Bibimbap with Edamame
The last step is the one that matters most. No pan, no heat — just pressed garlic stirred into soy sauce, honey, and Sriracha in a small bowl. That raw dressing ties everything on the plate together.
Brown rice, edamame, stir-fried mushrooms, bok choy separated into white and green for different cooking times, carrot strips seared until just tender, and bean sprouts rinsed clean. Each component prepared separately, then sectioned over a deep plate. 735 kcal, 28 grams of protein, and 19 grams of fiber — fully plant-based, ready in 20 minutes.
Ingredients
- brown rice 3 ounces
- edamame 4 ounces
- mushrooms 4 ounces
- baby bok choy 1 head
- chili pepper 0.5
- carrot 1
- bean sprouts 2 ounces
- olive oil 1.5 tablespoon
- garlic 1 clove
- soy sauce 2 tablespoons
- honey 0.5 tablespoon
- Sriracha sauce 1 teaspoon
Method
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Cook the rice according to the instructions on the package.
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Cook the edamame until just tender according to the instructions on the package.
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Clean the mushrooms and cut them into quarters. Cut a slice from the bottom of the bok choy and separate the leaves. Slice the bok choy into strips, keeping the green part separate. Chop the red chili pepper into pieces. Slice the carrot into strips and rinse the bean sprouts with boiled water in a colander.
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Heat half of the oil in a frying pan and add the red chili pepper, mushrooms and the white part of the bok choy. Stir-fry for 4 minutes. Then add the green part of the bok choy and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove the vegetables from the pan, cover with foil, and place on a plate.
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Heat the other half of the oil and stir-fry the carrot strips until just tender, about 4 minutes.
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Divide the rice, edamame, mushroom mixture, carrot and bean sprouts into sections over a (deep) plate.
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For the dressing, press the garlic clove and put it in a small bowl along with the soy sauce, honey and Sriracha. Mix well. Drizzle the dressing over the bibimbap.
Step 4 stir-fries the mushrooms instead of boiling them, and that choice matters. A Penn State study found that mushroom ergothioneine — the only dietary compound with its own dedicated human absorption transporter — is preserved through dry-heat cooking like sauteing, while boiling causes roughly 80% loss through water leaching.
Behind this recipe
Is edamame a complete protein?
Yes. Soy is one of the few plant protein sources with a complete amino acid profile — every amino acid your body cannot make on its own, present in sufficient proportions. The 112 grams of edamame in this bowl provides a meaningful share of the meal's 28 grams of total protein, alongside smaller contributions from the brown rice, mushrooms, and bean sprouts.
Why is the garlic pressed raw instead of cooked?
Garlic has two separate chemical systems. Cooking activates flavor compounds that make garlic taste sweet and mellow. The second system produces allicin — but it only works when raw garlic cells are mechanically crushed. Heat destroys the enzyme responsible (alliinase) before it can act. Step 7 presses the garlic raw into the dressing, preserving that pathway entirely.
Can the soy sauce in the dressing help absorb iron from this meal?
Research suggests yes. A 1990 study found that traditionally fermented soy sauce added to a rice meal increased non-heme iron absorption from 3.5% to 11.4% — a 3.3-fold increase. The fermentation creates polysaccharides that keep iron soluble through the gut. That matters more in a plant-based bowl like this one, where all iron is the non-heme form. The raw garlic in the same dressing may add a second enhancement pathway — allium vegetables have been shown to improve iron bioaccessibility from plant foods.
