In today’s newest video, I am excited to share with you my newest batch of recipes — veganized versions of the food featured in Squid Game! Check out the video to watch all of the food I made (and ate) that was featured in the series, and don’t forget to scroll down to see some of the written recipes~
If you haven’t heard, my newest obsession right now (mine and everyone else’s) is the crazy popular Netflix show, ‘Squid Game’! If you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t heard of it, it’s a South Korean TV show about debt-ridden people joining in a set of games to win a large pool of prize money, but at a dangerous cost.
To avoid spoiling those who haven’t watched it yet, I’m going to stop giving hints about what the plot is about (although if you watch my video, you might hear some spoilers – I can’t promise anything!). One thing I’m going to tell you though is that I LOVED IT! 💕
One fun way I thought of showing my love for the show is by making my own versions (vegan, of course!) of the different dishes and foods featured throughout the series. I had a lot of fun with this because I’m also from South Korea so a lot of these are foods that are familiar to me. If you want to see ALL the Squid Game-inspired foods I made (and ate!), make sure to watch the video above! Yes, of course I attempted the famous honeycomb (Dalgona) candy…
For this blogpost, I featured THREE Squid Game-inspired recipes — Korean Lunch Box (doshirak), Korean Streusel Bread (Soboro Bbang), and Spicy Korean Rice Cakes (Tteokbokki)! All are pretty easy to make, and I’m sure you’re going to have fun making them especially if you also love the show.
Again, make sure to watch the video above to see ALL the food I featured and made, and don’t forget to scroll down for the written recipes!
Korean Lunch Box (Doshirak) with a Vegan Egg & Braised Black Beans
Contains:
- Rice
- Vegan kimchi
- Braised Black Beans (kong jorim)
- Vegan fried egg
In the middle of one of the games, the players were eating rice, fried egg, and some side dishes from a rectangular tin container. We call this doshirak (도시락) in Korea, meaning “lunch box” or “packed meal”. This type of tin container is very common in South Korea, and I even have a similar container right at home.
You are probably going to enjoy making the Vegan Fried Egg in this one. I used medium-firm tofu for the egg white and followed a recipe from my friend Mary of Mary’s Test Kitchen to make the vegan egg yolk. It’s actually one of the most realistic vegan yolk recipes I’ve ever tried, and it is so simple to make (Thanks, Mary)!
Excited to make this? Check out the recipe below!
Ingredients:
For the Braised Black Beans:
- 1 cup Korean black beans (dry beans soaked overnight)
- 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1/4 cup brown or coconut sugar
- Plenty of water for cooking beans
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds for topping
For the Kimchi:
- I used my mom’s delicious vegan kimchi – recipe found here!
For the Vegan Fried Egg:
Egg white:
- 1 block medium firm tofu cut into large thin squares (around 1/2-inch thick)
- Plenty of vegetable oil for cooking
- Kala namak (black salt) for the “eggy” flavour — amount depending on preference
Egg Yolk:
- I used this recipe from Mary’s Test Kitchen~
To make the Braised Black Beans:
- Soak black beans overnight. Drain and rinse out.
- Add beans into a pot with plenty of water (at least double the amount of beans) and let it come to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, there will be a layer of white foam on top. Scoop this out with a spoon.
- Turn the heat down to medium or medium-low. Add in soy sauce and brown sugar. Mix and let it cook until the beans are cooked and the water has reduced completely.
- If the water reduces before the beans are cooked, add in small amounts of water as needed. The finished beans won’t be super soft but have a nice chew.
- Once finished, mix in or top with toasted sesame seeds.
- Eat as a side dish to any meal of your choice or enjoy however you’d like.
- Store in a tightly sealed container in the fridge for 3-4 weeks. Enjoy!!
To make the Egg White for the Vegan Fried Egg:
- Cut tofu into thin, wide squares (see video for visuals).
- Heat plenty of oil in a pan and pan-fry the tofu. Cook for around 4-5 minutes, until golden brown on both sides.
- While the tofu is cooking, start making the vegan egg yolk (just follow this recipe by Mary’s Test Kitchen).
- Sprinkle some black salt onto the tofu for the “eggy” flavour. Once done, transfer onto a plate and carefully add a spoonful of “vegan egg yolk” onto each tofu “egg white”.
To assemble the Korean Lunch Box:
- Into a tin container (or any food container), add in some cooked rice.
- On the side, add in the Braised Black Beans and kimchi.
- Top the rice with the vegan fried egg. Enjoy!
Korean Streusel Bread (Soboro Bbang)
There’s a part in Squid Game where the players were each given a bottle of milk and a piece of bread. The bread is called Soboro Bbang. “Soboro” means streusel, which is the crusty topping part usually made from flour, butter, sugar, and peanut butter. “Bbang” means bread, which is usually sweet and soft.
By now, you already know how easy it is to substitute the butter with the vegan version, but instead of making this from scratch and figuring it out myself (as if I could do that! Haha!), I decided to just follow this recipe from The Vegan Studio (because we all know baking isn’t my strong suit LOL).
Again, to make this, simply visit this video from The Vegan Studio! (It was absolutely amazing!)
Easy Vegan Tteokbokki (Spicy Korean Rice Cakes)
Now if you are familiar with Korean food already, I’m sure you’ve heard of Tteokbokki – Spicy Korean Rice Cakes. It’s an incredibly popular Korean street food that everyone loves. Seriously, I don’t know anyone that doesn’t like Tteokbokki!
You may remember a scene from the first episode of Squid Game where Gihun takes his daughter to what the Koreans call Pojangmacha (street food stall) and buys her some Tteokbokki for her birthday, because he couldn’t afford to get her a nicer dinner due to losing all his money earlier in the day. Tteokbokki is a cheap street food but don’t be fooled – it is absolutely delicious! It’s one of my favourite foods of all time that I’ve made so many different versions of it on my YouTube channel! Simply go on YouTube and search “Cheap Lazy Vegan tteokbokki” and you’ll see what I mean.
For this video, I decided to make a simple and easy classic tteokbokki. See below to see how easy!
Ingredients:
- 2 cups water
- 1/4 tsp kelp powder (optional)
- 2 cups chopped cabbage
- 1/2 onion, sliced thinly
- 3 tbsp Gochujang (red pepper paste)
- 1 tbsp Gochugaru (Korean red chili flakes – use more gochujang if you don’t have this)
- 2 tbsp sugar, maple syrup or agave nectar
- 3 cloves of minced garlic
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 lb Korean rice cakes (cylinder shaped)
- 1 package of vegan ramen noodles, without seasoning (optional)
- 2-3 stalks green onion, chopped
- Sesame seeds for topping
Instructions:
- Add water to a pan over low heat. (Optional: add kelp powder and mix).
- Add in cabbage, sliced onion, gochujang, gochugaru, sugar, minced garlic, and soy sauce. Mix well.
- Add in the tteok (rice cakes). Mix everything together and let it come to a boil.
- Let cook until the rice cakes become soft and chewy, and the sauce becomes thicker.
- Add in ramen noodles if desired (if the sauce becomes too thick, add in a little water as needed).
- Serve and enjoy!
Did you enjoy these recipes? Have you watched Squid Game? Let me know in the comments what you thought of my recipes or the series!
