Bulgogi Salad Bowl —rsquo; A Simple Meal for When the Important Work Is Already Done

Finished the Salina essay. Linda was right — the piece finished itself once I stopped protecting it from being finished. The ending was the second visit, the choice rather than the obligation, standing at Derek's headstone and saying what I wanted to say rather than what I owed. The essay is called: The Two Visits. I posted it on RecipeSpinoff Sunday evening and went to bed without reading the responses.

Read them Monday morning. Sixty-three comments by the time I checked, which is more than anything I've posted since the ranch piece. People writing about their own unresolved grief, their own obligations that became choices, their own graves they'd been unable to visit and whether they would. Linda called at nine in the morning. She said: I knew it. I said I was glad she pushed. She said: Derek would have wanted you to say it out loud. He always liked when people said the real thing.

That sentence will stay with me for a long time. Maybe forever. The idea that the essay honored him — not as an act of penance but as an act of honesty — is the reframe I've been working toward for twenty years. It took twenty years and five years of sobriety and more than a year of therapy and two visits to a grave in Kansas and one woman's patient insistence to get here. That's the right amount of time for something this specific.

Made a simple summer dinner: grilled salmon, sliced cucumbers with rice vinegar and dill, corn on the cob. Nothing that required my full attention. A meal for a day when the important work had already been done before the cooking started.

The salmon that night was the right call — something I could cook on instinct, without a recipe, without measuring anything. But the bulgogi salad bowl has become my go-to for evenings like that one: days when the real weight has already been lifted before you ever step into the kitchen, and all you want is something bright and satisfying that lets you stay in that quiet. It’s the kind of meal Derek would have liked, I think — honest food, nothing trying too hard.

Bulgogi Salad Bowl

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 10 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 1 lb thinly sliced ribeye or sirloin beef
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
• 1 teaspoon gochujang (optional, for heat)
• 1 tablespoon neutral oil (for cooking)
• 4 cups chopped romaine or mixed greens
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• 1 cup cucumber, thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup shelled edamame
• 2 green onions, sliced thin
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 2 cups cooked white or brown rice
• For the dressing: 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 1 tablespoon rice vinegar, 1 tablespoon sesame oil, 1 teaspoon honey, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

Instructions

1. Marinate the beef. In a bowl, combine soy sauce, sesame oil, brown sugar, minced garlic, ginger, and gochujang if using. Add the sliced beef and toss to coat. Let marinate at least 15 minutes, or up to 1 hour in the refrigerator.
2. Make the dressing. Whisk together soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, honey, and garlic powder in a small bowl. Set aside.
3. Cook the beef. Heat neutral oil in a large skillet or grill pan over high heat. Working in batches if needed, cook the marinated beef 2—3 minutes per side until caramelized and cooked through. Remove from heat and let rest briefly.
4. Build the bowls. Divide rice among four bowls. Top each with a generous handful of greens, then add carrots, cucumber, and edamame.
5. Add the beef. Slice or portion the cooked bulgogi beef over each bowl.
6. Finish and serve. Drizzle dressing over each bowl, then scatter green onions and sesame seeds on top. Serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 480 | Protein: 31g | Fat: 18g | Carbs: 46g | Fiber: 4g | Sodium: 820mg