Abundant even without meat skewers or pollock jeon... four recipes for a vegan Chuseok table prepared by a monk - 경향신문

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사진 크게보기 Venerable Juho is making yellow sesame songpyeon kneaded with gardenia-infused water. Courtesy of Venerable Juho

The word Hangawi conveys the abundance of the season. Han means big and gawi means middle; together it refers to the great holiday on the full moon of the eighth lunar month. In farming communities on the eve of harvest, people shared the fruits of the year, gave thanks to their ancestors, and prayed for the well-being of family and neighbors.

Temples were no exception in sharing abundance. Up through the early Joseon period, temples commonly held ancestral memorials, and even after Confucian ritual culture spread, people marked Chuseok by sharing the season's harvest and praying for peace for family and neighbors. In recent times, many lay Buddhists hold a joint memorial rite to honor their ancestors and to reflect on Buddhist teachings of respect for life and practice. The Chuseok scene at temples does not end with the rite itself: families shape songpyeon, meditate, take walks, and spend time together.

Venerable Juho, a master of temple cuisine and abbot of Songhaksa, says the family should be involved together from the very start when preparing holiday foods. Rather than having one person take charge of all the dishes, everyone trims ingredients, shapes songpyeon, and fries jeon so that the time of the holiday is shared. Talking naturally while cooking and checking on each other is in itself an important way to spend the holiday.

These dishes also embody the principles of temple cuisine. Meat and fish are not used, nor are the so-called five pungent vegetables (garlic, scallions, buchu, or Asian chives, wild chives, and heunggeo). Instead, flavors are built around plant ingredients such as beans and tofu, mushrooms, and seasoned greens. A vegetable-centered table that tones down strong seasonings and leaves out meat is gentler on the stomach and lets seasonal ingredients shine.

사진 크게보기 A filling for mung bean jeon that is nutritious as well, mixing assorted greens with mung beans. Courtesy of Venerable Juho

The monk first recommends mung bean jeon as a temple-style offering for the ancestral rite. For Chuseok he prefers it to skewered jeon, because it resembles the round harvest moon and is cooked by mixing assorted greens with highly nutritious mung beans. He recalls that when he was at the monastic college of Cheongamsa, trainee monks made songpyeon in the main hall, while in the rear quarters they fried mung bean jeon. Temple-style mung bean jeon contains no pork, scallions, or garlic. Grind soaked mung beans, add bracken, mung bean sprouts, cabbage, and mushrooms, season with salt, and pan-fry.

1. Rinse the hulled mung beans well, soak for 6~8 hours, then grind to a thick batter, adding a little water at a time.

2. Boil the bracken and shred it finely. Finely chop the mung bean sprouts and cabbage and squeeze out excess moisture. Finely chop the shiitake mushrooms as well.

3. Add the bracken, sprouts, cabbage, and shiitake to the ground mung beans and season with salt, mixing well.

4. Heat a pan, add plenty of cooking oil, spoon the batter into rounds, and pan-fry until golden on both sides.

사진 크게보기 Shiitake mushrooms are indispensable for vegan dumplings. Their chewy texture and umami make them an ideal substitute for meat. Courtesy of Venerable Juho

Although Chuseok foods usually bring to mind mung bean jeon and songpyeon, dumplings are also a great dish for the whole family to make and share at any time of year. Venerable Juho recommends temple-style dumplings as a project for families to do together. In particular, rather than clinging to a fixed holiday menu, temples fill dumplings with whatever is in season. He especially likes shiitake mushrooms, whose chewy texture, distinctive aroma, and umami lend depth to dishes without meat.

1. Squeeze excess moisture from the soaked shiitake, chop finely, and season lightly with soy sauce, sugar, and perilla oil.

2. Julienne the zucchini and stir-fry in perilla oil. Drain the tofu well and mash. Mince the green chili and Cheongyang chili.

3. Stir-fry the shiitake, then while still hot mix in the chilies. Add the tofu and zucchini and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Fill the dumpling wrappers, shape, then steam in a steamer for about 10~15 minutes.

Alongside jeon, a dish that makes the holiday table especially colorful is five-color skewered jeon. Venerable Juho threads vegetables that represent the five colorsshishito peppers, red bell pepper, carrot, king oyster mushrooms, and fresh shiitakeonto skewers and prepares them temple-style. Even without ham or imitation crab, the colors of the vegetables alone give the dish the festive look of a holiday food.

사진 크게보기 Five-color skewers that make use of each vegetable's natural color. Courtesy of Venerable Juho

1. Remove the stems from the shishito peppers. Seed the red bell pepper and cut into 6 cm lengths. If any shishito peppers are thick, halve them lengthwise.

2. Cut the carrot into 6 cm lengths about 1 cm thick, add two pinches of salt, and let sit for 10 minutes, then blanch in hot water for 2 minutes. Cut the king oyster mushrooms into 6 cm lengths about 2 cm thick.

3. Slice the fresh shiitake 2 cm thick and lightly saute with ½ tsp Joseon-ganjang and 1 tsp sesame oil.

4. Thread the prepared vegetables onto skewers, matching colors, and dust lightly with dry flour, shaking off the excess. Make a batter by mixing 300 g flour with 1 cup water and 1 tsp Joseon-ganjang, coat the skewers, and pan-fry in a skillet with soybean oil until golden on both sides.

Songpyeon is indispensable among Chuseok foods. Chuseok coincides with the season when new rice and new grains come in. People knead cakes from freshly harvested rice and make fillings from beans, sesame, chestnuts, and more to embody the year's harvest in food. The half-moon shape of songpyeon is also said to carry a wish for abundance, like a moon that will wax in the days to come.

사진 크게보기 Songpyeon colored with gardenia-infused water and water from boiling grape skins. Courtesy of Venerable Juho

1. Mix sesame seeds with raw sugar to make the sesame filling. Peel the chestnuts, parboil until half-cooked, then simmer with salt and sugar. Boil the peanuts and simmer with salt and sugar as well.

2. Add hot water to the wet non-glutinous rice flour and knead into a hot-water dough. Separately add gardenia-infused water and grape-skin water to portions of the dough to make yellow and purple doughs.

3. Pinch off pieces of dough, make a small hollow in the center, add the sesame filling, chestnuts, or peanuts, and shape into half-moons.

4. In a steamer, layer pine needles and songpyeon alternately and steam for about 30 minutes, then lightly brush with sesame oil.

The ancestral rite known as charye originally grew out of the tea-offering rite, dareje. The monk emphasizes that the meaning lies more in the tea gathering than in the sacrificial aspect, and that it is important to think of family with sincerity. When a family makes and shares dishes together that leave out meat and the five pungent vegetables, even that simple time is enough to carry the spirit of the holiday.