Fresh / Heritage
Radish Sprout and Perilla Salad
Radish sprouts (dorumuk in Korean) and shredded perilla make this fresh list's most Korean-tasting salad: the sprouts' peppery crunch and the perilla's anise depth in a light soy-sesame dressing.
Chapter 04 / 10 fresh recipes
Behind the dish
A PLACE AT
the table.
Stream: heritage — the two textures bowl. Radish sprouts (dorumuk in Korean) and shredded perilla make this fresh list's most Korean-tasting salad: the sprouts' peppery crunch and the perilla's anise depth in a light soy-sesame dressing. It is the bowl that tastes most like a Korean market's sprout stall, and the natural companion to the delicate white-meat records — the fish (#SF09) and the chicken lanes (#M16).
In the kitchen
Set yourself up
Before you cook
- Roll-and-shred the perilla — stack the leaves, roll them into a tight cigar, and slice across into ribbons. Two minutes of knife work that distributes the leaf's strong flavor through every bite instead of leaving it in whole-leaf punches.
- Trim the sprouts' root tangle with one scissor cut and wash them hard — sprouts grow dense and hold grit at the root end.
LET’S make it.
- The dressing whisked light, the tomato bowl's (#F07) register: soy present, sesame forward, nothing loud. Checkpoint — tastes gentle and nutty; both greens run assertive on their own, and the dressing referees.
- Sprouts and perilla ribbons folded through with spoons — the sprouts' fine stems want a lifting turn, not a pressing toss — sesame and scallion over. Checkpoint — the eating test: crunch of sprout, then the perilla's herbal wave arriving behind it, the sesame binding the two — a bowl that tastes green in three registers at once. Beside the yellow croaker (#SF09), it is the traditional sharp counter to the cured fish's depth. Chef’s Note — radish sprouts are the same plant as the radish in kkakdugi (#B02), harvested eight days earlier — and the peppery note that becomes the root's bite is already fully present in the sprout's thread of a stem. This salad and that kimchi are the same flavor at two ages of the same vegetable, which is the kind of thing the Korean table notices and delights in naming.
More on the ingredients
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Salad wilted fast | Dressed early or wet sprouts | Spin dry; dress at the table |
| Perilla overwhelmed the bowl | Whole leaves | The roll-and-shred, always |
| Grit at the bite | Untrimmed roots | The scissor cut and hard wash |
| Dressing lost among the greens | Too light | A teaspoon more soy; the greens carry |
Storage, Make-Ahead & Variations
- Eats within the hour. Sprouts keep 2 days in paper towel in the fridge; perilla, 3 days.
- Variations: matchstick pear folded in (#F06's lane); the sprouts blanched ten seconds for the soft fork; a gochugaru-heavier dressing for the drinking table.
