What does a standard Korean recipe put on sigeumchi namul besides spinach? The Korea Food Promotion Institute’s four-serving version lists soy sauce, sesame oil, salt and roasted sesame, and nothing else: no garlic, no scallion. Many recipes, including the card further down this page, add garlic, so it is the first thing worth questioning.
The garlic matters less than the two steps every version shares, a short blanch in salted water and a firm squeeze. This page follows the institute’s recipe as the baseline and marks the places where the card differs.
Namul, spinach and the winter leaf
The standard dictionary defines namul as grasses and leaves people can eat, and gives bracken, bellflower root, aralia shoots and shepherd’s purse as examples. The Folk Encyclopedia adds the cooking side: a side dish of vegetables dressed after boiling, stir-frying or, for some, raw. Sigeumchi namul is the spinach member of that family.
Spinach is not an ancient Korean vegetable. The Folk Encyclopedia entry on spinach says it arrived in the 1500s and first appears in the 1527 character primer Hunmong jahoe. It describes a hollow stem and reddish roots, a season that runs from October to April, and a split between Oriental and Western types. Oriental spinach has jagged, radish-like leaves and is hardy and slow growing. Western spinach has oval leaves with only two or three veins. Midwinter spinach is the Oriental kind, which the entry says has deeper colour and better flavour, and Seomcho, a cultivar bred from the native type, belongs to that group. Most spinach in shops today is a cross between the two.
The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture gives a sense of what is on the plate. Per 100 g it lists 2.6 percent protein, 0.7 percent fat, 4.2 percent carbohydrate and 0.7 percent fibre, with 4.2 mg of iron and 30 to 60 mg of vitamin C, and it notes that spinach is eaten mostly blanched as namul and also goes into soybean-paste soup.
The Folk Encyclopedia entry explains why Korean cooks care. Because spinach in Korea goes mostly into namul, buyers prefer the Oriental type for the texture it keeps after boiling. Ordinary bagged spinach still works, as the questions further down explain, but it is a softer and milder starting point.
The institute’s recipe, line by line
For four servings the institute starts with 300 g of spinach and a little salt for the blanching water. The leaves go into boiling salted water for one minute and then straight into cold water. They are lifted out, squeezed firmly and cut to about 5 cm if they are long. Soy sauce, sesame oil, salt and roasted sesame are mixed first, and the spinach goes into that mixture to be dressed. The proportions per 300 g are one teaspoon of soy sauce, half a teaspoon of sesame oil, a third of a teaspoon of salt and one teaspoon of roasted sesame.
Two of the institute’s general tips for namul bear on spinach. Bitter vegetables should be blanched first to draw out the bitterness before seasoning, and fragrant vegetables should not get a heavy garlic and scallion dressing. Spinach is neither very bitter nor very fragrant, so a light hand is the right default. If you want a fuller soy-and-sesame dressing for the same leaves, the family of Korean seasoned soy sauces is the place to look.
Where the card on this page differs
The recipe card below is this site’s version, not the institute’s. It uses 450 g of spinach for four servings, a clove of garlic, 1.5 teaspoons of toasted sesame oil, a teaspoon of soy sauce and half a teaspoon of sesame seeds, and it blanches for 30 to 45 seconds before an ice bath. The institute blanches for a full minute with no garlic. Neither is wrong. The card gives a firmer leaf and a sharper seasoning, the institute’s gives a softer leaf and a plainer one, so choose by the dish it has to sit beside.
Blanch, chill, squeeze
Before the pot, the institute’s only instruction is to trim the spinach. The reddish root the Folk Encyclopedia describes sits at the base of each plant, and the base is where grit collects, so cut the root end, separate the leaves and rinse them in several changes of water. A plant with a thick base can be halved lengthwise so every piece cooks at the same pace.
The sequence matters more than any single number. Salted water seasons the leaves lightly, the cold bath stops the cooking so the colour stays dark, and the squeeze removes the water that would otherwise thin the dressing and wash the oil off the leaves. Squeeze in small fistfuls, open the hand, and squeeze again until a fistful stops dripping. The institute cuts after squeezing, not before.
Salt ties the steps together. The blanching water is the only seasoning the leaf gets before dressing, and the institute’s dressing then adds just a third of a teaspoon of salt per 300 g.
Dress the leaves with your hands, not a spoon. Gentle pressure works the seasoning between folded leaves, and a spoon tends to shuffle the strands past each other so some are coated and some stay bare. Serve it cool or at room temperature as a side dish, which is how namul is normally eaten with rice.
Sigeumchi Namul Recipe
Ingredients
Method
- Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and salt it generously, like pasta water.
- Blanch the spinach 30-45 seconds, pushing it under with tongs, until it collapses and turns a darker, glossier green.
- Lift it straight into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking and lock in the color.
- Working in two or three fistfuls, squeeze the spinach hard and repeatedly until no more water drips out when you stop.
- Loosen the squeezed block apart with your fingers so it isn’t one dense clump.
- Add garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce or salt, and half the sesame seeds, then massage gently with your hands until every strand is coated.
- Taste and adjust salt, then finish with the remaining sesame seeds.
Recipe card photo: Sigeumchi-namul.jpg by 쑤기언니, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Baby spinach, garlic, blanching time, wet leaves and leftovers
Can I use baby or bagged spinach? Yes. Most spinach sold in shops today is already a cross between the Oriental and Western types, and the Folk Encyclopedia says Korean buyers prefer the Oriental type for namul because it keeps its texture after boiling. Bagged leaves will usually come out softer than winter spinach, so blanch them for less time, closer to the card’s 30 to 45 seconds than to the institute’s minute, and handle them gently because the leaves tear easily.
Does it need garlic? The institute’s recipe has none, and the card has one clove. Because the institute advises against heavy garlic on fragrant vegetables and spinach is only mildly fragrant, a small amount is a matter of taste. Start with a quarter of a clove if you are unsure.
How long should I blanch it? The institute says one minute, the card says 30 to 45 seconds. Both go straight into cold water afterwards. The Folk Encyclopedia adds that spinach should be blanched briefly with the lid off, which keeps the green colour and loses less vitamin C. If the leaves come out slippery and dull, shorten the time next round.
Why is mine watery and bland at once? It is one problem, not two. Water left in the leaves dilutes the dressing, so the dish tastes of neither oil nor salt. Squeeze harder before cutting and mixing, and dress only afterwards.
What do I do with leftovers, and what does it sit beside? Squeezed a little drier, leftover namul rolls neatly into kimbap, where it only needs to be cut to a size that matches the other fillings. As a side dish it belongs on any rice table, including the side dishes for a home barbecue spread.
Swapping the greens
The institute’s tips make the recipe a template. The same page gives the method for bean sprouts and mushrooms, and the table lists what changes when the spinach is not available. The three namul on that page all use sesame oil. The institute also suggests building a plate of namul by colour: white from mung bean sprouts or radish, green from cucumber or chard, and dark brown from mushrooms or aubergine.
| Instead of spinach | Prepare it like this | Source note |
|---|---|---|
| Bean sprouts (kongnamul), 300 g | Boil about 15 minutes with the lid on in lightly salted water, then dress with chili flakes, scallion, garlic, sesame oil, salt and sesame | Institute recipe for kongnamul muchim |
| Mung bean sprouts | Blanch only about 2 minutes, not the 10 or more that soybean sprouts need | Institute tip |
| Chard or other leafy greens | Blanch in salted water until green, then dress like spinach | Institute tip |
| Cucumber, zucchini or radish | Salt lightly, then stir-fry until cooked | Institute tip |
| Shiitake mushrooms | Slice thin, salt, stir-fry in a hot oiled pan, finish with sesame oil | Institute recipe for beoseotnamul |
| Bitter or dried vegetables | Blanch bitter ones first; soak and boil dried ones, then stir-fry | Institute tip |