Siraegi Namul

Siraegi is the name for dried radish tops (and sometimes dried napa cabbage leaves). After the autumn radish harvest, the green tops were braided or tied with straw rope and hung in the shade to dry, turning a by-product into a vegetable that would last all winter. The early-eighteenth-century household manual Sallim gyeongje already describes the method: dry the tops in the shade, then soak them in water before cooking and boil them once they have swelled.

Siraegi is closely tied to the first full moon of the lunar year. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture describes mugeun-namul — "aged" namul made from vegetables dried the previous year — eaten with five-grain rice on Jeongwol Daeboreum, and lists siraegi among the nine traditional kinds. The nineteenth-century Dongguk sesigi records the belief that eating these stored greens kept people from suffering in the summer heat, and the early-twentieth-century writer Choe Yeong-nyeon praised the dark green siraegi above the others.

Beyond the holiday table, siraegi is an everyday winter banchan and a common topping for bibimbap. It appears in early modern cookbooks such as Joseon mussang sinsik yori jebeop (1924) and Joseon yori jebeop, and it is just as familiar in soups and stews, where it gives body and a nutty, rustic flavor.

• Fiber and minerals: the National Folk Museum's encyclopedia describes siraegi as rich in vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber, and as a traditional way to bring greens to the winter table.
• Stored greens for winter: drying let households keep leafy vegetables through months when nothing fresh grew — a practical part of Korea's seasonal eating.
• Fermented seasoning: the doenjang dressing adds savory depth, so little extra salt is needed.

• Doenjang-dressed (Gyeongsang): in North Gyeongsang the dish is often called siraegi doenjang-muchim — the softened greens are dressed with doenjang, soup soy sauce, garlic, green onion, gochugaru and sesame oil, or with a doenjang sauce boiled with green chilies.
• Stir-fried namul: the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture lists siraegi among namul that are cooked by stir-frying in oil and then seasoning with soy sauce, garlic and sesame, sometimes with shredded beef added.
• Soup and rice: siraegi-guk, a doenjang soup, is called sirak-guk in Gyeongsang dialect and is often made with anchovy stock and perilla seed; siraegi-bap is rice cooked with the softened greens.