Guide to Super Popular and Delicious Korean Rice Balls

What are Korean Rice Balls?

Korean rice balls are exactly what you may visualize them to be: cooked white rice formed together into the shape of a ball.

As mentioned previously, what makes them so convenient is that you can eat them as a light meal, or as a snack, and you don’t have to use utensils! They’re especially convenient if you want to pack them as a side dish to your portable bagged lunch because you can easily just use your hands to eat them.

Some people may not know this, but Korean sticky rice balls are derived from the famous and very popular Japanese onigiri. (Thus, another name for Korean rice balls is Korean-style onigiri). 

In case you are not aware, onigiri is a Japanese food made of plain white rice that is pressed together to form a triangular shape (or a ball) and it’s wrapped in nori (dry edible seaweed sheets).

Japanese rice balls are commonly filled with any of the following ingredients:

• Salted salmon
• Umeboshi (Pickled ume fruits)
• Kombu (Edible kelp)
• Tarako (Plain and salted pollock roe – Alaskan pollock (cod) fish eggs)
• Mentaiko (Marinated pollock roe – Alaskan pollock (cod) fish eggs)
• Katsuobushi (Smoked and fermented skipjack tuna)
• Takanazuke (Pickled takana – it’s basically pickled Japanese mustard green)

However, traditionally, Koreans made their rice balls with these ingredients:

• Plain rice
• Sesame seeds
• Sesame oil

(Many people refer to these as plain rice balls). 

Now, the one good thing about sesame seeds is that they are very healthy for you! According to Consumer Reports, sesame seeds provide you with an enormous about of zinc (22-31% of the daily need for zinc). Zinc is super important for your immune system. Sesame seeds also provide 23% of your daily need for iron, too!

Another way to make Korean rice balls is by cooking chopped onion, carrots, and parsley, forming them into cooked plain white rice balls, and adding sesame seeds and sesame oil.

Here’s an example below:

[You’ll really enjoy watching this YouTube video featured on Sweet and Tasty TV. I SURE DID]. 

FAQs

What are Korean Rice Balls Made Of?

You can make Korean rice balls with several different ingredients depending on what kind of rice ball you choose to make (meaning, what flavor you want). However, as mentioned before, these are the basic ingredients:

• Plain white rice (sushi rice or short-grain rice)
• Sesame oil
• Roasted sesame seeds
• Dried seaweed sheets

What is Onigiri in Korean Culture?

As mentioned previously, we call the Korean version of the Japanese onigiri jumeok-bap (주먹밥). The literal meaning is fist rice. More specifically, jumeok means fist and bap means rice. The most basic kind of jumeok-bap is made with cooked white rice, sesame oil, roasted sesame seeds, and dried seaweed sheets.

How Do You Make Rice Balls Stick Together?

The starch from short-grain rice, sushi rice, or sticky rice makes rice balls stick together. One way to make sure your rice balls will stick together is to form the balls while the rice is still warm. Don’t let it get cold, or it will be harder to form the rice balls.

Also, to ensure that the rice balls are going to be sticky, you can add about four more tablespoons of water to the rice before you cook it.

Which Country Made Rice Balls?

Rice balls are very common in Asian countries. However, rice balls are actually very common, too, in other countries around the world. For example, the following countries make their own versions of rice balls:

• Japan: Onigiri
• Korea:  Jumeok-bap 
• Italy: Arancini & Suppli
• Ghana: Omo tuo
• China: Tangyuan & Zongzi