By now, if you look at the vast majority of the articles I post on elephant, you’ll know that I’m a foodie.

I love cooking, and I love eating!

I love it not in an unhealthy obsessive way, or out of gluttony, I love it with gratitude and appreciation because at one point in my life I genuinely wasn’t able to eat. That sounds extreme, and it was. Physically I could chew and swallow, but not without pain, but even then… I couldn’t digest about 99 percent of what I did try to eat.

I have an autoimmune disorder that for a big chunk of time in my late teens and early 20s was taking away all the enjoyment that is possible from food. But I am now miraculously on the other side of that, and I can eat anything and everything I want (except gluten).

Today, I want to share with you a dish from one of my favorite cuisines. I adore Korean food, and have ever since I visited my sister there while she was teaching abroad! Bibimbap is their national dish. It’s healthy, fairly easy, and surprisingly delicious for how simple it is to make.

Here’s what you’ll need to feed four people:

• 4 eggs
• 2 cups of rice, cooked as normal
• 4-5 different veggies, about a cup each. Pick from shiitake mushrooms, spinach, carrot, cucumber, radish, zucchini, bean sprouts or green onion.
• 4 tbsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• Gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste) to taste
• salt to taste

To start, boil and cook the rice as you normally would. Then slice the mushrooms, zucchini, cucumber, and green onion, shred the carrots and/or radish, and remove the stems from the spinach.

Give them all a light saute in the sesame oil and sprinkle with the sesame seeds. (Note: You can saute each separately and then set aside and build a color wheel to top each bowl, and this is how bibimbap is usually served. But I’m usually too lazy to do that for myself and it tastes just as good all jumbled together!) It should only take about 5 minutes to cook them all on high heat.

In individual bowls, place the rice at the bottom and layer the sauteed veggies on top.

Next, fry each of the eggs sunny side up and then place one on top of each bowl. From here you can add a sprinkle of salt to taste and a spoonful or two of the hot pepper paste to each bowl.

Serve it with some kimchi on the side, and that’s as complicated as it gets!

Enjoy!

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Editor: Catherine Monkman

Photo: Wikimedia Commons