Re: Fast Korean meals?

Prepping food in advance makes things easier, and the more you cook Korean food the faster you will become. While you’re finding your groove, I remember in one of Maangchi’s videos she showed a rectangular block of minced garlic she kept frozen in her fridge in plastic wrap, so whenever she needed to grab a tablespoon of garlic or something, she just had to tear off what she needed. Easier than having to peel garlic and chop it up every time you need it.

Some fast recipes, besides soups, are bulgogi (you just need to marinate it for a while, but after that you cook it the way you would cook any beef on the stovetop or grill) and grilled beef or pork belly (no marinating required).

The nice thing about Korean food is that a lot of the recipes call for the same ingredients. So while you’re prepping a green onion salad to go with your grilled pork belly, you can also mince a little bit to throw into a bowl with some egg and water to microwave into a steamed egg side dish. And kimchi and things like cucumber or broccoli pickles keep for weeks in the refrigerator so you don’t have to prep those sides every night; you can just pull it out whenever.

Also, if you take a weekend or something to make black bean sauce or naengmyun broth, you can cook up some noodles when you get home on a weekday and have dinner ready in the same amount of time you would have pasta ready.

Happy cooking!