Korean mung bean pancakes, called bindaetteok, are a delicious, savory, irresistible meal in themselves. Packed with ingredients: ground mung beans, rice, kimchi, pork, vegetables, egg, and full of seasonings, they are hearty and unforgettable. I make the pancakes in big batches and keep the leftovers in the freezer, wrapping them individually in plastic wrap and then putting the wrapped pancakes into a zipper-lock bag. Whenever I want one or two as a quick meal, I thaw them out and pan fry them with a few drops of vegetable oil.
Korean pancakes are an essential part of Korean cuisine, and I knew that when I wrote Real Korean Cooking I needed a whole chapter devoted to them. Between my book and my website I’ve still barely begun to post all the recipes for the many varieties of Korean pancakes!
When I was in university, me and my friends used to go to the bindaetteok place and have a pancake with makgeolli. Those two really go well together! And both are pretty filling, so in the course of eating and drinking together we consumed a complete, well-rounded meal.
This recipe is the same one in my cookbook, and the same one I’ve been using for years and years. I learned it from my friend whose parents-in-law were born in North Korea and taught her their local version of this dish. Complete credit for this goes to my friend in Korea who first showed it to me. As her parents-in-law shared it with her, I share it with you.
The fernbrake (gosari) is traditionally foraged in the wild, but can be found these days in most Korean supermarkets. It can take some some effort to find but really adds an earthy dimension to this dish that makes it unique. But if you can’t find it, skip it.
Enjoy the recipe!
Ingredients
Makes 6 pancakes
- 1 cup dried skinned mung beans
- ¼ cup sweet rice (glutinous rice: chapssal in Korean)
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 4 ounces ground pork
- 4 ounces (about ¾ cup) well-fermented napa cabbage kimchi, chopped
- 4 ounces (about 1 cup) fresh or soaked and drained fernbrake (gosari)
- 6 ounces (about 2½ cups) mung bean sprouts), washed and drained
- 1 large egg
- 4 green onions chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
- Silgochu (shredded dried hot pepper) for garnish, optional
- vegetable oil
Directions
- Combine the skinned mung beans and sweet rice in a large bowl, rinse and drain in cold water a couple of times. Cover with water, and soak overnight (8 hours). Drain. You should have about 2¾ cups of beans and rice.
- Combine the soy sauce and vinegar in a small bowl to make the dipping sauce. Set aside.
- Combine the bean and rice mixture and ¾ cup water in the workbowl of a food processor and grind until it’s creamy (1 to 2 minutes). Transfer to a large bowl.
- Add kimchi, green onion, garlic, gosari, mung bean sprouts, pork, egg, kosher salt, ground black pepper, and toasted sesame oil. Mix well.
- Heat a skillet over medium high heat. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable oil and swirl it around to coat the bottom of the pan.
- Add about 1 cup of batter. Spread with the back of a spoon to make a nice 6-inch round pancake. Cook until the bottom turns light golden brown and crunchy, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Turn it over and cook until the second side turns light golden brown, another 2 minutes. Turn it over once more and cook another 2 minutes on the first side. Add more vegetable oil to the pan if needed.
- Transfer the pancake to a large plate. Garnish with silgochu (if used). Repeat with the remaining batter.
- Serve immediately with the dipping sauce on the side.
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This savoury pancake dish was my dad’s favorite. I think I’ll make these once a year. Thank you, Maangchi :D
The picture seems unable to be uploaded here today..
Thank you for letting me know! I investigated with my web host and I think it’s fixed now. If you ever see any more problems, please email me about it.
Thanks again!
Hello,this is Viv. I m wondering if I can freeze my bindaetok after mixing all the ingredients and use them a week later? Thanks.
You can freeze cooked bindaetteok.
I made vegetarian korean mung bean pancake at home… I just skipped the meat and used the rest of your recipe to make these…delicious! Ate the mountain vegetable gosari for the first time! Yummy!
I used pulmuone’s vegan napa cabbage kimchi to make these pancakes…yummy!
Your vegetarian bindaetteok looks very nutritious and delicious!
Hello! I have been wanting to make this for my kids but unfortunately my son is allergic to eggs and sesame. Can I use an egg replacer (like Bob Mill’s Egg replacer or flax seed “egg”) and olive oil for this recipe? I’ve used several of you me other recipes and we LOVE them, but not anything that requires egg. Thank you!!
I have made this with flaxseed egg and it worked well.
Great, thank you! I just now saw this reply. I don’t use flax seed eggs often, how do you prep/use them?
Eggs are used for binding the ingredients but since in this recipe split yellow mung-beans and rice batter is used, the batter will hold up just fine..won’t scatter so you can skip egg and the pancake will still turn out savoury Or you can try using the vegan egg yolk/yellow “just egg” liquid..product name is “Just Egg”. I almost always skip eggs unless a dish does not have other ingredients as much Or to give a dish an aesthetic look…
Decided to try making this for the lst time. It was great! It made seven big pancakes!
I had two for lunch/dinner. I switched to a pescatarian diet 5 months ago, but it was so good without any meat!
감사합니다!
Delicious!
This was my first creation from Maangchi’s website! Turned out fine, a little raw in the middle in some of my bindaetteok. Next time I”l do smaller bindaetteok cooked individually.
Couldn’t find fernbrake anywhere (I’m so curious to taste it!). The search continues.
Thank you, Maangchi!!!
I was only able to buy an 8lb bag of sweet rice so I have A LOT left over! Curious to know how people like to use this ingredient.
Hello Maangchi!
I was wondering if it was possible to use fresher kimchi instead..? I had already softened my gosari and when I did that I forgot that my kimchi were not well fermented kimchi, I just made them yesterday…
Is there anything I can add to make the flavour more “deep” like well fermented kimchi…?
Thank you!
Hi Maangchi,
Can I substitue the mung bean and glutinous rice with mung bean flour and glutinous rice flour instead?
Yes, you can.
Is it still the same ratio? 1/4 cup glutonous rice flour with 1 cup of mung bean flour?
hi maangchi!! i’m really wanting to make this but i don’t eat meat – do you think it would still be delicious without the pork? i was considering mushrooms for savoury flavour; and maybe some firm tofu for protein? i’m unsure, i might play around and post my results – some of my favourite veg substitutions have come from the comments sections of your recipes!
I’ve been wanting to try these for a long time. I couldn’t find the skinned Mung beans here so I ordered them from Amazon. Finally made the pancakes tonight, perfect for night shift snack
It looks amazing!
If i can’t find the gosari, can i add some sliced shiitake mushrooms? And do you think chicken mince will work as well? As the pork here is pretty tough and rubbery even with the loins
Yes, sliced shiitake mushroom and minced chicken meat sounds good!
Spectacular recipe! I made these for a Korean friend of mine and she got very emotional….said her grandmother used to make them. There is a little learning curve, but once you figure it out and get the stove temp right, you can make them quickly. I also did not have sweet rice, so I substituted Italian Arborio rice (used for risotto). Came out perfectly, and after soaking all night ground to a paste with the mung beans with no problems. I will be making these regularly!
I’m very happy to hear that your Korean friend was impressed by your homemade bindaetteok! Happy cooking!
Omg!! These are absolutely fantastic!!! The taste and texture is out of this world!! My husband absolutely loved them!! I will definitely make another batch and make extra to freeze!! This is mid-week meal game changer!!
Thank you so so much for sharing this with me!! I love watching your show!! Thank you for inspiring!! Magical!!
It looks wonderful! I’m glad you enjoyed this recipe!
OMG I made this last night and I couldn’t believe how delicious it was… so fresh tasting! And very healthy. I doubled the recipe. My only advice? Maybe have 3 skillets working at the same time cause it’s time consuming doing 1 at a time LOL (especially when you make a double recipe)! Thanks for another awesome recipe, Maangchi! I know that I’ll be making this many times again in the future… so good.
I made a sauce with soy sauce, vinegar, mirin, honey, sesame seeds, and sesame oil. DELICOUS!
Yes, it takes some time cook bindaetteok. : ) I also use my 2 burners at the same time when I make bindaetteok!
In the dark ages when I started cooking Korean ;-), I spent quite some time to find a reliable non-stick pan both flat and large enough to hold several bindaetteok.
But then, there was an electric teriyaki-grill on sale! And that made things much easier.
For bbq at the table, I prefer my gas-burners – but if the smoke-alarms we will get soon are too sensitive, I’ll use the teriyaki-grill again for that, too…
Bye, Sanne.
I’m making thanksgiving dinner tomorrow and am going to be making these for sure. None of the Korean grocery stores had any gosari though, so I think I’m going to substitute mushrooms instead :(
Hi, Maangchi!
I finally made this dish yesterday as part of my prep day. It was so good even though i could’ve pan fried it longer to make it more crispy and golden color but the most important thing was the taste. OMG it was so great i couldn’t understand why i put off making it. I posted a pic of it on my instagram @cemilan_enak.
Thanks so much for the awesome recipes
Hi maangchi! I would love to know directions for pressure cooking the gosari! I have an electric pressure cooker (instant pot) I bought not too long ago and would love to know how long to cook the gosari in there. Thank you! Love all your recipes :)
That’s right. If you use a pressure cooker, you can make dried gosari tender very quickly and easily. I boil my gosari with lots of water for 30 minutes in my pressure cooker.
Thank you maangchi! I pressure cooked the gosari for 30 mins and it was soft and tender. I made this recipe yesterday and everyone loved it. Thank you!!!
Awesome news!
Hi Maangchi,
Thanks for the great recipe ! May I know your recipe for its dipping sauce ? :)
Yes, it’s very simple. Mix 2 tablespoons soy sauce and 1 tablespoon vinegar. Sprinkle with sesame seeds if you want.
Hi Maangchi!
Is it possible to use over fermented kimchi in this recipe? I mean kimchi that’s too sour to eat. Apparently I found some in the back of my fridge as I was cleaning it out.
thanks,
Ima
Hi Ima,
Yes, you still can use very sour kimchi to make bindaetteok. If it’s too sour, you can rinse it out in cold water before using it.
I love your recipes and I have been wondering as these are traditional how was this done without the food proccesser?
With mortar and pestle.
Bye, Sanne.
I asked the asian grocery close to my home to order gosari! I am so excited! I can’t wait to try those mung bean pancakes! Thanks to you and your great recipe I make doenjang jjigae and kimchi soondubu at least twice a week! My boyfriend is a happy man and he really likes to try the korean food I make (Bossam, Japchae, Kimchi, Kimchi-jeon, gajinamu, etc etc)!! :D
ps: Mr. Dried Anchovy is now my new bestfriend!
haha, you are so passionate about cooking, plus you are so funny! You have a nice boyfriend and non-human best friends at home. It’s great you are trying not to skip any important ingredient to make perfect bindaetteok. Good luck with your Korean cooking!
I have loved Korean food since I was a little girl! My best friend growing up was Korean and I would always help her and her mother cook. I started watching your videos and was so happy to be able to learn how to make the food I had growing up. I made these mung bean pancakes tonight and it made me so happy!!!! Thank you so much for all of these amazing recipes; now I need to buy your cookbook!
Thank you for sharing the touching story about your Korean friend and her mom. You never forgot about the beautiful cooking experience at your friend’s house. The bindaetteok you made looks absolutely delicious and beautiful! Do you still keep in touch with them?
Made my Mung bean pancake today, as I do not have kimchi, sweet rice and fernbrake, I add in lots of water dropwort, it taste nice, I can’t stop eating during cooking, I will make again when I made my own kimchi.
My pancake breaks away during frying, I had to coat a thin layer of flour to make it stick together… :(
Anyway, love your video, hope to see more cooking! Thank you!
It looks good to me! Next time you make this again, follow the recipe and the ingredients closely. Sweet rice (glutinous rice) will make the batter stick together and kimchi gives unskippable flavor.
Thanks Maangchi for your advise, I definitely will make again when I’ve made my own kimchi and of cause to buy some sweet rice. :)
Hi Maangchi, thanks for the recipe.
Made it for today breakfast. I opted mushroom for gosari as per your advise. In here, it quite impossible to find gosari.
However, the taste is great. I love it.
Yum! I see lots of mung bean sprouts in it! : )
Hi Maangchi,
Thank you so much for your recipes. I made the mung bean pancake tonight and it is simply delicious!!! This pancake is different from your other pancake videos because you made it from mung bean which is a healthier version.
The first video that I learned from you was the “vegetable pancake”, it was so delicious that I started to learn Korean food from you. I had even made my own kimchi from your video. My family and many of my colleagues love to taste your recipes!:-).
Your bindaetteok looks like mine! : ) “My family and many of my colleagues love to taste your recipes!” You have been sharing your delicious homemade Korean dishes with your family and your colleagues! Cheers!
Dear Maangchi,
I couldn’t find Gosari seaweed at our Korean grocery stores in Singapore. Can I use other seaweed instead?
Hi Joanna,
You got the wrong translation there: Gosari grows in the woods: fiddlehead fern, fiddleheads or fiddlehead greens – juécài (蕨菜) in Chinese!
Bye, Sanne.
Yes, as sanne says, gosari is from the mountains. More info is here: https://www.maangchi.com/ingredient/mung-bean-sprouts
If you can’t find it, you can use some mushrooms, it will give a good texture.
Hi Maangchi!
Thank you so much for all of your delicious recipes! I made these Mung Bean Pancakes last night and they were absolutely delicious! I wish I had remembered to take pictures before I put the leftovers in the freezer. :) The only ingredient I omitted was the fernbrake because the smell was too strong for me while it was in the pressure cooker.
My family is from Lebanon and also the Dominican Republic and we all love to test and taste your recipes! Thank you for making them so fun and easy to follow! I look forward to each of your new recipes! ♥
Yes, I agree, the smell of boiling gosari is not that fancy! : ) But I never skip it, because it adds a unique texture to bindaetteok. It’s an acquired taste.
I’m so impressed by your family and their openness to different cuisines!
Thank you for providing the solution to my menu problem. Today I found out my friends are coming from California to visit NYC in two weeks. They are renting a place with a kitchen so, as they told me, “You can come cook all sorts of neat things for us”. So now I know the perfect “neat thing” to cook for them! I sure hope we bump into you while we are shopping for ingredients!
I guess you are pretty popular among your friends for your Korean cooking. I’m so proud of you! Good luck with your Korean cooking!