Spam Kimbap. Delicious Korean style sushi rolls filled with warm rice, spam, lettuce, pickled radish, egg and carrots. A fantastic Korean recipe that serves well for lunch, snack, or any meal of the day!
Jump to:
What is Spam Kimbap?
Spam Kimbap is a delicious seaweed wrapped rice roll that contains spam, vegetables, egg and pickled ingredients. It's commonly served as a light meal, snack or even for breakfast. You can find it sold at select Korean convenient stores and Kimbap restaurants in South Korea. Commuters and students love to pick this item up as it's quick, delicious, filling and cheap!
Kimbap is of those easy meals packed with flavor thanks to the well seasoned components. In Korean cuisine, Kimbap is prepared in a packed lunch or in a lunch box or serves well as picnic food. It doesn't require any reheating, so it can be eaten the same day and lasts several hours making it the perfect lunch idea for students or office workers. I personally love this dish so much because it's a tasty and filling meal idea especially if I have cooked rice in the fridge.
Ingredients
Please scroll down to the recipe card below for full measurements.
- gim aka roasted seaweed, sushi nori or seaweed sheets
Rice
- cooked short grain rice aka sushi rice or Calrose white rice
- sesame oil
- salt
Filling
- spam or if you have kimbap ham, feel free to use that instead. Or substitute with imitation crab meat, canned tuna mixed with mayo, more egg, cooked bulgogi beef, fried pork belly, or pan fried tofu.
- eggs
- yellow radish pickle strips or substitute with radish slices if you can't find the strips.
- romaine or red leaf lettuce: or substitute with cooked spinach, cucumber, or avocado.
- carrot
- avocado oil, or any neutral oil
- salt
- toasted sesame seeds
- sesame oil
Note: The Asian market, specifically Korean market, will carry these ingredients. You may find them at your select grocery store or online, like on Amazon.
How to Make Spam Kimbap
Prepare Kimbap Rice
First in a large mixing bowl, season cooked warm rice with 2 teaspoon sesame oil and ½ teaspoon salt. Mix well. Keep covered, and warm at room temperature to avoid drying out.
Prepare Eggs
Then in a small bowl, beat eggs with ¼ teaspoon salt. In an 8 inch wide non-stick pan on medium heat, add 1 teaspoon neutral oil, pour in half of the beaten eggs to create a thin pancake or egg crepes. Allow eggs to set until 75 % cooked. Then fold from one side to the other to create a 1 inch wide egg roll.
Once cooked, remove off heat and slice egg roll into two equal strips. Repeat process for remaining egg mixture. You should have 4 long strips of cooked egg.
Prepare & Cook Carrots
Next in the same heated pan on low-medium heat, add 1 teaspoon neutral oil along with carrots. Season with a â…› teaspoon salt. Cook until vibrant and softened. Set aside.
Prepare Spam
Then turn spam on its flatter side so it's no longer standing upright. From one end of the spam, cut spam by slicing off 4 x ¼ inch-thick rectangular shape pieces. Then cut the thick slices into half so you have two equal long strips that are 1-inch wide.
In the same frying pan on medium heat without oil, pan fry spam until golden brown on both sides, about 2 minutes per side. Set aside.
Prepare lettuce
Wash and dry leaves lettuce. Cut off ends.
Lay out Gim
Lay out gim or 1 sheet of seaweed vertically towards you with the shiny side down or rough side up on a sushi mat resting on a clean flat surface. If you don't own a sushi mat or bamboo mat, you can work without one or replace it with a sheet of plastic wrap.
Evenly Spread Rice
Prepare a small bowl of water nearby. Place ¾ cup of seasoned rice on top of the seaweed. Using clean hands dip fingers in water bowl or a rubber spatula, spread the rice out into a thin layer. Leave 1 inch of empty space at the furthest end and ½-inch of empty space closest to you.
Place Filling Ingredients in Center
Place an equal portion of cooked carrots in the middle, a strip of pickled daikon just above the carrots, a strip of egg beneath the carrots, two strips of spam on top of the carrots and a folded piece of lettuce on top of everything.
Roll Kimbap
From one end, roll kimbap away from you rolling tightly tucking in all of the ingredients until you reach the end. Firmly hold the roll until it’s set and doesn’t fall apart, about 10 seconds. Repeat this process 3 more times.
Garnish & Slice
Lastly place kimbap on a cutting board. Brush ¼ teaspoon sesame oil per roll and garnish with sesame seeds. Repeat for remaining rolls. Afterward, using a wet sharp knife, slice kimbap into ¾-inch pieces. Enjoy!
Storage & Reheating
Kimbap is best consumed within same day. You may store in the fridge in an airtight container and it will last up to 4 days with the below reheating technique. Please see below. If you have leftover kimbap that have been sitting in the fridge, you can enjoy them again by reheating them on the stove top:
- Heat a non stick pan on medium heat lightly greased with neutral oil.
- In a separate bowl, beat an egg and dip one piece of the kimbap into the egg so it's coated with egg on both sides.
- Place coated kimbap into the heated pan and fry on both sides until golden brown and the egg is cooked through.
- To speed up the reheating process, cover the kimbap with a lid so the steam can reheat and soften the rice again.
Other Kimbap Recipes you may like!
📖 Recipe
Easy Spam Kimbap
Ingredients
- 4 sheets gim or nori (roasted seaweed sheets)
For rice:
- 3 cups cooked short grain rice (to know how much rice to cook, see Notes)
- 2-3 teaspoon sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon salt (if needed, add more to taste)
Filling:
- 2 large eggs
- 120 grams carrots peeled and julienned
- 120 grams spam
- 4 strips or 60 grams pickled daikon radish (store bought at Korean grocer)
- 4 leaves romaine lettuce or red leaf lettuce
- 2 teaspoon avocado oil or any neutral oil
- salt
- ½ teaspoon sesame seeds toasted kind for garnish
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil toasted kind for brushing
Instructions
Rice:
- In a large mixing bowl, season cooked warm rice with 2-3 teaspoon sesame oil and ½ teaspoon salt (if needed, add more of each to taste). Mix well. Keep covered and warm at room temperature to avoid drying out.
Eggs:
- In a small bowl, beat eggs with ¼ teaspoon salt. In an 8 inch wide non-stick pan on medium heat, add 1 teaspoon neutral oil, pour in half of the beaten eggs to create a thin pancake.
- Allow eggs to set until 75% cooked. Then fold from one side to the other to create a 1 inch wide egg roll. Once cooked, remove off heat and slice egg roll into two equal strips. Repeat process for remaining egg mixture. You should have 4 long strips of cooked egg.
Carrots:
- In the same heated pan on low-medium heat, add 1 teaspoon neutral oil along with julienned carrots. Season with a â…› teaspoon salt. Cook until vibrant and softened. Set aside.
Spam:
- To cut spam, turn it on its flatter side so it's no longer standing upright. From one end of the spam, slice off 4 x ¼ inch-thick rectangular shape pieces. Then cut rectangular pieces into half, so you have two equal long strips that are 1-inch wide. See images in blog post for visuals.
- In the same pan on medium heat without oil, pan fry spam until golden brown on both sides, about 2 minutes per side. Set aside.
Lettuce:
- Wash and dry leaves lettuce. Cut off ends.
To Assemble Kimbap:
- Lay out a sheet of gim vertically towards you with rough side up on a sushi mat resting on a clean flat surface. If you don't own a sushi mat or bamboo mat, you can work without one or replace it with a sheet of plastic wrap.
- Prepare a small bowl of water nearby. Place ¾ cup of seasoned rice on top of gim. Using clean hands dip fingers in water bowl or rice paddle, spread the rice out into a thin layer. Leave 1 inch of empty space at the furthest end and ½-inch of empty space closest to you.
- Place an equal portion of cooked carrots in the center of the rice, followed by a strip of pickled daikon above the carrots, a strip of egg beneath the carrots, and two strips of spam on top. Place lettuce on top of everything.
- From one end, roll kimbap away from you, tightly tucking in all of the ingredients until you reach the end. Firmly hold the roll until it’s set and doesn’t fall apart, about 10 seconds. Repeat this process 3 more times.
- Place kimbap roll on a cutting board. Brush ¼ teaspoon sesame oil per roll and garnish with sesame seeds. Using a wet sharp knife, slice kimbap into ¾-inch pieces. Repeat this process 3 more times. Enjoy! For storage and reheating instructions, please see Notes section.
Notes
How Much Rice Should I Cook?
For 3 measuring cups of cooked rice, please cook 240 grams of uncooked sushi rice in your rice cooker or on the stove top.Storage
Kimbap is best consumed within same day. You may store in the fridge in an airtight container and it will last up to 4 days with the below reheating technique. Please see below.To Reheat Kimbap
If you have leftover kimbap that have been sitting in the fridge, you can enjoy them again by reheating them on the stove top:-
- Heat a non stick pan on medium heat lightly greased with neutral oil.
-
- In a separate bowl, beat an egg and dip one piece of the kimbap into the egg so it's coated with egg on both sides.
-
- Place coated kimbap into the heated pan and fry on both sides until golden brown and the egg is cooked through.
-
- To speed up the reheating process, cover the kimbap with a lid so the steam can reheat and soften the rice again.
Molly
This was so simple, easy and so delicious! Thank you.
Monica
Great recipe, instructions, and video which helped me demystify kimbap for my first try which tasted delicious!
Christie Lai
Thank you so much for making my recipe, Monica! I am so incredibly happy to hear that I could help demystify this simple and delicious dish! I appreciate the kind review 🙂 Happy New Year!