Korean jelly salad (Muk-muchim) is made with mung bean (green bean) starch. This savory gelatin salad is light and low in calorie, which makes a steady dish for those who watches their calorie count.

Have you heard of Korean “Muk (묵)”?

Muk is basically jelly made with various type of starch. There are acorn jelly (dotori-muk, 도토리묵), mung bean jelly (chungpo-muk, 청포묵), and this olbangge muk (올방개묵) that we are using. If you’ve dine in Korean restaurants many times you provably have seen similar jelly side dish.

A friend of ours, whom we got to know via online blogging in Korea, sent us some of her olbangge mook powder along with other Korean vegetable seeds that her mother sent to her from Korea. How sweet of her to show a such kindness! So we made this wonderful Korean jelly salad and enjoyed every bit of it.

Olbangge is a plant that grows around the pond near the most rice fields in Korea. If you can’t find this gelatin powder, you can substitute mung bean (green bean) starch which is available in most Korean grocery store. They are quite similar in taste and texture except that mung bean jelly will be more milky white color.

Mung Bean (Green Bean) Starch

Green bean starch for Korean jelly side dish.

Here are the jelly/gelatin powders. The one on the left is mung bean starch, and the right is the olbangge starch.

How the dish comes together

A wooden spoon stirring jelly mixture in a pot.

Mix 1 cup of starch powder with 6 cups of water in a large sauce pot. Add a couple of pinches salt. Bring it to boil over medium heat, stirring constantly.

When it start to boil, cook 5-7 more minutes. It will become thick paste like gelatin.

When done, remove from heat and pour the gelatin into a container. Let it cool completely. If not using on the same day, chill it in the refrigerator and the color will become slightly milky and more opaque.

When gelatin is set, turn out to a cutting board. It should come out easily. Now, why don’t you have some fun with a jiggling matter that you created? We did.

Cut the gelatin into bite size pieces. We only used 1/3 of the entire gelatin block to make this salad and save the rest in the fridge for the next use. So if you want to use entire block of gelatin, triple the amount of the sauce below.

Let’s make a Korean jelly salad

In a small bowl, mix together soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, salt, sesame oil, and toasted sesame seeds.

In a mixing bowl, combine gelatin pieces, chopped green onion, minced garlic, red chilies, and crushed seasoned and roasted seaweeds. Drizzle the dressing over the jelly.

And toss everything gently.

You will like the gentle chewiness of jelly with soy sauce vinaigrette. The addition of the seaweed pairs the jelly nicely.

The calorie is so low that we could finish off the entire plate by myself without much guilt, and it is quite filling – that’s a kind of food we need these days.

Hope you enjoy this salad, guys! Happy spring!

Yield: 4 people
Prep: 5 minutes
Cook: 10 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup Korean mung bean starch or olbangge starch
6 cup water
1 green onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely minced
2 sheets roasted seaweed, crumbled
1 red chili, seeded and finely sliced
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp white or rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
pinch salt
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp toasted sesame seeds

Method

Mix 1 cup of mung bean starch (or olbangge starch) with 6 cups water in a large sauce pan over medium heat. Bring to boil stirring constantly. When it starts to boil, cook for 5-7 more minutes until the mixture becomes opaque and thick paste.
Remove from the heat and pour it into a container. Let it cool in the room temperature completely. If not using on the same day, store in the refrigerator for later use.
When the gelatin is set, turn out to a cutting board and slice 1/3 off from the block We are using only 1/3 of the entire amount.
Slice the gelatin into bite size pieces and place in a mixing bowl. Add the crumbled seaweed, green onion, garlic, and, chilies.
In a small bowl mix together soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, salt, sesame oil, and sesame seeds. Drizzle the sauce over the gelatin mixture. Toss well, and serve at room temperature or chilled.