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Banchan — the small side dishes that accompany every Korean meal — are what most non-Korean diners first notice and find most unfamiliar about eating Korean food. They're also one of the most misunderstood aspects of Korean cooking: people see ten small dishes on a table and assume Korean cooking is enormously complex. In practice, a rotation of five or six regularly made banchan, prepared in advance and stored in the refrigerator, covers most meals with minimal additional cooking time. Here is the guide to understanding and making them.

What Banchan Is and How It Works

Banchan are shared side dishes placed in the center of the table to accompany rice (bap) and soup (guk or jjigae). They're not individual servings — everyone at the table shares from the same bowls. The selection and quantity varies by the occasion, the restaurant, and the home cook's preference, but a typical Korean home meal might have two to four banchan alongside rice and a simple soup or stew.

The key to banchan in home cooking: they're made in advance in batches and eaten over multiple days or a week. This is why they appear on the table in quantity — the cook didn't prepare ten dishes the day of the meal, they assembled from a refrigerator stocked with dishes made over the previous week. Understanding this changes how you approach cooking Korean food at home — the investment is front-loaded rather than daily.

The Banchan Every Korean Home Has

Kimchi in various forms is the foundational banchan — napa cabbage kimchi (baechu-kimchi), radish kimchi (kkakdugi), and cucumber kimchi (oi-sobagi) are the most common. For home cooks not ready to make kimchi, buying good quality kimchi from a Korean grocery and using it as the base of the banchan selection is a completely legitimate starting point.

Sigeumchi-namul (seasoned spinach) is one of the most-made banchan in Korean homes and one of the easiest: blanched spinach seasoned with sesame oil, garlic, soy sauce, and sesame seeds. It takes 10 minutes, keeps for 4-5 days in the refrigerator, and can accompany almost any Korean meal. Kongnamul-muchim (seasoned bean sprouts) follows the same approach — blanched bean sprouts dressed with sesame oil, soy, garlic, and chili — and is equally quick and versatile.

Japchae (glass noodles with vegetables), jorim dishes (soy-braised items like potatoes, black beans, or tofu), and jeon (Korean pancakes — pajeon with green onion, kimchi jeon, hobak jeon with zucchini) represent the slightly more involved banchan that home cooks make in larger batches for multiple meals.

Building a Banchan Rotation

Starting with two or three banchan that you make regularly and well is more practical than attempting to recreate a restaurant's spread. The five that give the broadest coverage: a kimchi (bought or made), sigeumchi-namul, kongnamul-muchim, a braised dish (gamja-jorim with potatoes is the most forgiving), and one jeon (pancake). These five give you substantial variety without requiring uncommon ingredients or advanced technique, and they all keep well in the refrigerator for a week of meals.

The Equipment That Helps

A large pot for blanching vegetables, a sesame oil dispenser for the seasoned dishes, and an adequate supply of small bowls for serving are the equipment requirements that non-Korean kitchens typically don't have. Small ceramic or earthenware bowls (available at Korean grocery stores for modest cost) are worth getting if you plan to eat Korean food regularly — they're the right size for individual banchan portions and the material maintains temperature well for hot dishes.

My honest take: Start with sigeumchi-namul and kongnamul-muchim — they're quick, reliable, and teach the seasoned vegetable technique central to banchan. Build your rotation from there rather than trying to make everything at once.