We love the food of Korea, really love it. They make some seriously good veggie dishes, including what is nearly their national dish, the bibimbap. Sadly, our home kitchen isn’t equipped to make such a great meal, but this lovely vegan bowl isn’t far off. With its just cooked veggies, creamy tasty rice, and a superb nutty, fruity sauce, it’s light and satisfying, it’s tasty and sophisticated, and it’s very easy to make. The ingredients for the sauce are more guidelines, to be honest, how much water and soy and lemon juice/yuzu/calomansi depends very much on the flavours of your tahini and miso paste. Technically Gochujang isn’t absolutely necessary, but anyone who’s ever tasted it will tell you it’s absolutely delicious

Veg:-

I large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 2cm chunks

1 tbsp olive oil

200g tender stem broccoli, cut into bite seized bits

150g frozen edamame beans

1 avocado, sliced (optional)

Sauce:-

1 dstspn tahini

3 dstspn white miso

6 dstspn boiling water

Juice of 1/2 a lemon or 1 tsp yuzu or calamansi

A drop of soy sauce, to taste

Rice:-

1 x 250g pack of cooked long grain rice

Gochujang to serve

Pickle:-

1 large courgette, finely sliced or spiralised (it also works nicely using half a large cucumuber, sliced or spiralised)

25mls cider vinegar

25mls mirin

5g sugar

pinch salt

1 dstspn very finely chopped dill stalks

• Heat the oven to 200C

• Put the courgette in a glass bowl. Mix the dill, vinegar, mirin, sugar and salt in a bowl, add 50mls boiling water, stir until the sugar has dissolved. Leave to cool for 20 mins, the pour over the courgette. Leave for no more 2 hours, then strain off the liquid. Keep in a jar in the fridge, but bring it up to room temperature before serving

• Put the sweet potato onto a large baking tray, season well and toss with the olive oil. Roast for 30-35 minutes, turning midway through. When there’s 10 mins to go, scoot the sweet potatoes aside so you have some free space in the baking tray, and add the frozen edamame beans in a thin layer

• When there’s 10 mins to go, cook the broccoli by heating a splash of ground nut oil in a decent sized frying pan and heat over a high heat till it’s just starting to smoke. Add the broccoli and fry for 2 minutes. Ideally, you want some bits of charred broccoli, as it tastes lovely. Turn the heat down halfway, add 3 tablespoons of water, clamp the lid on, and cook for 2 more minutes. Tip out into a bowl and set aside

• Meanwhile heat through the rice

• Meanwhile, whisk together the dressing ingredients and season

• To serve, divide the rice between four bowls, put a little blob of gochujang on each, then arrange the vegetables on top in sections, finishing with the avocado. Drizzle with the sauce, and top with some pickles. Serve with the Gochujang, more sauce and more pickle on the side