Get ready for the most delicious Korean Meatball Rice Bowls that use up all those ingredients you have on hand in the fridge!!
Ever since taking a Kimchi making class a few years back at Grand Central Market in LA, I have been in love. If you've never heard of kimchi before - it's a staple in Korean cuisine and consists of fermented vegetables like Napa cabbage and Korean radish, and seasoned with gochugaru, garlic, ginger etc. It makes incredible kimchi fried rice and I just snack on it from time to time. I got to thinking, what would happen if I used the liquid from the kimchi jar to make a vinaigrette. I usually just discard it... but there is so much flavor there why not use it?! So that's what I did! I made a kimchi vinaigrette that blew my mind!
The kimchi vin gets served over a quick mixed green / herb salad and some delicious Korean meatballs that use up all those Asian pantry staples we have on hand: soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar and gochujang! Everything gets served over a bowl of white rice and voila... Korean Meatball Rice Bowls!! Another bowl to add to our collection of bowl recipes 🙂
Need more Asian Inspired Bowl Recipes:
- Asian Pork Meatball Bowls
- Spicy Beef Larb Bowls
- Veggie Spring Roll Bowls
- Spicy Salmon Sushi Bowls
- Chicken Mushroom Larb Bowls
- Ginger Scallion Chicken Bowls
- Sushi Bowls
- DIY Poke Bowls
- The OG Chicken Larb Bowls
Stuck in a dinner rut? Looking for new delicious dinner ideas? Check out my roundup of 50+ easy dinner ideas here.
Korean Meatball Rice Bowls
Ingredients
For the Meatballs
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce, divided
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoons finely chopped ginger
- 4 tablespoons gochujang paste, divided
- ¼ cup panko breadcrumbs
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons cilantro, roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
For the Vinaigrette
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon kimchi brine
- ¼ cup kimchi, drained and diced
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- ¼ cup canola oil
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon ginger, grated
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
For the Herb Salad
- 2 cups mixed greens
- ¼ cup cilantro leaves
- 4 green onions, thinly sliced
- 2 Persian cucumbers, thinly sliced
- 1 Asian Pear, thinly sliced (or a pink lady apple)
- 4 radishes, thinly sliced
- 2 cups cooked white rice
Instructions
For the Meatballs
- Heat the oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl combine the ground turkey, egg, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, garlic, ginger, 2 tablespoons gochujang, breadcrumbs, green onions and cilantro. Carefully combine everything with your hands until the ingredients are evenly mixed. Form the mixture into meatballs about 1 ½ inch in diameter, about 2 heaping tablespoons each.
- Combine the remaining two tablespoons gochujang, remaining 1 tablespoon soy sauce, honey and rice wine vinegar in a small bowl, toss the meatballs into the sauce and place onto the baking sheet. Bake meatballs 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.
For the Vinaigrette
- Whisk all the ingredients together and set aside.
For the Salad
- Combine salad ingredients in a large bowl
To assemble
- Portion the rice into equal amounts in 4 bowls. Add equal amounts of the salad and the meatballs. Drizzle with the vinaigrette and serve immediately. Serve your favorite kimchi on the side.
Would this freeze well? And at what stage? Looks fabulous.
Should I use gochujang paste or sauce in this recipe? I assume not spice because that would be a lot of dry spice! Thanks!
paste!
Made this tonight and it was everything I hoped it would be. Different and delicious. I made the meatballs in the morning before I went to work stuck them in the fridge and then came home made the rice and the salad and salad dressing. The only thing I changed was, I used avocado oil instead of canola oil. A little time-consuming but worth every minute. I will be making this again!
I am not a meat eater, but I cook for my son and his family and they wanted this. You give a total preparation time of 40 minutes??? I was in the kitchen for more than 3 hours! LOL! Don't get me wrong, I love cooking and can really get into the zen (when I'm alone and I was) of it all. But seriously, I don't even know how all the veggie prep and sauces and meatballs could possibly be done that quickly. Especially with fiddly things like grated ginger and fresh cilantro. Also, I wish the "sauce" for the meatballs could have been in a separate paragraph as I went ahead and put the honey and rice wine vinegar in the ball mixture. I didn't stop until the seeds. O well......I guess that's on me. I'll let you know what they think. I'm gonna go cook the rice now! LOL
This was amaze balls!!!! So much flavor in the meatballs and vinaigrette, it’s going to be a staple around this house.
Absolutely delicious! Oh, those flavors are amazing. The vinaigrette was like nothing I have ever had. Will definitely be making this again and again.
This was really terrific, even with my subs and modifications. I am on weight watchers, so I used less oil (2 tsp sesame oil, 2 T canola oil) and less honey (16 grams) in the dressing. I also used turnip instead of radishes, an envy apple instead of asian pear, and a regular cucumber. For the meatballs I added 1 tsp sesame oil and reduced the honey to 14 grams. Even with all the changes, it was still really fantastic. Hats off to Gaby!!!
Made this tonight. It was so delicious but the absolute star of the dish was the vinaigrette. I've never had a vinaigrette like this before and as I was making it, I was sure this was finally going to be the one recipe Gaby would whiff at, but no, I was wrong. Can't believe I ever doubted her. This is now one of my favs! Even if you don't make the meatballs, make the salad and the vinaigrette...you won't regret it. Thanks, Gaby!
Made this for a weeknight dinner and loved it! Prepped the vinaigrette and veggies in the morning and it came together quickly for dinner. Super flavorful and filling but still light enough. Will definitely make this again!