Bibim Guksu, remade
Sweet & Spicy Cold Pasta
비빔 국수
Bibim guksu — "mixed noodles" — is the Korean summer dish of thin somyeon noodles tossed in a sweet, hot, sour gochujang sauce and served ice cold. We make it with the pasta already in your cupboard. Spaghetti holds the sauce just as well, and nobody has to make a trip.
How to make it
The sauce is the dish, and it is traditionally a small committee: gochujang, gochugaru, vinegar, honey, soy, sesame oil, garlic. BALGAN ORIGINAL KOREAN HOT SAUCE arrives with most of that already balanced — fermented, sweet-first, hot-last — so you are adding vinegar for sharpness and sesame oil for weight, and little else. The one step you cannot skip is rinsing the noodles in ice water. Cold, starch-free noodles are what make this taste like bibim guksu instead of cold spaghetti.
Make the sauce first
Whisk the Korean hot sauce, rice vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil, honey, and grated garlic in the bowl you will serve from. Taste it — it should read sweet, then sharp, then hot.
Boil the pasta
Cook to just past al dente, following the package. Slightly softer works better here than firm.
Shock it cold
Drain, then rinse under cold running water while rubbing the noodles between your hands. You are washing off surface starch. Finish in a bowl of ice water for 30 seconds, then drain very well — wet noodles dilute the sauce.
Toss
Add the noodles to the sauce and mix until every strand is red and glossy.
Pile it on
Top with cucumber, kimchi, and the halved eggs. Scatter sesame seeds and torn seaweed, and eat it cold.
One thing that matters
Drain harder than feels necessary. Water is the only thing that ruins this dish.
How to serve it
Works as a full lunch, or in smaller bowls beside grilled meat.
Made with BALGAN ORIGINAL KOREAN HOT SAUCE — real Korean gochujang, slow-fermented and remade as a pourable Korean sauce. Launching on Kickstarter, November 2026.
See the sauce →