Korean Breakfast Banchans 3. For today's breakfast banchans, I drew inspiration from my childhood. The first dish is a classic Korean-style meatball called Dong-gurang-ddeng (동그랑땡). The second banchan is a simple, fast and delicious mungbean stirfry.
This Korean style meatball is a classic lunchbox banchan for Korean kids. It's served alongside rice, sautéed Kimchi and a few other simple banchans. I too - grew up eating (alot) of this when I was young. But my mom never made it from scratch. I got the packaged frozen version haha.
So what does it taste like?
Korean meatball tastes less "meaty" than spaghetti meatball. It feels lighter and less meaty - but not in a bad way. You will taste the meat and the slight crunch of the minced vegetables. The tofu plays in the background - no distinct taste but provides volume (and more nutrition) to the meatball.
If you have kids, let them try and see how they like it!
The Mungbean Stirfry has been my go-to breakfast menu for the last few weeks. Prep takes only 5 minutes, cooking time is 30 seconds. It's fast, savory and a good amount of vegetables. A good way to start the day!
As always, feel free to mix and match with other banchans. Daniel out! 🕺

Korean Breakfast Banchan 3: Korean Meatballs & Mungbean Stirfry
Ingredients
Korean-Style Meatball
Fresh Ingredients
- Minced pork - 300 grams
- Tofu - ½ package 150 grams
- Onion - ½ whole
- Carrot - ¼ whole size of pointer finger
- Chives - 6 stalks
Meatball mixture seasoning
- Minced garlic - 1 Tablespoon
- Salt - 1 teaspoon
- Black pepper - few shakes
- Egg - 1
- Flour - 2 Tablespoons
Meatball Coating & Egg Wash
- Flour - few tablespoons
- Egg - 1
- Salt - few shakes
Simple dipping Sauce
- Soy sauce - 1 Tablespoon
- Vinegar - splash
Mungbean Stirfry with bacon
- Mungbean sprouts - 250 grams or 2 large fistfuls
- Bacon - 4 strips optional
- Bok choy - 3 whole
- Garlic - 6 cloves
- Spring onion - 1 stalk optional, garnish
Stir-fry Seasoning
- Oyster sauce - 2 Tablespoons
- Sesame oil - 1 Tablespoon
- Black pepper - few shakes
Instructions
Korean-Style Meatball
- Dice onion, carrot and chives into small pieces. Place into a mixing bowl.
- Add minced pork into the mixing bowl.
- Smoosh tofu with a knife and squeeze out the water in a kitchen towel.
- Add minced garlic, salt and black pepper into the mixture. Give the mixture a thorough mix.
- Crack in 1 egg. Add in flour. Give another mix.
- Let the mixture rest for 30 minutes.
- Then it's time to mold them: Break off a small piece of the meat mixture. Roll it in your hands (into the size of a ping-pong) and place on a cutting board. Flatten each ball - and turn into a patty.
- Leave a few to cook immediately. Put any leftovers into a Ziploc bag and freeze.
Egg Wash & Fry
- Put a few Tablespoons of flour into a strainer. Then sift the flour over the meatball patties. Flip the patties over and coat the other side as well.
- Crack an egg into a small bowl and beat it thoroughly. Season it with a few shakes of salt.
- Then take out a large frying pan. Put some oil in the pan. Place on a medium-low heat. Once the pan turns hot, reduce the heat to a low. We want to cook on a low heat - to cook it fully without burning
- Dip each flour-covered patty into the egg wash. Make sure to drip-off any extra egg wash. Then place one-by-one into the hot oil.
- Let them cook on each side. Flip them over. Take out when they are fully cooked.
- Make dipping sauce: Mix soy sauce and vinegar.
- Enjoy it!
Mungbean Sprout Stirfry
- Wash mungbean sprouts. Place it in a strainer and let it drip-off excess water.
- Cut bacon into small strips. Cut bacon into thin slices. Cut spring onion into thin slices as well.
- Cut stems off the bok choy and separate each leaf.
Cook Stir-fry
- Place frying pan on medium-high heat. (We want to cook in high temperature). Place some oil into the frying pan.
- Once the oil is hot, place in garlic pieces and bacon.
- Stir-around until the bacon starts to get some browning on its sides.
- Then add-in the mungbean sprouts and bok choy.
- Put in oyster sauce, sesame oil and black pepper. Then stir it around.
- Quickly stir-fry for 30 seconds.
- Plate and enjoy! Garnish with spring onions.
- Bon Appetit!
Notes
- Eat the banchan with some hot rice
- You can replace minced pork with beef - no problemo!
- The meatballs taste even better with the soy-sauce dipping sauce.
- See video for more details
Sylvie says
I would like your receipt can you send to me I love what you did thank you