Get ready for the most delicious Korean Meatball Rice Bowls that use up all those ingredients you have on hand in the fridge!!
Ever since taking a Kimchi making class a few years back at Grand Central Market in LA, I have been in love. If you’ve never heard of kimchi before – it’s a staple in Korean cuisine and consists of fermented vegetables like Napa cabbage and Korean radish, and seasoned with gochugaru, garlic, ginger etc. It makes incredible kimchi fried rice and I just snack on it from time to time. I got to thinking, what would happen if I used the liquid from the kimchi jar to make a vinaigrette. I usually just discard it… but there is so much flavor there why not use it?! So that’s what I did! I made a kimchi vinaigrette that blew my mind!
The kimchi vin gets served over a quick mixed green / herb salad and some delicious Korean meatballs that use up all those Asian pantry staples we have on hand: soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar and gochujang! Everything gets served over a bowl of white rice and voila… Korean Meatball Rice Bowls!! Another bowl to add to our collection of bowl recipes 🙂
Need more Asian Inspired Bowl Recipes:
- Asian Pork Meatball Bowls
- Spicy Beef Larb Bowls
- Veggie Spring Roll Bowls
- Spicy Salmon Sushi Bowls
- Chicken Mushroom Larb Bowls
- Ginger Scallion Chicken Bowls
- Sushi Bowls
- DIY Poke Bowls
- The OG Chicken Larb Bowls
Stuck in a dinner rut? Looking for new delicious dinner ideas? Check out my roundup of 50+ easy dinner ideas here.
Korean Meatball Rice Bowls
Ingredients
For the Meatballs
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1 egg
- 2 tablespoon soy sauce, divided
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoons finely chopped ginger
- 4 tablespoons gochujang, divided
- 1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- 2 tablespoons cilantro, roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
For the Vinaigrette
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon kimchi brine
- 1/4 cup kimchi, drained and diced
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
- 1/4 cup canola oil
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon ginger, grated
- 2 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
For the Herb Salad
- 2 cups mixed greens
- 1/4 cup cilantro leaves
- 4 green onions, thinly sliced
- 2 Persian cucumbers, thinly sliced
- 1 Asian Pear, thinly sliced (or a pink lady apple)
- 4 radishes, thinly sliced
- 2 cups cooked white rice
Instructions
For the Meatballs
- Heat the oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl combine the ground turkey, egg, 1 tablespoon soy sauce, garlic, ginger, 2 tablespoons gochujang, breadcrumbs, green onions and cilantro. Carefully combine everything with your hands until the ingredients are evenly mixed. Form the mixture into meatballs about 1 1/2 inch in diameter, about 2 heaping tablespoons each.
- Combine the remaining two tablespoons gochujang, remaining 1 tablespoon soy sauce, honey and rice wine vinegar in a small bowl, toss the meatballs into the sauce and place onto the baking sheet. Bake meatballs 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.
For the Vinaigrette
- Whisk all the ingredients together and set aside.
For the Salad
- Combine salad ingredients in a large bowl
To assemble
- Portion the rice into equal amounts in 4 bowls. Add equal amounts of the salad and the meatballs. Drizzle with the vinaigrette and serve immediately. Serve your favorite kimchi on the side.
What is your favorite Kim chi brand? I bought some but it was too fishy tasting for me.
Mother’s! I usually get it at whole foods
This sounds so flavorful!!
This looks amazing. What brand of rice vinegar do you use?
Marukan!
Do you think I could sub ground pork for the turkey? It’s all I have on hand during quarantine…
yes totally
could you do it with ground chicken?
yes!
Thank you for sharing this. This recipe caught my eye and wow…I am so glad it did. The flavors are fabulous and it was easy to make. For the rice…I made a Sushi Rice to give it one more level of flavor. Don’t pass this recipe by…you won’t be disappointed.
Ayyy. What if I dont have kimchi? Would love to make this tonight.
Substitute if I don’t have kimchi?
rice wine vinegar for the dressing!
Delicious! I ended up making my own kimchi since Whole foods was wiped out. Also, I may have had a little too much wine because I ended up putting the gochuchang and honey sauce into the meatballs instead of on them. Ha! Was still delicious. Can’t wait to make again.
correct, emptied out a bunch of half jars of stuff, and delicious!
I’m obsessed. Took me a long time to prep (my knife skills are slow) but was worth it. Will be making again next week!
Would love to make these for some vegetarian friends, any suggestions for meat substitutions?
Hi Gaby! Can you clarify the amount of soy sauce in step 2 of the meatballs? It says divided but I’m not seeing where. This recipes looks deeeeelicious!
ah!! fixed
Now i know why my meatballs keep coming out runny and i have to Let them sit in the fridge them to give them some body. I keep putting in the honey and rice vinegar IN them instead of on them. Oh boy. Seems Erin and i are soul sisters.
Regardless of my errors, this recipe is SO GOOD and flavorful, per usual.
Right on!
So delish! My boyfriend is kindof a picky eater but he loved it and he’s sensitive to spice but he said it had the right amount of heat. I used sriracha instead of gochujang & it worked great.
Thanks Gaby!
Why are there no reviews on this yet?! I made these last night and basically fangirled over my food. They were SO flavorful and the herb salad was the perfect fresh accompaniment. LOVE – definitely a repeat dinner!
LOL why did i not see any of these reviews before? SOS.
Loved this! Meatballs were so moist and juicy. Great sweet and sour flavours. I’ve sent the recipe to my mum and my partner’s family to try! I’m from Australia and used Obap kimchi from Woolworths.