Rice Balls (Jumeokbap) is a great gluten-free snack or lunch idea. And for this post, I wanted to have fun making them as snowman for Christmas or Holidays! If you have kids, your kids would LOVE to help you make this.
Snowman Rice Balls?? Yes, it’s your favorite Jumeokbap (주먹밥) in the shape of a snowman! I love making a snowman in the winter, don’t you? I love living in California but I do miss the snow here during the holiday time. I know this is a pretty last minute Christmas recipe idea but better late than never, right?
And these rice balls really don’t need a lot of time or special ingredients so hopefully, it’s something you can whip up, even if it’s last minute. It would be great as a rice substitute for dinner or even as a snack for your children during your Christmas holidays! You can have some fun making these with your little ones and it’s also GLUTEN FREE !
For a while now, I have been trying to come up with something fun to cook for Christmas or the holidays. I have searched through all my Korean cookbooks for dessert ideas but as you know there are no special Christmas foods in Korean cuisine.
So.. instead of desserts, I decided to make these cute Snowman Rice Balls (Jumeokbap)!! ⛄️ ❄️ ⛄️ The great thing about these special Snowman holiday theme rice treats is that it’s actually not high calorie or too sweet but something that you can eat with your everyday meal. I’m sure you can make even more cute designs than mine here but not too bad, right? haha
Rice Balls Stuffing or Filling Variations
- Spam – you just cup up spam, pan-fry it with a little splash of soy sauce and chili powder
- Ground beef – season ground beef with your favorite Bulgogi (Korean BBQ Beef 불고기) seasoning or follow my recipe in my original Jumeokbap post.
- Tuna – mix canned tuna with some mayonnaise, optionally add some cucumbers
- Kimchi – chop some kimchi, saute it with some gochujang, little bit of sugar
- Dried Anchovies – use my Myeolchi Bokkeum recipe to make it
- Salmon – cook salmon with some salt, pepper and soy sauce then use it
The spam, ground beef and tuna stuffing for these snowman rice balls was taken from my Jumeokbap post.
This post is a first for me in that I am asking you to watch the video for the details of how it is done rather than read my detailed recipe because trying to explain how you make the snowman would be way too hard to do with just words and pictures.
Please let me know if this works for you. If you didn’t like it, don’t worry, I am not planning to do this all the time. It’s just that I wanted to get these out to you sooner than later and doing both a full recipe post and video takes a much longer time.
Snowman Rice Balls (눈사람 주먹밥 Nunsaram Jumukbap)
Makes: 4 snowman Cooking Time: 40 min
- 4 cups cooked rice, short grain
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 1/4~1/2 tsp salt (good sea salt is best)
- black sesame seeds
- 1 sheet nori (kimbap gim 김밥 김)
- 1 perilla leaf
- 1 small carrot
- possible stuffing ideas (see my Jumukbap recipe)
- spam + soy sauce + red chili pepper powder (gochukaru)
- ground beef, seasoned
- egg garnish (gyeran jidan 계란지단)
- tuna + mayo
- sweet corn + mayo
- kimchi, chopped and seasoned
- Cook rice to make about 4 cups. If you cook about 1 1/2 cup uncooked rice, it should be plenty.
- While the rice is cooking, prepare the stuffing.
- SPAM: Cut spam into thick strips and fry them in the pan with a drizzle of soy sauce and red chili pepper.
- Ground beef: Cook 3 oz of ground beef in a pan with 2 tsp of soy sauce, 2 tsp of sugar, 1 tsp of mirin (rice wine), 1/2 tsp of garlic powder (or fresh chopped garlic), sprinkling of black pepper and toasted sesame seeds.
- EGG JIDAN: Lightly whisk 2 eggs and season with salt. Pour it into a heated frying pan on medium heat. When edges are cooked, turn it over and cook for a short time. Transfer to a cutting board and cut into thin slices.
- Cut perilla leaf into strips – to make snowman muffler.
- Cut Gimbap Gim (Sushi Nori) to make the hat, eyes, mouth, buttons, scarves and bowtie. See video for details. One tip to share, I found that cutting gim with kitchen scissors is much harder than using your regular household scissors.
- Peel and cut carrot slice into tiny triangles to make the nose. See video.
- Season cooked rice with sesame oil and salt. If using sea salt, use about 1/2 tsp per 4 cups of rice. Use less if it’s table salt or something saltier than sea salt. Mix rice. Cover and set aside.
- Make snowman’s head and body by lining a small bowl with plastic wrap and then spreading rice around the bottom part of the bowl.
- Place stuffing in the center of rice and then close up the saran wrap to make it into rice ball.
- Place head rice ball on top of body rice ball. Decorate with cut gim pieces to make the snowman face and body buttons (dried seaweed). Because rice is already sticky, you will find that it’s pretty easy to stick your gim pieces. But for something like the hat, just use a couple pieces of rice to hold it in place (I show it in my video) and that should do the trick!
- You can serve some dipping soy sauce and wasabi for people who have the heart to break up the snowman and eat it!!
Snowman Rice Balls (Jumeokbap) for Christmas!
Ingredients
- ▢4 cups cooked rice (short grain)
- ▢2 tsp sesame oil
- ▢1/4 – 1/2 tsp salt (good sea salt is best)
- ▢black sesame seeds
- ▢1 sheet nori (kimbap gim / 김밥 김)
- ▢1 perilla leaf
- ▢1 small carrot
Instructions
-
Cook rice to make about 4 cups. If you cook about 1 1/2 cup uncooked rice, it should be plenty.
-
While the rice is cooking, prepare the stuffing.
-
SPAM: Cut spam into thick strips and fry them in the pan with a drizzle of soy sauce and red chili pepper.
-
Ground beef: Cook 3 oz of ground beef in a pan with 2 tsp of soy sauce, 2 tsp of sugar, 1 tsp of mirin (rice wine), 1/2 tsp of garlic powder (or fresh chopped garlic), sprinkling of black pepper and toasted sesame seeds.
-
EGG JIDAN: Lightly whisk 2 eggs and season with salt. Pour it into a heated frying pan on medium heat. When edges are cooked, turn it over and cook for a short time. Transfer to a cutting board and cut into thin slices.
-
Cut perilla leaf into strips – to make snowman muffler.
-
Cut Gimbap Gim (Sushi Nori) to make the hat, eyes, mouth, buttons and muffler. See video for details.
-
Peel and cut carrot slice into tiny triangles to make the nose. See video.
-
Season cooked rice with sesame oil and salt. If using sea salt, use about 1/2 tsp per 4 cups of rice. Use less if it’s table salt or something saltier than sea salt. Mix rice. Cover and set aside.
-
Make snowman’s head and body by lining a small bowl with plastic wrap and then spreading rice around the bottom part of the bowl.
-
Place stuffing in the center of rice and then close up the saran wrap to make it into rice ball.
-
Place head rice ball on top of body rice ball. Decorate with cut gim pieces to make the snowman face and body buttons (dried seaweed).
-
You can serve some dipping soy sauce and wasabi for people who have the heart to break up the snowman and eat it!!
Tips & Notes:
- spam + soy sauce + red chili pepper powder (gochukaru)
- seasoned cooked ground beef
- seasoned egg garnish (gyeran jidan 계란지단)
- tuna + mayo
- sweet corn + mayo
- kimchi, chopped and seasoned