Tteokguk
The soup eaten in Korea on the morning of the Lunar New Year — tradition says each bowl adds a year to your age. Oval slices of rice cake made from regular, non-glutinous rice stand for coins and prosperity, their white colour for a clean start. The broth is simple and clear, made with beef and soy sauce. The rice cakes must be soaked before cooking and cooked briefly — overcooked, they turn to glue and thicken the broth into sludge.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Soaking the rice cakes 30 min
- Beef broth 40 min
- Egg strips 10 min
- Cooking the rice cakes 8 min
Step by step
0 / 8 doneSoak the rice cakes in cold water
Separate the slices and soak them in cold water for 30 minutes. Packaged rice cakes are hard and stuck together; soaked, they soften evenly and cook in minutes instead of turning mushy outside while hard within.
Ingredients: 600 g tteok rice cakes
Half an hour in cold water — then they cook evenly.Cook the beef for the broth
Slice the brisket thinly, brown it briefly in sesame oil with the garlic, add the water and simmer 30–40 minutes, skimming. The broth should be clear and light — a background for the rice cakes, not a heavy stock.
Ingredients: 300 g beef brisket · 2000 ml water · 4 cloves garlic · 2 tbsp light soup soy sauce · 1 tbsp sesame oil · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Season with light soup soy sauce
Season the broth with light soup soy sauce (guk-ganjang) and salt. Light soy gives saltiness without darkening the broth — ordinary dark soy would turn it brown and ruin the whiteness of the New Year dish.
Ingredients: 300 g beef brisket · 2000 ml water · 4 cloves garlic · 2 tbsp light soup soy sauce · 1 tbsp sesame oil · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Cook the eggs separately and thin
Separate the eggs. Cook the yolks and whites separately as thin sheets in a lightly oiled pan over low heat, without browning. Cut into fine strips — this is jidan, the two-coloured garnish of Korean soups.
Ingredients: 2 pcs eggs · 1 pcs nori · 2 pcs spring onions · 1 tbsp sesame seeds · 1 tsp oil
Yolks and whites apart — two-coloured jidan.Add the rice cakes to boiling broth
Drain the rice cakes and drop them into boiling broth. Cook 4–6 minutes, until they float and are soft but springy. Test one — it should be chewy, not floury at the centre.
Ingredients: 600 g tteok rice cakes
Until they float — soft and springy, not floury.Do not overcook
Take off the heat as soon as the rice cakes soften. Overcooked, they release starch, stick together and turn a clear broth into thick sludge. Rice cakes keep softening in the hot broth.
Ingredients: 600 g tteok rice cakes
Ladle out and arrange the toppings
Ladle the soup into bowls and arrange the egg strips, meat, crumbled nori, spring onion and sesame on top. The toppings go in separate little heaps, not mixed — in Korea the look of the bowl matters as much as the taste.
Ingredients: 2 pcs eggs · 1 pcs nori · 2 pcs spring onions · 1 tbsp sesame seeds · 1 tsp oil
Serve at once
Serve immediately, with kimchi. Tteokguk is eaten on New Year's morning after bowing to one's elders. Asking how many bowls of tteokguk you have eaten is a Korean joke way of asking your age.
Ingredients: 2 pcs eggs · 1 pcs nori · 2 pcs spring onions · 1 tbsp sesame seeds · 1 tsp oil
Before you start
Fresh or frozen rice cakes
Oval sliced tteok, garaetteok, is sold in Asian shops — fresh, vacuum-packed or frozen. Soak frozen ones longer, an hour. Do not confuse them with tteokbokki, cylindrical rice cakes for spicy stew.
The dumpling version
Tteok-manduguk is the same soup with mandu dumplings. Dumpling soup comes from the north of the Korean peninsula; the combined version is now popular all over Korea. Add the dumplings to the broth 3 minutes before the rice cakes so everything cooks together.
Eat it straight away
Rice cakes in broth soften and drink up liquid by the minute. Cooked soup does not reheat well. The broth can be made ahead and kept three days — always cook the rice cakes fresh.
