Tuna Kimbap
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Tuna Kimbap or Chamchi Gimbap (참치김밥) is nutritious and delicious seaweed rice rolls, featuring canned tuna and various vegetables for the fillings.
Here is another kimbap recipe! Previously, I have posted classic Kimbap and Kimchi Kimbap. Today’s recipe is called Tuna Kimbap because we are going to use canned tuna as the main ingredient.
For Koreans, kimbap is one of those foods that brings back nostalgia. Kimbap is essential for picnics and school field days. It is closely associated with special occasions. However, it is also an everyday food pretty much seen everywhere, including convenience stores, service stations, cafeterias, and restaurants.
Hence, there is an infinite number of variations in kimbap and you can make your own signature kimbap by adding your favorite ingredients or seasonings, or by making different shapes. That’s what makes kimbap so fun and unique.
About Tuna Kimbap
Tuna Kimbap or Chamchi Gimbap (참치김밥) is a modern and very popular version of kimbap. The tuna filling is typically a Korean-style tuna salad. Tuna is mixed with mayonnaise and rolled up with rice and other vegetables. The vegetables will vary, but adding perilla leaves is a popular combination in Korea.
Since I can hardly find perilla leaves here, I use other vegetables that are more common to use instead. This recipe is basically similar to the previous classic Kimbap recipe, but I substitute the beef with tuna here. Also, danmuji (yellow pickled radish) is used here because it is the key for authentic Korean kimbap.
What Fillings Go With Kimbap?
The beauty of kimbap rolls is you can customize them with your preferred ingredients, as long as you can stuff and roll them up into beautiful cylinders. If you are not a fan of canned tuna or you want to replace the fillings, here are some common filling ingredients used for kimbap;
- Rice: short-medium rice grain, brown rice.
- Protein: bulgogi/ground beef, chicken, egg, ham, tuna, fish cake, imitation crab, cheese.
- Vegetables: kimchi, carrot, spinach, zucchini, cucumber, lettuce, perilla leaves, burdock root, danmuji/pickled radish
, daikon.
, daikon.
More Korean Recipes
Do you love Korean food? If you don’t know, I have tons of Korean recipes on my blog. Here are some of them.
Ingredients
- 5 sheets roasted seaweed
- 4 cups steamed short grain white rice
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp salt, or more for taste
- sesame oil, for serving
Tuna Mayo
- 2 cans (340 gr) tuna
- 2-3 tbsp mayonnaise
Egg Strips
- 3 eggs
- 1/4 tsp salt
Vegetables
- 1 bunch spinach, stems removed
- 1 medium carrot, julienned
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp salt, or more for taste
- vegetable oil, for frying
- 5 strips danmuji/pickled radish
Instructions
Rice
- Place freshly made rice in a large bowl. Gently mix salt and sesame oil over top with a rice scoop. Let it cool down enough so it’s no longer steaming. Cover and set aside.
Tuna Mayo
- Drain the tuna from the water or oil with a sieve. Press the tuna with a spoon to squeeze the excess water or oil out.
- In a small bowl, combine drained tuna with mayonnaise until well incorporated. Set aside.
Egg Strips
- In a medium bowl, beat eggs with salt.
- Heat a little bit of oil on a big non-stick pan with low-medium heat. Pour the egg mixture into the pan with low heat. Spread it into a large circle so it fills the pan. When the bottom of the egg is cooked, flip it over with a spatula. Remove from the heat and let it cook slowly on the hot pan for about 3-4 minutes.
- Transfer the cooked egg to a plate. When it is cooled enough to handle, cut it into 1/2-inch long strips.
Vegetables
- Heat the pan and add a few drops of vegetable oil. Add carrot and 1/4 tsp salt, saute until the carrot is cooked. Stir in 1/2 tsp sesame oil until well combined. Set aside.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat and prepare an ice bath. Blanch the spinach, place immediately in the ice bath, then squeeze out water. Season with 1/2 tsp sesame oil and 1/4 tsp salt. Set aside.
Assemble
- Place a sheet of nori on a bamboo mat with the shiny side down. Spread evenly about 3/4 cup cooked rice over the top, leaving about 1 inch uncovered on top of the nori. Place tuna mayo, 2-3 egg strips, carrot, spinach, and a strip of danmuji in the center of the rice.
- Use both hands to roll the mat over the fillings. Remove the roll from the mat. Repeat 4 more times with the remaining ingredients.
- Brush sesame oil on the finished rolls. Cut each roll into 1/4-inch bite-size pieces with a sharp knife, occasionally wiping it with a wet paper towel or cloth to clean the starch off and to ease cutting. Put it on a plate and serve immediately or pack it in a lunchbox.
