Korean Vegetarian Recipes

While Korean cuisine has strong roots in Northern Chinese cuisine, it has distinguished itself as a world cuisine all its own, bringing noodles, rice, tofu, and a wide variety of side dishes, pickles, and fermented products together to form a very rich flavor profile.

Korean food lends itself particlulary well to vegetarianism, with meat being easily replaced in most dishes. Kim chi, the ever-present Korean pickle, is present at every meal, but something vegetarians need to keep an eye out for - most kim chee is made with fermented fish products!

Koreans also love to serve small "side dishes" as accompaniments with noodle and rice dishes called banchan. Main seasonings include soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, doenjang (fermented soybean paste), and gochujang (fermented red pepper paste).