I will try it. I really fancy all the small plates with side dishes when I’m eating in a Korean restaurant: These are half the fun for me! Thank you.