Food Blog: 🎊It's February - Happy Lunar New Year! + First 🌕Full Moon!

Monday, February 1, 2021

🎊It's February - Happy Lunar New Year! + First 🌕Full Moon!

새해 복 많이 받으세요!

Hi everyone!

I hope that you all are doing well and staying warm this cold winter! There are two big Korean holidays in February - Seollal 설날 and Daeboreum 대보름!

Seollal (Korean Lunar New Year) 설날 falls on February 12th this year and this is one of the major two holidays celebrated in Korea aside from Chuseok.

It's an official 4 day holiday weekend and many Koreans travel home to gather and spend time with family, pay respect to their elders and ancestors as well as enjoy specially made dishes that are supposed to bring good fortune and health.

Tteokguk (Rice Cake Soup) of course, is the most popular dish for Seollal and Koreans even have a saying that "You become a year older only if you've had a bowl of tteokguk!"

Daeboreum (Great Full Moon) is the first full moon of the new lunar year and this year will be celebrated on February 26th! This is when the moon is believed to be the largest and most bountiful. Koreans hold a festival called Jeongwol Daeboreum 정월 대보름 during this time to perform traditional customs to encourage great harvests, fertile fields and health.

It's a custom during Daeboreum to eat Yaksik 약식 (Sweet Sticky Rice), Bokssam 복쌈 (Wrapped Rice), Japgokbap 잡곡밥 (Multigrain Rice) and a variety of Maleun Namuls 마른나물 (Dried Vegetables). An offering table is made with these dishes as an offering to the heavens to pray for for good harvest in the coming year.

*Bokssam - no, it's not a typo. It's not Bossam 보쌈 but Bokssam 복쌈. Ssam means to 'wrap' in Korean so both refer to wrapping things. Bok 복 means 'fortune' so Bokssam means to wrapping fortune. Due to the fact that it's dead winter, the tradition is to wrap rice in either Gim 김 (dried seaweed) or wide leaf namul like Chwinamul 취나물 (aster scaber).

Below are some traditional recipes to help you celebrate! Enjoy and stay safe and healthy everyone!

Traditional and authentic Korean recipes for New Year's including soups, stews, side dishes, desserts and even punch!

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Here are 3 Rice Cake Soup (Tteokguk) Recipes (from top to bottom)

Classic Beef Broth with Dumplings (North Korean Style) - RECIPE
Anchovy Broth and Beef Topping (Seoul Style) - RECIPE
Beef Broth, Instant Pot version using simple stew meat - RECIPE

Japgokbap is a healthy multigrain rice which includes grains and beans like sorghum, millet, red or black beans and even chickpeas. I also have an Instant Pot version available that cuts the cook time in half!

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GET INSTANT POT RECIPE

Although I don't have an exact recipe for Bokssam, you can make these easy Ssambap that are delicious and healthy Korean lettuce wraps made with rice and various stuffings along with Ssamjang!

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EXTRA!! 🌱🌿I also have an entire post on how to enjoy Ssam using different green leafy vegetables!

READ ABOUT SSAM Leaves