Gluten-Free Kimchi Rice
This started the way supper often starts: I was hungry, and I put a pot of water on.
The kitchen offered what it had. A jar of cucumber kimchi. A pail of takeout rice from the other night. The ends of the sambal, the gochujang, a tub of red enchilada sauce. Nothing came out of a shopping bag; everything came out of the fridge door and the counter. I boiled the kimchi down first so a little of it could season a lot of broth, and the rice — in as a cold brick — drank the broth and turned the soup into a rice pot with a slight kimchi jjigae lean. An egg over the top finishes it.
It makes eight one-cup portions. Four went into one-cup freezer trays; the cook's share disappeared the same night. Lunch from leftovers, ready when a later day needs it.
- 3 cups water about 720 ml
- 8 oz cucumber kimchi (oi kimchi) 225 g, with its juices
- 1 teaspoon sambal oelek 5 g, plus more to taste
- 2 tablespoons gluten-free gochujang 32 g
- 1/4 cup red enchilada sauce 60 ml
- 1 tablespoon honey 21 g, to taste
- 2 cups cooked white rice 370 g; leftover and cold — a whole takeout pail
- 1 egg large, beaten
- Add the kimchi and its juices to the water in a pot. Bring it to a full boil and let it reduce by eye — until the level drops by about a tenth to a fifth and the color deepens, 5 to 8 minutes. Start the kimchi first: it builds the broth, and everything after it gets judged against what the kimchi already brought.
- Stir in the sambal, gochujang, and red enchilada sauce. Simmer 2 minutes and taste. Add the honey if the broth asks for rounding. Adjust the heat to your desired spiciness — the sambal brings fresh heat, the gochujang brings sweet, deep heat, and the kimchi brings the fermented kind. No seasoning packet goes in this pot: the kimchi and the sauces salt it themselves.
- Break the cold rice into rough chunks and add it to the pot. Cover the pot and let the broth's steam loosen the rice, about 5 minutes, then stir until the grains separate and the rice heats through. The rice drinks broth as it sits, so the pot turns stew-leaning — that is the dish deciding what it is.
- Pour the beaten egg over the surface. Cover the pot again and let the egg set in soft ribbons in the pot's own heat, 1 to 2 minutes. Fold it through with chopsticks or a spoon.
- Serve hot. Portion the rest by the cup into freezer trays.
Pareve. The egg and the honey sit inside pareve, so the dish pairs with a meat meal or a dairy meal alike.
Freezing: Freeze the one-cup portions solid in the trays, then pop the blocks out and bag them. Reheat from frozen with a splash of water to bring the broth back.
Adjust to taste. The amounts for sambal, gochujang, and honey are starting points — this pot was seasoned by eye and by tongue, and yours should be too. Adjust to desired spiciness.
The rice decides. Fresh off the boil the pot eats like a soup. Rested, the rice drinks the broth and it stands as a rice dish. Both are correct.
Freezing: Freeze the one-cup portions solid in the trays, then pop the blocks out and bag them. Reheat from frozen with a splash of water to bring the broth back.
Adjust to taste. The amounts for sambal, gochujang, and honey are starting points — this pot was seasoned by eye and by tongue, and yours should be too. Adjust to desired spiciness.
The rice decides. Fresh off the boil the pot eats like a soup. Rested, the rice drinks the broth and it stands as a rice dish. Both are correct.
Nutrition Facts
Gluten-Free Kimchi Rice
Amount per Serving
Calories
100
% Daily Value*
Sodium
323
mg
14
%
Protein
2.8
g
6
%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.