Wookwan's Korean Temple Food: The Road to the Taste of Enlightenment by Wookwan

  • Gochujang (page 23)

    from Wookwan's Korean Temple Food: The Road to the Taste of Enlightenment Wookwan's Korean Temple Food by Wookwan

    • Categories: Sauces, general; Korean; Vegan; Vegetarian
    • Ingredients: Korean red chile powder; fruit juice of your choice; coarse salt of your choice
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Notes about this book

  • kfoodie on May 12, 2018

    I was very surprised there is a restriction on using five pungent vegetables. One of them is garlic because of mind and body control. It is very interesting concept. Also, this food is very focused on minimal waste cooking.

  • mjes on May 11, 2018

    In preparing to cook through this book, I found that several ingredients are available only through herbalists.

Notes about Recipes in this book

  • Assorted pickled vegetables (Modeum-chaeso-jeorim)

    • kmeg on May 16, 2026

      This is on page 64 in my edition published in 2018.

  • Stir-fried burdock root (Ueong-bokkeum)

    • mjes on June 04, 2021

      This recipe requires fermented green plum extract which I could not find; I did find and use an unfermented green plum extract. No, I don't have easily access to Korean green chili peppers. I simply went with an Anaheim chili. I love burdock root and this is one of the best recipes for it that I have found. A fine julienned burdock root does challenge my knife skills but that is the only imperfection in this recipe.

  • Tri-color lotus root pancake (Samsaeng-yeongeun-jeon)

    • mjes on June 04, 2021

      Battered, pan-fried lotus root - flavored and colored by powdered green tea, powdered gardenia, and powdered beetroot. A simply, tasty side dish that is endlessly variable ... well, until you run out of sources of appropriate colored, healthy powders.

  • Stir-fried asparagus and button mushrooms (Asparagus-yangsongi-beoseot-bokkeum)

    • mjes on June 04, 2021

      This is one of those rare cookbooks that I want to cook through i.e. try every recipes. This is a simple asparagus and mushrooms with a bit of butter recipe, nothing especially Asian or Korean about it. Fine. But I don't need a recipe unless you are going to show it in a menu where it is a surprising side dish.

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  • ISBN 10 1732191409
  • ISBN 13 9781732191402
  • Published May 07 2018
  • Format Hardcover
  • Page Count 164
  • Language English
  • Countries United States
  • Publisher ICP Inc.

Publishers Text

Buddhist nun Wookwan breaks the boundaries of spiritual exercise and culinary practice in this first-of-its-kind meditative cookbook of Korean temple cuisine.

As the first volume of temple cuisine published in English, Wookwan herself has written an elegant volume that introduces the reader to Korean temple food, including what it means to care for the ingredients at each step of preparation, following the three key principles of cooking temple food, interspersed with her own accounts and tips among the recipes.

Korean temple food has been practicing what we now call the farm-to-table concept, using ingredients that are only homegrown or naturally cultivated, combined with an eco-friendly, clean eating mindfulness with a history of over 1700 years. It is also vegetarian cuisine; it does not use any animal products save for some dairy ingredients, nor does it use the five spicy vegetables that are thought to distract the mind; instead, flavors are precisely crafted by thorough understanding of the ingredients and their natural aromas.

Temple cuisine holds at its very core a reverence for life, and Wookwan's 41 meticulous recipes embody her philosophy and conscientiousness for nourishing the not only the body, but the soul.