Gochujang Ground Beef and Sweet Potatoes

This simple ground beef and sweet potatoes combo pairs a gochujang sauce for ground beef with a Korean chile flake seasoning blend for roasted sweet potatoes. The mellow heat and sweetness from Korean chiles work perfectly with the other salty and umami flavors in the dish. Paired with a chili crisp cucumber salad, kimchi, and rice, this dynamic duo makes incredible protein bowls that are perfect for meal prep.

The Sweet Potatoes and Ground Beef

I’ve split the recipe into two parts—ground beef cooked on the stovetop and oven roasted or air fried sweet potatoes. There’s a bit of ingredient carryover between the two. Here’s the shortlist of everything you will need:

• Lean Ground Beef
• Sweet Potatoes
• Gochujang (Korean chile paste) and Gochugaru (Korean chile flakes) – Other chile flakes work, but gochugaru is sweeter and milder on the heat scale. Use caution with spicier chiles.
• Coconut Aminos or Soy Sauce
• Rice Vinegar
• Kosher Salt, Black Pepper, and Garlic Powder
• Toasted Sesame Oil
• Olive Oil

That’s about it! Let me know if you have a question about substitutions or ingredient selection in the comments at the bottom of this post.

The Banchan (Sides)

Beyond the ground beef and sweet potatoes, the world is your oyster. Pictured here you have a chili crisp cucumber salad, kimchi, sesame seed garlic crunch, rice, and a ssamjang mayo.

Cucumber Salad

I make my cucumber salad different every time, but it always starts with seedless cucumbers, rice vinegar, toasted sesame oil, salt, and chili crisp. Sometimes I’ll add thinly sliced scallions or cilantro (I added both for the version pictured here), extra sesame seeds, tahini, or radish slices.

If you want a lower calorie option without chili crisp or chili oil, my Korean turkey bowls have a version with just gochugaru. And my Thai rotisserie chicken bowls have a tahini lime cucumber crunch salad, in case you need another example.

Kimchi and Pickled Veggies

While you want to make cucumber salad fresh, you can find fermented kimchi and all kinds of pickled vegetables like carrots, cauliflower, etc. that go great with dishes like this.

If you want to make your own pickled carrots, my ground beef bulgogi recipe has a great option.

Sauces and Rice

Also featured in that bulgogi recipe is a creamy blended kimchi sauce that looks something like 1/2 cup kimchi, 1/4 cup light mayo, 2 tablespoons water, and one tablespoon each of gochujang and honey. I’ve used nonfat Greek yogurt to make sauces like yum yum sauce, if you’re looking to skip the light mayo.

If you have the carbs in your diet to spare, I like adding a small amount of rice to these sweet potatoes and ground beef bowls.

Most of my rice bowls and protein bowl recipes these days call for something called half calorie rice, which is just a low calorie rice alternative made with jasmine rice cooked in bone broth and cauliflower rice. It’s basically good ol’ jasmine rice with a lot more volume per 100-calorie serving.

That covers anything and everything you need to know about making these gochujang ground beef bowls. If I forgot to cover something, let me know in the comments. Otherwise, I hope you love this recipe. And if you do, I’m always super appreciative of recipe reviews.