Steamed Vegetables for Breakfast: How We Start Our Day at Home

See how we prepare steamed vegetables with egg, fruit, and a little juk or nurungji for a simple breakfast in our Korean home.

How Our Breakfast Has Changed Over the Years

When we were younger, we often started the day with a more traditional Korean breakfast. Rice and soup, along with a few side dishes, were a familiar way to begin the morning.

As we have gotten older, however, the way we eat breakfast has gradually changed.

These days, we try to include more vegetables and protein rather than making carbohydrates the main part of the meal. That does not mean we skip breakfast. Even on busy mornings, we prefer to eat something and have found a simple routine that works well for us.

One of the easiest ways for us to do that is to steam several kinds of vegetables together.

It is not an elaborate breakfast or a special recipe. But it is easy to prepare, allows us to eat a variety of vegetables at one meal, and has become a regular part of how we start our day.

Steamed Vegetables Are at the Center of Our Breakfast

On the day shown in the photo, we prepared six ingredients together: kabocha squash, tofu, broccoli, carrots, purple sweet potato, and cabbage.

But these six ingredients are not a fixed recipe.

We simply choose vegetables that are easy to find and that we feel like eating at the time. On another morning, the combination may be a little different.

We do not always eat only steamed vegetables, either.

Sometimes we add raw vegetables such as lettuce, bell peppers, and avocado. We may also have cucumber or tomatoes, and blueberries sometimes find their way onto the plate as well.

My wife especially likes lettuce and kabocha squash. As for me, I usually eat whatever vegetables she prepares for us that morning.

So our steamed vegetables are less of a recipe with a strict ingredient list and more of a simple way to enjoy a variety of vegetables at breakfast.

How We Steam the Vegetables

To make breakfast easier in the morning, we usually wash and prepare the vegetables the night before.

The next morning, all we need to do is get the steamer ready and cook the vegetables.

With the combination shown in the photo, we put the kabocha squash into the steamer first because it needs a little more cooking time. We steam it for about two minutes.

Then we add the tofu, broccoli, carrots, purple sweet potato, and cabbage and steam everything together for about three more minutes.

The total steaming time is only about five minutes.

We prefer not to cook the vegetables for too long. We like them cooked but still with some of their natural texture.

Of course, the cooking time can change depending on the vegetables, how large they are cut, and how soft you prefer them.

So rather than treating five minutes as a strict rule, we simply adjust the time to suit the ingredients we are using that morning.

This is also a good example of the kind of cooking we talked about in Our Korean Home Kitchen: using ingredients that are easy to find and preparing them in a practical way without making everyday cooking unnecessarily complicated.

Different Sauces Make the Same Vegetables Feel Different

Steamed vegetables are simple on their own, but what we eat with them can change the flavor quite a bit.

At our home, we sometimes use balsamic sauce and olive oil. At other times, we eat the vegetables with our seasoned gochujang.

Balsamic sauce and olive oil give the vegetables a lighter flavor, while seasoned gochujang adds a more familiar Korean-style taste.

There is no rule that every vegetable has to be eaten with the same sauce.

We simply choose according to what we feel like eating that morning.

A small change like this helps us enjoy the same basic steamed vegetables in different ways without making breakfast more complicated.

Steamed Vegetables Are Only Part of Our Breakfast

Although steamed vegetables are an important part of our breakfast, they are not the entire meal.

We usually have one fried egg as well.

We also eat fruit. An apple is something we have almost every day, while the other fruits change depending on the season and what we have bought.

Sometimes we also have a small serving of juk, Korean rice porridge, or nurungji.

So a typical breakfast at our home might look something like this:

Steamed or raw vegetables + one fried egg + an apple and seasonal fruit + a small serving of juk or nurungji

It is not exactly the same every morning, but this is the basic pattern around which our breakfast tends to change.

The porridge is not always the same either. One kind we sometimes eat in the morning is hobakjuk, Korean pumpkin porridge. We will share how we make our hobakjuk in another story from Our Korean Home Kitchen.

Why We Like to Eat Vegetables in the Morning

One reason our breakfast has changed is that, as we have gotten older, we have become more conscious of what and how we eat.

For us, steamed vegetables feel relatively easy to eat in the morning, and steaming several kinds together makes it easy to include a good variety of vegetables in one meal.

We also tend to eat the vegetables before eating much of the carbohydrate portion of breakfast.

After eating the vegetables and egg first, we often already feel partly satisfied, so a smaller serving of juk or nurungji feels sufficient for us.

We are not suggesting that everyone should eat breakfast this way.

It is simply a routine that works well for us as we have gradually shifted away from making carbohydrates the main part of our breakfast and toward eating more vegetables and protein.

About 15 Minutes Is Enough for Our Breakfast

Even if you want to prepare a thoughtful breakfast, it can be difficult to keep doing it every day if the preparation becomes too complicated.

For us, a little preparation the night before makes a big difference.

We wash and prepare the vegetables in advance. In the morning, we put them in the steamer, fry an egg, and prepare a small amount of juk or nurungji if we are having it that day.

Then we add some fruit.

Altogether, preparing breakfast usually takes us about 15 minutes.

What matters to us is not creating an impressive breakfast. It is finding a routine that is practical enough to continue even on busy mornings.

Because the preparation is simple, it is easier for us to include several vegetables, an egg, and fruit in our morning meal on a regular basis.

Over time, this has become one of our small breakfast routines.

There Is No Single Korean Breakfast

When people imagine a Korean breakfast, they may picture a table with rice, soup, and several banchan.

That kind of breakfast certainly exists, and when we were younger, we often ate breakfast that way too.

But breakfast habits can change with age, lifestyle, work schedules, and personal preferences.

Some people may still enjoy rice and soup in the morning. Others may have bread or something very simple. Some eat only a small breakfast, while others may skip it altogether.

In today’s busy lifestyle, it is difficult to describe the traditional table of rice, soup, and several side dishes as the only way Koreans eat breakfast.

At our home, we still try not to skip breakfast.

Instead of preparing a large or elaborate meal, we usually keep it relatively light with steamed or raw vegetables, an egg, fruit, and a small amount of juk or nurungji.

This is not meant to represent breakfast in every Korean household.

For a broader look at how breakfast fits into everyday Korean home meals, see what Koreans really eat at home.

It is simply the breakfast that fits the way we live today.

A Simple Breakfast That Works for Us

There is no need to prepare exactly six vegetables every morning or recreate the plate in our photo.

We choose a few vegetables that are readily available and, whenever possible, wash and prepare them the night before.

In the morning, we steam them for a few minutes and fry an egg. Then we add fruit and, if we want it, a little juk or nurungji.

In about 15 minutes, our breakfast is ready.

The breakfast we once ate with rice and soup has gradually changed as we have gotten older.

Our breakfast today is neither elaborate nor large.

But it allows us to start the day without skipping a meal, eat plenty of vegetables, and prepare foods that work well for us without spending too much time in the kitchen.

Easy-to-find ingredients, uncomplicated preparation, and a little care to make something we genuinely enjoy eating.

That is how we start our day at home, and it has become our own simple breakfast know-how.