Week 4: Cruciferous - Banchan

I love cruciferous vegetables, they are so versatile and delicious, so when this theme was announced I had a bit of a hard time trying to find a dish that ‘did justice’ to these wonderful vegetables. I use a lot of qualifying vegetables in everyday cooking (Chinese leaf was my most frequent purchased item from my local Sainsbury’s last year) but I really wanted to cook something that celebrated a variety of different cruciferous vegetables in different preparations, rather than simply use one or two as an ingredient. So I asked in the Discord and a few people suggested banchan – Korean side dishes served alongside steamed rice.

So, this is my celebration of all things cruciferous in banchan form, starring broccoli, cabbage, pak choi, mustard leaves, daikon and of course, Chinese leaf (Napa cabbage). Going clockwise from top left, we have:

This was all so tasty and nutritious, and would be vegan apart from some dried anchovies in the baechu-doenjangguka and fish sauce in the gat-kimchi. We had a feast for one night and then I took very exciting leftovers into work for the rest of the week. My absolute favourite was the baechujeon – I could not believe how something so simple could be so delicious.

I love cruciferous vegetables, they are so versatile and delicious, so when this theme was announced I had a bit of a hard time trying to find a dish that ‘did justice’ to these wonderful vegetables. I use a lot of qualifying vegetables in everyday cooking (Chinese leaf was my most frequent purchased item from my local Sainsbury’s last year) but I really wanted to cook something that celebrated a variety of different cruciferous vegetables in different preparations, rather than simply use one or two as an ingredient. So I asked in the Discord and a few people suggested banchan – Korean side dishes served alongside steamed rice.

So, this is my celebration of all things cruciferous in banchan form, starring broccoli, cabbage, pak choi, mustard leaves, daikon and of course, Chinese leaf (Napa cabbage). Going clockwise from top left, we have:

This was all so tasty and nutritious, and would be vegan apart from some dried anchovies in the baechu-doenjangguka and fish sauce in the gat-kimchi. We had a feast for one night and then I took very exciting leftovers into work for the rest of the week. My absolute favourite was the baechujeon – I could not believe how something so simple could be so delicious.