Plant-Based Korean Eating

A Korean table can look entirely vegetable at first glance: bowls of namul, kimchi, tofu and rice, with perhaps one small dish of fish or meat. Much of it really is plant-based. But Korean cooking leans heavily on the sea for savoriness, and fish or shellfish often turn up in places that are hard to see. This guide covers what is usually safe, what to ask about, and how home cooks replace those ingredients.

Banchan that are often plant-based

Many everyday side dishes are built from vegetables, salt, soy sauce, sesame and chili, and need no animal products at all:

• Namul: Blanched greens and sprouts dressed with soup soy sauce or salt, garlic and sesame oil, such as spinach namul, soybean sprout namul, bracken and bellflower root.
• Fresh muchim: Quick salads like cucumber muchim and radish strips, as long as they are not seasoned with fish sauce.
• Jorim and bokkeum: Braised potatoes, lotus root, black soybeans and braised tofu are usually soy-sauce based.
• Starch dishes: Acorn jelly salad and japchae made without beef.
• Pickles: Soy-sauce and vinegar pickles such as perilla leaf jangajji and garlic jangajji.

"Often" is the key word. Recipes vary by household and restaurant, and the same namul may be finished with a splash of fish sauce in one kitchen and not in another.

Where animal ingredients hide

The Korea Tourism Organization's advice for vegetarian visitors warns that kimchi seasoning usually includes salted seafood, fish sauce or meat broth, and that many dishes start from a meat or fish stock. The most common hidden sources are:

• Jeotgal (salted seafood): Saeujeot, salted shrimp, goes into most cabbage kimchi, and VisitKorea notes that tofu stews are usually seasoned with it as well. See making jeotgal.
• Fish sauce: Anchovy sauce and sand lance sauce season kimchi, muchim and soups.
• Anchovy and kelp stock: The everyday base for doenjang-jjigae, noodle soups such as janchi-guksu and many braises. See making yuksu broth.
• Meat broth: Beef or pork stock underlies many soups and some cold noodles.
• Eggs and fish cake: Egg in jeon batters, egg strips as garnish, and eomuk in stir-fries and street food.

Dishes that sound vegetable-based, such as bibimbap or gimbap, may come with meat, egg, ham or imitation crab unless you ask.

What temple food teaches

Korean Buddhist monastery cooking, described in temple food, is the country's deepest tradition of meatless cooking. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture notes that temple kitchens season with kelp, mushrooms, perilla and raw bean powder together with fermented soybean sauces, aiming for food that is neither too salty nor too spicy. Temple cooks also avoid the osinchae, five pungent plants of the onion family.

One point of detail: VisitKorea describes temple food as excluding animal ingredients other than dairy, so it is meatless rather than strictly vegan by every definition. In practice, most temple dishes contain no animal products at all, and the approach is a reliable model for plant-based cooking.

Substitutes in the home kitchen

• Instead of anchovy stock: Simmer dashima with dried shiitake, and add radish or onion for sweetness.
• Instead of jeotgal in kimchi: Use extra salt or soup soy sauce for saltiness, with a little kelp stock, mushroom powder or doenjang for depth. Temple-style kimchi is made this way.
• Instead of fish sauce in muchim: Soup soy sauce (ganjang) or a pinch of cheonilyeom sea salt.
• For richness: Ground perilla seed (deulkkae-garu) thickens soups and namul the way temple cooks use it, and toasted sesame oil finishes almost anything.
• Protein: Dubu, black soybeans, mung beans and fermented soybean foods. See fermented soybeans.

Nutrition notes

A vegetable-centered Korean meal is naturally varied; see the balanced Korean meal. People who avoid all animal foods should plan for vitamin B12. Harvard's Nutrition Source explains that B12 occurs naturally only in animal products, so vegans need fortified foods or supplements. It also notes that nori-type seaweed such as gim contains small and variable amounts of active B12 and is not considered a reliable source. Plant-based banchan can still be salty, especially kimchi and soy-braised dishes; see sodium in Korean food.

Ordering out

VisitKorea suggests telling staff clearly, ahead of time, which ingredients you do not eat, rather than simply saying "vegetarian," a word that is understood differently from person to person. Temple-food restaurants are the simplest option; elsewhere, ask specifically about stock, salted shrimp and fish sauce.