Bibimbap Inspired Quinoa Bowl Recipe + My Visit With BC Egg Farmers

Bibimbap Inspired Quinoa Bowl Recipe + My Visit With BC Egg Farmers

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I have a dream, that one day I will own a small acreage. I’m imagining a property that is 1 to 5 acres in size. Not a crazy amount of land, but something big enough that I can have a little plot to plant veggies and flowers, a small “orchard” with apple and cherry trees, and a chicken coop so we can eat freshly laid eggs each morning. 

While I wait for that dream to come to fruition, I’m very lucky to live in a place where delicious eggs from some amazing family farms are so easy to find. 

You may remember that last year I did a tour of two BC Egg farms. This year, BC Egg invited me to join them on another farm tour, and to contribute to their BC Egg Cookbook. 

We went to two farms during our tour. Paragon Farms is a 3rd generation farm run by twin brothers, James and Jon Krahn. The family is in the process of expanding the farm, converting from conventional housing to enriched housing for their hens. 

The second farm we visited was Bordercreek Poultry, a certified organic, free range farm where hens have access to the outdoors and live in an open concept barn. 

During our tour I had a two things, strongly re-confirmed to me:

1. We’re very lucky in BC to have access to good quality eggs that come from chickens who are being well cared for.

When you buy eggs in the grocery store in BC they are coming from BC egg farms.  I, personally, tend to buy organic free range eggs to feed to my family but not everyone can afford that luxury.

In my opinion, based on the farms that I’ve visited, no one should feel bad about purchasing eggs that come from a a conventional housing or enriched housing farm. Sick and mistreated hens do not lay eggs so a farmers ultimate goal is to have happy and healthy hens. At the conventional and enriched housing farms the hens were happy. I had always pictured hens that were in teeny tiny cages by themselves, forced to sit in one spot and lay. That is not what I experienced. The hens were in cages with other birds in their flock. They have  room to move around, roost, eat, drink and lay. Because the hens are confined in small flocks, instead of with a huge group of thousand of hens, you don’t see chickens that have had their feather’s plucked out by dominant birds the way you often see with free range hens. 

I’m thankful that everyone has access to affordable eggs that come from hens that are humanely treated and healthy.  

2. Every farmer has a story of how he came to be an egg farmer and it’s amazing to hear about how the tradition is being passed from one generation to the next.

In the case of Paragon Farms, the farmers are third generation farmers who learned the trade from their parents and grandparents. Farming is a way of life for them and it’s interesting to hear about how technology has changed the way the current farmers tend to their flocks of chickens from the way their parents and grandparents farmed. 

In the case of Bordercreek Poultry, the farmer was an immigrant who came to work at a family run farm 30 years ago. He had a passion for poultry farming and learned all aspects of farming from the family who hired him. When the owners retired, he became a part owner in the farm and now manages it. You can see in his eyes how much he loves his hens and how much pride he has in what he does. 

Eggs… more than a breakfast food.

My family eats a lot of eggs. I love that they are packed full of protein, are available locally sourced 12 months out of the year, and are so versatile. Many people think of eggs as breakfast food. I love incorporating them into other meals as well. Today I thought I’d share with you one of the recipes I created for the BC Eggs Cookbook. It’s a family favorite and I hope you love it too!

Read on for my Bibimbap Inspired Quinoa Bowl Recipe!

Bibimbap Inspired Quinoa Bowl Recipe

One of my favorite ways to spend a summer day is at the farmer’s market with my kids. I love having them help me pick out local produce and encourage them to pick fruits and vegetables that they haven’t tried. This bowl is a great way to showcase all of the fresh, beautiful flavors of the summer. It’s inspired by one of my favorite Korean dishes, bibimbap. I’ve updated it by creating my own sauce and nesting the vegetables and meat on quinoa instead of white rice. I love the bright colours of the fresh vegetables and the beautiful golden yolk of the eggs. Slice into those gorgeous BC fresh eggs and the yolks add a delicious creaminess to the dish!

Ingredients for bowl:

-1.5 pounds ground beef
-4 cups cooked quinoa
-1 large carrot, cut into matchsticks
-4 large mushrooms, cut into slices
-1 bell pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces
-1/2 zucchini, cut into slices then cut into quarters
-½ cucumber, cut into matchsticks
-8 eggs or 2 eggs per person you are serving

Ingredients for the sauce:

-3 tablespoons soy sauce
-3 tablespoons mirin
-1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
-1 tablespoon brown sugar
-2 teaspoons sesame oil
-1 teaspoon sriracha + more for topping

Directions:

1. Combine ingredients for sauce and mix well until all ingredients are combined.

2. Brown ground beef over medium high heat. When beef is done cooking, add sauce. Bring to a bubble then take off of heat. Transfer to serving bowl.

3. Over medium high heat, one vegetable at a time, gently sautee mushrooms, peppers and zuchinni. Transfer each ingredient to a bowl after it is done cooking.

4. Heat a clean frying pan on high heat. Crack eggs into frying pan, then turn heat off. Cover frying pan and let the eggs cook until the whites are cooked. The egg yolks should still be runny.

5. Put 1 cup of warm quinoa in each bowl. Add meat on top of quinoa then place vegetables around the meat. Top with  2 sunny side up eggs. Add sriracha for extra heat. Serve and enjoy!

Makes 4 servings.

Tell me… What is your favorite egg recipe? Have you ever visited an egg farm?

Disclosure: Thank you to BC Egg Farms for working with me on this post. As with all articles on Hello Creative Family, all thoughts and opinions are 100% our own!