I chose a Korean dish this week because it was simple to make with lots of flavor. Also, this dish was not a dish that would be overly salty. I started with a recipe from My Korean Kitchen and made some changes. Typically Asian dishes use a lot of salty ingredients. This one does not or had ingredients that can be made low sodium. It uses gochugaru instead of gochujang, which is very salty and is not gluten-free. If you can get gochugaru, get it. It is a slightly spicy and smokey chili powder. If you can’t get it, use chipotle powder or Aleppo pepper. This recipe is pretty low in calories and if you eat fish, you might want to leave that in. I am going to omit them and make this vegetarian. I believe any way to make this dish, it will be great. Here are the original stats:
Here’s what I changed:
- I removed the added salt to reduce the sodium.
- I removed the seafood to make this vegetarian.
- I replaced the anchovy stock with low sodium vegetable stock to reduce the sodium and make the recipe vegetarian.
- I replaced the soy sauce with a low sodium variety to lower the sodium.
- I added a red bell pepper to increase the vitamin C
- I added a carrot to increase the vitamin A.
Here are the final stats:
Here is the final recipe:
Sundubu Jjigae (Korean Spicy Soft Tofu Stew)
Serves 3
Main
- 12 ounces silken tofu
- 1 carrot, shredded
- 2 red bell peppers, chopped
- 100 g enoki mushrooms (3.5 ounces), bottom 4-5 cm stem removed and rinsed briefly in cold running water
- 45 g oyster mushrooms or shimeji mushrooms (1.6 ounces), rinsed and separated by hand
- 2 shiitake mushrooms (20g / 0.7 ounces), cleaned, stem removed and thinly sliced
- 1 egg optional
- 1 stalk green onion (10g /0.4 ounces), diagonally thinly sliced
Soup base
- 1 quart low sodium vegetable stock
- 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 Tbsp Korean chili flakes (gochugaru)
- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1/2 tsp low sodium soy sauce
- A few sprinkles ground black pepper
- A dash sesame oil about 1 tsp
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Put the vegetable oil, chili flakes, garlic and soy sauce into a pot. Heat the pot on the stove on medium heat and stir the spices well for 1 min. Make sure not to burn the chili powder.
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Add the carrot and bell pepper and stir quickly to coat them with the chili sauce.
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Add the vegetable stock and heat it on medium to medium-high heat until it starts to boil rapidly (2 to 3 mins).
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Add the tofu, in big chunks, mushrooms, and egg and cook them for another 1 to 2 mins.
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Top up with the green onion, black pepper and sesame oil. Serve hot.
Your Level Best 
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