In the boring and often mildly terrifying world of being a competent adult, there comes a time when you have to start eating healthily or face the horrible consequences. Junk food somehow seems less appealing when you have to factor in the inevitable side effects such as bloating, stomach cramps, and bad skin.

So we’re always looking for new things to eat that have added beauty benefits, and recently a secret super recipe has come to our attention which involves adding a dollop of yogurt and kimchi to our rice bowls.

The recipe appeared on food manufacturer Meiji’s Bulgaria Yogurt website, and advocates adding a hefty spoonful of strained yogurt and kimchi to a bowl of rice, garnishing it with soy sauce and fish flakes to taste.

Now, we already know that yogurt’s got lots of cultures and good bacteria type things in it that munch up all the bad bacteria in our guts and help our stomachs to process food into poop more efficiently (apologies if you’re eating while reading this). What some people might not know, however, is that the Korean staple dish of fermented cabbage is also excellent for all your internal plumbing. Like yogurt, it, too, is a probiotic, so it actually makes complete sense to combine the two as part of your lunch or dinner!

Naturally, we were curious as to what exactly the concoction would taste like, so we had our Japanese-language sister site Pouch give it a try!

First, strain off the excess water from the yogurt using coffee filters. We used about five filters for one 500-gram (17.6-ounce) tub of yogurt, and left it for around six hours until the yogurt was nice and firm.

We recommend prepping the yogurt way in advance, since waiting around for six hours before eating is enough to send anyone into a fit of “hangry” rage. Plus, if you’re planning on serving this ultra-healthy beautifying snack to friends, things might get a bit “strained” if you keep them waiting for their lunch. Ahem.

After the liquid is all drained off, your yogurt should be nice and stiff like this. Make sure you don’t skip the straining step, otherwise you will destroy the sticky consistency of the white rice that’s going to be forming the basis of the entire meal. Don’t throw the whey away from the strained yogurt once you’re done, either…add it to a smoothie in order to avoid wasting the health benefits!

Dump the yogurt onto a bowl of freshly cooked rice, then top with a generous serving of kimchi, plus some soy sauce if you like. We also added dried bonito fish flakes to our bowl.

You can mix the whole thing up like the Korean dish bibimbap if you really want to get all the flavours mingling!

Our Pouch reporters assure us that while the dish initially looks quite off-putting, it’s actually incredibly delicious as well as being good for your health. The sourness of the yogurt goes perfectly with the spicy tang of the kimchi, and the white rice provides a neutral base.

I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely going to try this out for myself!

All images © Pouch
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