Get Over ‘Spring Fever’ with Korean Side Dishes (Banchan)
It’s that time of year when it’s easy to catch ‘spring fever‘ (춘곤증春困症) So my parents-in-law just sent us a box of spring shoots picked from their garden in the countryside with a message to ‘eat lots of vegetables‘! These shoots make great Korean side dishes (banchan) in spring and early summer.
What is Spring Fever?
Apparently, as the season changes and the weather gets warmer our metabolism wakes up after the winter hibernation, so we need more vitamins and minerals to keep going.
But if we don’t get enough nutrition, then we can start to feel tired and drowsy – the symptoms of spring fever! (Good to know – I thought it was just my age!)
Other symptoms include loss of appetite, digestion problems, and dizziness. And it’s worse for people who don’t do much exercise over the winter, suffer from stress, or have low blood pressure.
In the past, lack of nutrition was a serious problem as there weren’t enough vegetables in the cold months. And so the tradition began of making kimchi in autumn to see families through the harsh winter.
Some families still make kimchi every year around November, but more and more people just buy it from the shops.
Related posts:
How to make kimchi: making kimchi with my mother-in-law
Spring Shoots
Along with cherry blossom and yellow dust (!) these spring shoots are the sign of spring.
So I spent an afternoon blanching an exotic array of fatsia shoots, butterbur, thorny ginseng, and aralia shoots! (I didn’t know the English names of any of these before but this is what they are according to the Naver dictionary!)
The aralia shoots and thorny ginseng are also used for medicinal purposes. They are relatively high in protein, calcium and vitamins B and C. And you won’t suffer from constipation anymore after eating some of these…
The wood from the aralia shrub is also used to make the broth of spicy chicken in thorny tree soup (엄나무 닭개당) which is similar to chicken and ginseng soup a popular dish in the summer months. The wood improves the flavour of the soup. (You don’t eat the wood of course! You just boil it for a while first and then with the chicken.)
Korean Side Dishes (Banchan) in Spring
So to cook the shoots you just blanch them in some salted water so that the leaves remain firm and don’t turn soggy.
The stalks have a consistency similar to broccoli. And they are usually served with a gochujang and vinegar chilli sauce dip and eaten as a side dish with rice and kimchi. The large leaves of the butterbur are rinsed and steamed and used as wraps for rice.
But what all these spring vegetables have in common is that they taste very BITTER! (and not just a little bit bitter either. VERY BITTER) But I quite like bitter and earthy flavours. They tell me that I being very healthy indeed! And I do believe that I feel better.👍
Related posts:
What are some Korean summer flavours?
What are the colours of autumn in Korea?
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Hello! Are fatsia shoots also very bitter? I saw someone eat it on a tv programme once, they made it look delicious.
Hi. Yes they are bitter but I still like them. They taste like they must be healthy!