hey everyone, time for a recipe guest post! this one comes to us from the very talented janice whaley who lives in san jose and has achieved the massive undertaking of recording every single smiths songs using only her voice—no instruments. it’s pretty epic, so check out the smiths project when you have a chance, and pre-order the box set. but FIRST, she’s gonna teach us how to make a vegan bibimbop! here goes…

The other day I turned to my boyfriend and said, “ohhhh…. remember bibimbop?” I made it occasionally back in our carnivorous days. We used to frequent a place in San Francisco that made an amazing bibimbop and my version was basically an attempt to re-create what we ate at that restaurant. And now that we’re veg, I had to re-created it the dish again. Because life is no fun without bibimbop.

The fake meat in this dish is a dried soy product similar to TVP called “thit chay” and comes in many shapes and sizes. I go with the one that resembles slices of beef. You can also substitute wheat gluten sausages found in most Asian market in the tofu isle. They are the weird spongy grey-ish brown logs next to the fresh tofu, bamboo, etc (that I avoided for years because, what IS that stuff?!?!?) .

This recipe looks insane, but it’s really not so bad considering most all of this can be made in advance and then reheated when ready to plate. It’s impressive to look at and even more impressive to eat. Each of the side dishes work together to create an amazing flavor combination that is beyond description.

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