It’s a delicious korean food that I know you will love.
When I was in America 10 years ago, I made gimbap for a potluck party. One Ukrainian lady was eating my gimbap, but peeling off the “black paper.” She thought that it was real paper, and she only wanted to eat the delicious stuff inside!
I make 2 kinds of gimbap in this video, so be sure to watch until the end for special bonus footage.
Ingredients
Directions (2-3 servings)
- Prepare about 5-6 cups of cooked rice in a large bowl
- Make your mixing sauce by mixing up ½ tbs sugar, 1 ts kosher salt, and 1 tbs of vinegar until the liquid looks clear
- Mix rice with the mixing sauce and stir it evenly. Set it aside for now.
Prepare a large plate to arrange all ingredients for gimbap
- Make seasoned tuna flakes
- Open a can of tuna and remove the oil or water. Put it on a heated pan and drizzle some toasted sesame oil over it. Toss it and cook it for 2 minutes
- Add 1 tbs of soy sauce, ½ tbs of sugar, 1 clove of minced garlic, and 1 ts of ground black pepper.
- Keep stirring for another 3 minutes.
- Turn off the heat and add 1 chopped green onion, 2 ts of toasted sesame oil and 1 tbs of toasted sesame seeds.
- Place 3 yellow radish pickle strips on the plate.
- Place 3 pieces of crab meat on the plate.
- Slice an avocado and place it on the plate.
Let’s roll gimbap!
- Place a sheet of seaweed(“kim”) on the bamboo mat and evenly spread a layer of rice in the center of it.
- Place 2-3 spoons of seasoned tuna flakes on top of the layer of rice. Add a yellow radish pickle strip, some avocado, and a red crab meat strip.
- Roll it up gently using the bamboo mat.
- Remove the bamboo mat and cut the roll into pieces about 2 cm thick and place it on a plate
*tip: prepare a wet cloth or paper towel to wipe the knife while cutting, it will make it slice easier.
Fillings for Kimchi gimbap
If you want to make kimchi gimbap, instead of tuna gimbap, mix the following ingredients and use them instead of tuna:
½ cup of chopped Kimchi, ½ tbs of hot pepper paste, 1 ts sugar, ½ tbs of toasted sesame oil, ½ tbs of sesame seeds, and 1 chopped green onion.
Posted on Sunday, August 26th, 2007 at 8:43 pm.
Last updated on April 26, 2015.
Tagged: delicious korean food, 김밥, Gimbap, korean food, Korean recipes, seaweed roll, sesame oil, tuna kimbap
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I just made a two bars of this Kimbap. It’s SO delicious! I can’t cut it well, so i ate this like a bar.
Bar kimbap! Isn’t it a convenient and easy way to make a quick lunch? Just rolling some rice in kim with kimchi or whatever side dish you have in the fridge. yum!
Hi!
May I know what can make the rice didn’t stick together?cos when i tried to slice it,all the rice seems to fall apart :(
I think you used long grain rice. You will have to use short grain rice (sushi rice) which is stickier.
Hi Maangchi
thanks..tried the sushi rice and my kimbap turned awesome!always make for my lunch.Thanks for your guidance
Thank you for your update! Did you post the photo on FB today? If you want to share the photo with my readers, you can add the photo on my website, too.
https://www.maangchi.com/photos/upload
Can I use other than “kim”??
it’s hard to find here…
what can i use to wrape it???
without kim, it won’t be called kimbap because kim (dried laver: black seaweed paper) is one of the main ingredients. Check out either Korean grocery store or Japanese store in your area. I’m sure you can find it. https://www.maangchi.com/shopping/malaysia
Just made kimbap for the first time! My non-Korean roommate and boyfriend were really impressed. Thanks for the recipe!
awesome news! Happy cooking!
Oh my goodness Maangchi! These totally remind me of the Onigiri that I ate as a child in Japan except my mom never tried tuna. YUM! I could not believe how spectacular these were.
Living in Hawaii I would eat whole sheets of “Kim”! Now I know there’s a greater purpose to them than snacking! Can’t wait to make this, kimchi version style :)
@Jane–I don’t think there is any difference, but you can prepare the rice different. If Japanese sushi takes sugar and vingar in their rice, ususally Korean gimpa doesn’t have to have sugar or needs for vingar. This version is different from how my mom makes it. I would advise anyone to stay away from Korean market sushi. The market over here puts fish cake in their gimpa and it’s gross. I had to pluck them out, and will never buy gimpa from them. I only bought it because I didn’t feel like making gimpa because it can be a long procees the way I make it lol. Whoever taught these auhjumas how to cook needs to give them better guidences. They need to improve their Kimchi and Kkak Do Gi (Radish Kimchi) better too.
You can add raw fish. Some gimpa are made with bulgogi, galbi without the bones lol, hot dogs, spam. You can add spinach (misspelled), carrots, eggs with green onions, dashi (little bit mix with the eggs), little bit of japanese vingar, black pepper etc.) and make it like a egg pancake and cut it to make strips. You can make thin carrot sticks and fry it with black pepper and salt (I omit salt out of my food because salt not good for you).
Roll the way you want Korean or Japanese style. If you want the gim (seaweed)showing out or inside, it doesn’t matter the taste will still remain the same. =]
Just to double-check – all the ingredients should be cold, right? You have to wait for both the rice and the tuna to cool down before putting the kimbap together and rolling it?
Hi Maangchi,
This was another recipe of yours that I made. It was really great! Loved it. I am looking forward to checking out the other fillings to make the kimbap but so far this tuna one is a winner with my family.
I also featured this in my blog at:
http://www.bisayainmanila.com/2011/05/my-foodie-experiments-tuna-kimbap.html
Cheers,
Chai
Kimbap is the best preparation I used to make especially when we have picnics. Since avocado is a seasonal fruit, I use ripe mangoes as they are always available whole year round. My recipe only include crabs. So, for next time I would like to try with tuna as well. How about that? I got another recipe from you. Thanks a lot. Really you are a great help Maangchi. Your column is something that I have been spending the whole day, making notes and copying your recipes for my file.
I absolutely love this recipe! My friends birthday is coming up, and I was thinking about making this for her! Thanks Maangchi! :D
<3
2/1/11 Tuesday: Made Kimchi Kimbap (because I have plenty of Kimchi left)today. It sure is delicious Maangchi, thanks to your recipes.
will this recipe still taste good without the crab meat?
Oh and I’m sorry but is there any other ingredients that can replace the pickled radish? I don’t have any way to get Korean pickled radish near me =(
The tip about wiping the knife with a wet paper towel really works. I was a little worried when I started cutting it and it fell apart. Then I checked your blog and saw the tip, and it worked well. I use a sharp knife and I cut very slowly in a saw-like fashion. Cleanly-cut kimbap awaits… Thanks again for the recipe, Maangchi!
Hi Maangchi, what kind of vinegar are you using?
I really love your recipes!!!! I am sooooooo glad I found your website!!! You’re so sweet! :)
I like apple vinegar or white vinegar.