Today I’m going to show my my all-time favorite fast and easy recipe for a quick, spicy salad that can be made from a head of lettuce. When my napa cabbage kimchi gets old and sour, I sometimes crave a fresher kimchi that’s not so aged. Sangchu-geotjeori is a bright, spicy, lightly seasoned lettuce salad that meant to be made and eaten eaten right away, not fermented like kimchi. But it’s still spicy and tangy, like freshly made kimchi.
It’s a great side dish for LA galbi or bulgogi, and can also be mixed with rice and doenjang-jjigae for a quick bibimbap. It’s a go-to for me when I need a fast side dish to go with rice when I have sudden guests. If your guests like spicy stuff, I guarantee they will go crazy over this. I sure do! If you are a vegetarian, skip fish sauce and use salt or more soy sauce.
There are many kinds of geotjeori (fresh salads) in Korean cuisine, this one just happens to be made with lettuce. As time goes on, I’ll show you more.
Enjoy the recipe, and let me know if you try it out!
Ingredients
Serves 4
- 1 bunch (about ½ pound: 8-9 ounces ) green or red leaf lettuce
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 green onion, chopped
- ¼ cup worth onion, sliced thinly
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce (or salt)
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 2 tablespoons Korean hot pepper flakes (gochugaru)
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
Directions
- Wash and drain the lettuce. Shake the lettuce to remove excess water.
- Tear the lettuce into bite size pieces and set aside.
- Combine garlic, green onion, onion, soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, vinegar, hot pepper flakes, and toasted sesame oil in a large mixing bowl and mix it well until the sugar is well dissolved.
- Add the lettuce to the seasoning mixture and mix it gently by hand.
- Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and serve it right away as a side dish for rice.
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.
This is an incredible side salad recipe. So much flavor with so few ingredients! Like Maangchi says, definitely best fresh as it gets wilted/watery in the fridge overnight (but still tastes good). I used red leaf lettuce.
Hi Maangchi. I regularly make traditional style Kim chi (using Napa cabbage) but as I currently have a glut of lettuces, was looking for a lettuce Kim chi recipe. This one of yours looks good but I note it is for immediate consumption. Do you have one for fermented Kim chi lettuce please?
Regards
Heidi
Every time I make your recipes it bring me closer my mother in law. Thank you for helping continue to impress her again and again <3
I assume your mother-in-law is Korean, right? If so, she’ll love you more and more because you always want to impress her with your homemade Korean food!
I made this two days in a row because my family just loves it! My mom was hounding me for the recipe!
i don’t have white vinegar but i have rice vinegar. Can i use that instead?
Yes, you can use rice vinegar, too.
Oh so good. My lettuce was soggy , so I used coleslaw mix instead. So crunchy I used it to up on top my burger. Yummy! Thanks Maangchi.
Not sure how I missed this recipe. My partner and I LOVE this salad, but couldn’t find a recipe. So happy we found this! Cannot wait to use it
Is this KETO friendly? Or can I pretend it is, and make it anyways? (I might replasce the sugar with monkfruit)
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Made some Sangchu-geotjeori as a side dish to Gajami yangnyeom-twigim. Just made a double portion of the dressing, and keep it in an empty salad dressing bottle in the fridge, for future use. Added one teaspoon of minced ginger to the recipe, though: made it perfect.
Maangchiiiiii, in Step 3 of recipe u forgot to mention Mr.Soy Sauce!
Thank you so much for letting me know about this! I just fixed it.
Just made this so fresh and tasty
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It looks so delicious!
Hello! I currently don’t have red pepper flakes but really want to make this recipe. Do you think I can substitute a small amount of gochujang and thin it out with the vinegar in order to make the dressing for this salad?
this is what I’m looking for, my family went to a Korean restaurant last Sunday, and they served this salad as appetizer and my family love it, so I decided to look for the recipe. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Maangchi! This is a great everyday salad recipe. I tried making it for me and Bok and topped it with pan-seared catfish. He had a great dinner. Happy hubby… Thanks for another wonderful recipe..
I love this salad! I’ve already made it twice with both lettuce and bok choy. In fact, I love the onions in it so much that I used the dressing to marinate onions– so good! I served them with shrimp grilled in your buldak marinade and lettuce for wrapping. It was delicious. Thanks for the recipe!
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I made this last night. Unbelievably good. I had a spare cucumber, so I tossed it in with the lettuce. Is there any vegetable on earth that is not improved by adding the Miracle Ingredients? Any recipe tagged with {fish sauce, garlic, green onion, hot pepper flakes, sesame oil, soy sauce, sugar, toasted sesame seeds, vinegar} just goes right off the chart, doesn’t it?
That’s great! I’m glad you like this recipe! This is a favorite of Korean housewives!
woah!! my mom really love this bancan and i don’t know how to make it and finally u made it, Thankyouuuuuuuu!
You’re welcomeeeeeeeeeee!