This Korean side dish is made from soybeans simmered in a sweet and savory sesame sauce.
Something to eat alongside your bibimbap. Or, if you're me, maybe something to throw right into your bibimbap. I did that for a long time. The Korean place I used to frequent for lunch served bibimbaps with a little dish of kongjang and a little dish of kimchi on the side. Both were right next to the little dish containing bibimbap sauce, which I knew went right into the bibimbap, so I assumed everything was meant to go right into the bibimbap. I also thought these were peanuts. One day they switched things up and gave me a dish of pickled veggies instead of kongjang. As you can imagine, the server was a little confused when I asked what happened to those delicious saucey peanuts that went into the bibimbap.
I know better now, but I still like to throw the soybeans right in with by bibimbap sometimes. I'm very attached to these little suckers. I generally keep dried soybeans on hand for making soymilk, so when I decided to try homemade bibimbaps a few weeks ago, I figured why not give kongjang a shot while I was at it? I'm glad I did.
Again, I ask myself, why didn't I try this sooner? I think the idea of cooking straight soybeans intimidated me, never mind that they were sitting there in my kitchen waiting for me to do something with them. If you don't keep soybeans on hand, check the natural foods section of your supermarket. There's a good chance they've got 'em. If not, Amazon
does. Everything else in this dish should be relatively easy to find. If you haven't made bibimbaps yet, go get some soybeans and make this as your side. If you already made bibimbaps, here's a good excuse to make them again.
📖 Recipe
Kongjang
Ingredients
- ½ cup yellow soybeans
soaked in water 8 hours and drained - ¼ cup soy sauce
- 2 tbsp. agave
- 1 tbsp. sesame oil
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 tbsp. toasted sesame seeds.
Instructions
- Place soybeans in small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer and cook, uncovered, 30 minutes. Remove from heat and drain.
- Return the soybeans to the pot and add soy sauce, agave, sesame oil, and garlic. Stir to blend. Place over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Cover and allow to simmer over low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Uncover and stir a few times. Allow to continue simmering until sauce becomes thick and syrupy, about 10 minutes. Beans will still be a bit firm when done cooking.
- Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve.
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I don't know what's Agave and I actually omitted the material though I have actually thought of malt extract powder or honey or brown sugar as substitute to Agave, but
I chose to omit totally without any replacement material.
And I have used the local Malaysia Apple Brand (red label) light salty soy sauce in the same amount that this recipe called for,
I only did until the middle part 30 minutes simmer and omitted the last 10 minutes and actually put in 2 tablespoon water, because the cooking is going too dry and I'm afraid the pot will be burnt LOL
To my surprise, the soybean is crunchy, no wonder you have been thinking all the time it's groundnut!
I can't taste any soy milk-like taste through this savory dish.
I ate with brown rice and it does taste good.
I think I might try putting this tweaked Kongjang into seaweed soup and see it goes.
Thank you for the easy recipe =)
Thank you! I was unsure how to cook these soybeans I got. This was a huge hit with my fam. Kids included!
Good! Took extra time but I rubbed the bean coats loose and skimmed off the softened bean skins, as they can be rough to digest. Low sodium soy sauce, and I added in pressed ginger root.
Easy and delicious!
I should have included in my ‘easy and delicious’ review that I used my instant pot. No pre-soaking. From start to finish a little over an hour. First to expand and soften beans, second with seasoning from this recipe.
Hey guys, do you use 1/2 cup of dried soybeans and then soak them? Because I soaked them first and took a half cup out of that. I used half the amount of soysauce though. It was still salty as the sea... but truly delicious :)
thanks
You'll want to measure first, then soak, so you'll end up with more than 1/2 cup. They'll be a bit less salty that way, since you're actually using more beans. Glad you thought they were tasty!
ok thanks a lot, I'll try again :)
It's part of my nature to adapt everything. To reduce the saltiness, I substituted half of the soy sauce with vegetable or beef stock. I added ginger and a crushed anise seed. Instead of agave, I used molasses and honey (gives it a deeper flavor). I added some tapioca flour at the end to bring it to the thickness I wanted.
Thanks so much! I have a big container of dried soybeans. This was really great, but a bit too salty for me. I'm going to make it again with less soy sauce. I like the idea of substituting some of it with broth.
Love this recipe, I soaked the soy beans overnight and then cooked them in the instant pot for 20min, npr, and then followed the recipe. Thanks!
I’ve made this a few times now, it’s delicious. I had dried soybeans sitting in the cupboard and no idea how to use them. I used maple syrup in mine. Thanks so much
looks delicious! when do you add the garlic?
Thank you! Step 2 - I just updated the recipe to include it. :)
I don’t have agave! Is it ok if I skip it or can I substitute with something else?
Maple syrup should work!
These sound amazing! Do you cook the soybeans in the sauce?
They do! I just updated the recipe to clarify. :)
I just made this recipe and I’m loving them! It’s a good thing my husband is gone this weekend, or I’d be wishing I made more. I had to boil with the lid off almost 30 minutes, but other than that I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out great. Thank you for sharing this!
Yay!! I'm so glad you enjoyed this!! Thanks Yvonne!
Thanks Aya! I think you would love these. The flavor combination is awesome. :)
I changed the layout over the summer after moving to WordPress. It was a total mess for a while! It's still a work in progress, but I'm pretty happy with how it looks at this point.
Wow, these look so good! I know I would like these simply because every ingredient is in my usual rotation. I also have dry soybeans on hand too for fermentation! Should give these a go next time.
BTW, not sure when you changed the layout but it looks really good! >0<
-Aya
Oh man, I LOVE those beans, and I myself didn't know what there were for the longest time. I've always had them made with black soy beans, so I thought they were just black beans. So I was confused about why a Korean restaurant was serving a bean that is usually in Western dishes. XD
Glad I'm not the only one who was confused. ;) I've never had this with black soybeans though - I specified yellow in the recipe just because that's what all the restaurant versions I've had used. I do keep black soybeans on hand as well though, so I might give them a try next time I make this.