Soft vegetable rice bites (Jumeokbap)
Turn freshly cooked rice, soft vegetables and plain seaweed into 12 small flattened bites. A mild, no-chilli snack that needs no oven; little helpers can shape the rice after an adult has cooked and cooled it.
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✦ AI-generated cooking illustrations. Follow the written quantities and instructions.
Ingredients
3 servings
- Essential
Use cooked short- or medium-grain rice for adhesion. Keep the cooked weight; loose long-grain rice may not hold the shape.
- Substitute available
Replace with the same weight of sweet bell pepper, cut equally small. Colour and sweetness change; cook until tender.
- Substitute available
Use the same weight of finely sliced cabbage. Cook until soft; the cabbage gives a different texture.
- Optional
May be omitted; the dish loses a little seaweed aroma but still holds together. Skip crushing and adding the flakes.
- Substitute available
Use the same volume of canola, sunflower or rice-bran oil. Choose an unflavoured oil; toasted sesame oil changes the taste.
- Substitute available
Use the same volume of neutral oil if sesame oil is unavailable. The cooking still works, but the toasted sesame aroma is lost.
- Optional
May be omitted; the result will taste less seasoned. Leave the other ingredient quantities unchanged.
1 tbsp = 15 ml · 1 tsp = 5 ml. Use level measuring spoons. Quantities below make 3 servings.
Tap each ingredient as you prepare it. Check product labels for egg, soy, sesame, wheat, fish or shellfish where relevant.
Step-by-step cooking
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Step 1
Wash the carrot and zucchini. Peel the carrot and dice both vegetables into pieces about 2 mm across so they soften quickly. Keep the 300 g cooked rice separate; this recipe starts with rice that is already cooked, not 300 g dry rice.
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Step 2
Warm 5 ml neutral oil in a nonstick pan over medium-low heat. Add both vegetables and stir for 4–5 minutes, until soft enough to crush with a fork. If they start drying out, lower the heat and cover for 1–2 minutes so their own moisture helps them soften.
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Step 3
Put the freshly cooked short-grain rice in a wide bowl. Loosen it gently with a spoon; do not mash it into a paste. Tear or snip the 2 g plain seaweed into very small flakes. Long-grain rice falls apart more easily.
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Step 4
Add the cooked vegetables, seaweed flakes, 5 ml sesame oil and 0.5 g salt to the rice. Fold until evenly distributed, then let the mixture cool just until comfortably warm to touch. Use plain seaweed so the seasoning stays mild.
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Step 5
With clean, lightly damp hands, divide the mixture into 12 equal portions. Press gently into flattened ovals about 3 cm wide and 1 cm thick. Avoid squeezing them into dense round balls. Children can help with this step after an adult checks the temperature.
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Step 6
Serve warm and soft. For a child, divide each bite with a fork into small loose pieces appropriate to their chewing ability, and let it cool further before serving. Offer water and have the child sit while eating; adults can enjoy the flattened bites as they are.
Finished dish
Makes 12 bites, about four per snack serving. The 20 minutes assumes freshly cooked rice is ready; add your rice cooker's cooking time if starting from dry rice. Sesame oil contains sesame; replace it with 5 ml neutral oil if needed. Use rice rather than sticky-rice flour. This is a family snack, not an infant-feeding guide: adjust texture and portion size to each child. Adults handle knives and the hot pan. Cool leftovers promptly, refrigerate and use within 24 hours; reheat once until steaming hot and cool before serving. Cool rice leftovers and put them in the fridge ideally within one hour of cooking.
This complete home version was written for this site using the public recipe as a reference. Open the original for another method.
My Korean Kitchen — Jumeokbap; mild vegetable home adaptation ↗