Hello everybody!
I’m excited to share my recipe for tuna gimbap (chamchi-gimbap: 참치김밥) with you today. The flaky, salty, and sweet tuna tastes delightful and goes well with rice and the other fillings: avocado, yellow pickled radish, and crab sticks. The various tastes and textures make for a lot of variety in one bite!
I’ve been making tuna gimbap this way for a long time. All my friends and family loved this gimbap so it was one of the first recipes I posted to YouTube in 2007. Since then I’ve refined the recipe a bit and I remade the video in HD to share with you all.
Enjoy the recipe and if you like gimbap check out some of my other gimbap recipes, too!
Ingredients
Makes 4 rolls (Serves 2 to 4)
For rice:
- 4 cups freshly made white fluffy rice
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon white or apple vinegar
For tuna filling:
- 1 (5-ounce) can of tuna, preferably oil-packed
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon honey (or sugar), optional
For gimbap:
- 4 artificial crab sticks
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 4 strips (about ½ inch thick) of danmuji (yellow pickled radish)
- 1 or 2 avocados
- ½ lemon
- 4 sheets of gim (seaweed paper), toasted
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
Directions
Prepare the rice:
- Put the freshly made steamy rice into a large bowl. Add salt and vinegar and gently fold it in with a rice scoop or a wooden spoon.
- Set aside and let the rice cool down.
Prepare the tuna:
- Heat a small pan over medium high heat. Add the tuna, garlic, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, soy sauce, and ground black pepper.
- Stir the mixture for about 2 minutes with a wooden spoon until the tuna turns a little flaky. Remove from the heat.
- Stir in the honey (or sugar) if you use. Set aside.
Prepare the artificial crab sticks:
- Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Swirl the skillet around so the oil evenly coats it.
- Add the crab sticks, white side down. Cook for about 1 minute until the bottoms turn soft and light brown.
- Turn them over with a spatula and cook for another 30 seconds.
- Remove from the heat and transfer to a large platter.
Prepare the danmuji (yellow pickled radish) and avocado:
- Put the 4 strips of danmuji on the platter, next to the crab sticks.
- Cut the avocado in half lengthwise and remove the seed. Slice it lengthwise while it’s still in its shell.
- Scoop the slices out with a large spoon and transfer them to the platter. Squeeze the lemon over the avocado to prevent it from going brown.
Roll the gimbap:
- Divide the rice into 4 portions. Place a sheet of gim on a gimbal (a bamboo mat for making gimbap), with the shiny side down. Evenly spread 1 portion of rice over the gim, leaving a 1-inch margin uncovered along the top edge.
- Divide the tuna mixture into 4 portions. Spread one portion across the middle of the rice, in a strip lengthwise. Add a strip of danmuji, some avocado, and a crab stick.
- Use both hands to pick up the bottom edge of the mat. Use it to roll the gim up and over the fillings so the rice surrounds them.
- Squeeze the mat gently and then continue rolling the gim in the mat, squeezing the mat regularly to get a tight roll.
- Unroll the mat and remove the roll from the mat. Set the roll aside, with the seam down.
- Repeat with the remaining ingredients to make 3 more rolls.
- Gently brush the rest of the 2 teaspoons sesame oil over the rolls by hand or with a basting brush.
- Sprinkle the sesame seeds over top.
- Cut each roll into ⅓ to ½-inch slices with a sharp knife. For easier slicing, wipe your knife with a wet paper towel (or kitchen cloth) as you go.
Serve:
Arrange the slices on a plate or pack in a lunchbox. The gimbap will keep for several hours at room temperature.
Maangchi's Amazon picks for this recipe
It's always best to buy Korean items at your local Korean grocery store, but I know that's not always possible so I chose these products on Amazon that are good quality. See more about how these items were chosen.
![[OTTOGI] Delicious COOKED RICE...](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41zYdZ3EWJL._SL160_.jpg)
samita,
I usually make right amount of the rice with sauce so I never have leftover. Fresh rice mixed with sauce is the best. But you have leftover rice, so reheating it next day sounds good. You can make rice balls and roll them onto the mixture of kim (laver) and sesame seeds powder. Invent your own rice balls! It’s called Joo meok bap (주먹밥)in Korean.
Maangchi,
What can you do with the extra left over sushi rice after making kimbap? I have about 2 cups of rice that is mixed with sauce. Can I reheat in microwave and use it next day to make some more kimbap ? If not can it be used in any other way.
Thanks,
Annie,
Thanks for letting me know about your successful Korean cooking!
samita,
yeah, when you cook with your family members, it will be more fun!
Maangchi,
I make kimbap today. I laid a platter with all the fillings and everyone chose what they wanted. Everyone in my family had fun trying their hands rolling the kimbap. Thank you so much for your video. It was a great help watching the video while rolling. I am proud to say none of them turned into salad !!!
Thanks.
thank you for such a wonderful site! I have just made your tuna kimbap and my husband and I LOVED them. It reminds of us the kimbap we had in Korea. I have made your jjajungmyun(a household fav), vegetable pancakes, and bimbimbap. Your recipes are so delicious and your videos are so great to learn from. Keep up the good work! I look forward to learning more!
Cat,
hmm, you make me think about why I put some sesame oil on it.
1 to keep the surface of laver shiny
2. not to be soggy
3. sesame oil gives good flavor.
Why did you place sesame oil on the roll at the end? I didn’t quite catch the reason for it. Thank you in advanced.
Stormy,
My answer is here: https://www.maangchi.com/talk/topic/is-day-old-refrigerated-kimbab-rice-still-good
How about making bibimbap?
Bibimbap is a very good dish to share with many people and it’s delicious.
You can prepare all vegetables and keep them in the refrigerator in advance. Be sure to make rice just before serving it. When you serve it, take out all cold vegetables and reheat them using a microwave oven.
My bibimbap recipe is here:
https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/bibimbap
Good luck with your successful Korean cooking project! : )
I am a Family & Consumer Sciences teacher and as part of a project that several teachers and myself are doing, I am having a Korean Dinner. It is served before the MASH play. I will be serving about 80 people. I have two questions, if you have time to answer them for me please. Can kimbap be made ahead of time? Do you have any other easy make ahead dishes that would be a good match for our Korean dinner? Thanks so much for the help. I will be finalizing my grocery list and going shopping this weekend, so I really need an answer pretty fast. Thank you and Thank you some more.
Rachel,
yes, of course you must use short grain rice (rice for sushi)that sticks together well when you make kimbap.
Hi, I was wondering.
Do I have to use the sushi rice(the sticky kind) while making this or can I just use any kind of rice?
Thanks.
lovekoreanfood,
I’m glad to hear that! Wonderful!
I made this this with my friends last weekend and they loved it.. especially the tuna, it is delicious!
마리
I don’t like to use 스팸 in my kimbap, but if you want, do it. You can add cucumber,eggs, fish cake, artificial crab…etc. Yes, sushi rice must be used.
and by the way how do you know your rice is the right kind for kimbap? i have short grain rice. but not sure its sushi rice? any particular brand you recommend?
hi maangchi, i wanted to make kimbap but with the spam looking thing? im told this is called ham for kimbap? not sure. do you know what looks like? also, what else can be put in the kimbap do you know? i want to make this too but im not sure if i will do it right.
Tiffany,
Please leave your question on the forum because I would like to share your question with more people. Someone else may give you good answer. If nobody answers for a few days, I will leave my reply there. I hope you understand this. You can just copy your question and paste it here.
https://www.maangchi.com/talk/forum/general-discussion
Hi Maangchi!
I have a problem: My club is participating in a huge fair that our university hold every year in April. We are planning to make Kimbab to sell. We’re going to make the rolls the day/night before, wrap them up individually in plastic wrap, and then hand the whole rolls to people when they buy it. We need to refrigerate it because of food safety reasons. A lot of my friends have expressed concern that the rice will be rock hard if we make it the day before, but I know that we won’t be able to produce as much if we make it the day of on site.
So, my questions are: Is it okay to make kimbab the day before, and will it taste just fine the next day? Does refrigerating the vinegar-rice change its flavor?
Also, is the imitation crab meat rather expensive?
Thanks so much for help! :D
Tiffany
Thanks! =}
Janet,
That’s a really good question. Actually someone else asked about it and I posted my reply on the forum under rice cake soup. I’m copying and pasting my answer here.
..There are 2 kinds of soy sauce that Koreans use: dark soy sauce (“jinganjang”(진간장)and soy sauce for soup called “gukganjang” (“국간장” in Korean)
Koreans use gukganjang (soy sauce for soup) instead of fish sauce. I’m living in New York , so it’s difficult to make homemade gukganjang (soy sauce for soup). I know they sell it at a Korean grocery store here, but the taste is a little different from the soy sauce that I used to use in Korea.
I found fish sauce gives the similar taste of well fermented gukganjang. That’s why I use fish sauce (“aekjjeot”: 액젓 in Korean) in ddeokguk. ”
thank you Janet. Check the forum, too!
Hi Maangchi,
Is there any particular reason you use fish sauce in so many of your dishes? I’ve never used it before in Korean cooking and was wondering what the taste difference is?
I love kimbap with tuna and Kkaen nip. Have you tried that before? It’s really good! Thanks for your great videos!
Esther,
haha, your name is not “hi, maangchi unni”! lol
Yes, someday I will post how to make California roll. Check out YouTube. You may be able to see it now.
Yes, you can use any kind of vinegar. I like the flavor of apple vinegar, but everybody’s preference is different. It’s up to you.
oops i’m sorry i spelt your name wrong and i forgot to put my name in the above comment. i was so excited, i forgot haha.
Hi Maangchi unni, my name is esther :)
I was wondering if you can tell me how to make california rolls. I love kimbap but i always wanted to know how to roll it backwards so that the rice is on the outside.
would i put plastic wrap on the bamboo sheet and run sesame oil on it?
also if i chose not to use the apple vinegar, can i use regular white vinegar or would rice vinegar be better?
Thanks so much, you are such a wonderful person to share all your recipes.
Okay great thank you! I go to the H Mart in Jersey!
Amy,
I am using short grain rice.Check this out.
When you go to a grocery store, ask for rice for sushi. http://www.hmart.com/shopnow/shopnow_newsub.asp?top_cate=19&mid_cate=166
Hey Maangchi,
Which kind of rice are you using? I always cook jasmine rice, but does it make a difference?
Thanks!
Dominique
Thank you for your nice comment!
Dear Maangchi,
Thankyou so much for your delicious recipes!! I have around 5 Korean cookery books but I have realised how important it is to see the actual preparation of Korean food. Your recipes are very easy to follow and you seem like a wonderful person! THANKYOU!!!
Zul,
Please leave your question our forum under “where do you get Korean ingredients?”
https://www.maangchi.com/talk/topic/where-do-you-buy-your-korean-ingredients
Hi Maangchi, I’m totally new here and I was wondering whether it is possible for me to use other ingredient instead of yellow radish pickle and avocado?
Zul, Malaysia
Hi Maangchi,
I tried your kimbap and it was great.
Thanks for sharing your video and looking forward to try other dishes you have.
— James L.
Germantown, MD
Ha ha this is great! I used to be an English teacher in Seoul and I ate Gimbap practically everyday but never thought I could make it. I have been very out of touch with Korean food since living in London so thanks a lot for the nostalgia and great food!
Al.
Darlene,
I use apple vinegar. I like the flavor. You can buy it in any grocery store.
hey maangchi ! I’ve just become a new reader of yours, and i must say your recipes are amazing !
Could I ask, did you used distilled vinegar ? or did you use rice vinegar ? I would like to know because I would like to make this kimbap.
Thank You~