Hi, everybody,
I’m so excited to introduce this simple and healthy soup to you!
Korean meals are usually served with rice, soup, and other side dishes. Just in case you don’t know what doenjang is, I’m telling you that doenjang is Korean fermented soy bean paste.
You could make so many different kinds of doenjang guk using different vegetables such as spinach, potato, radish leaves, fresh mugwort (ssuk)… Of all the vegetables, baechu (napa cabbage) doenjang guk is the most basic soup and every Korean loves it. (Let me know if you find any Korean who doesn’t like this soup) : )
I will give you a short quiz now. : ) What would you call doenjang guk made with spinach? … pause … yes, it’s called shigeumchi doenjang guk. Shigeumchi is spinach in Korean. Heh, it’s easy, right?
When my grandmother made this soup, she always used milky rice water instead of water. Every day she made a huge amount of rice to feed her family. When she washed, rubbed, and rinsed her rice grains, she got the milky water. When she made doenjang guk, she used that milky rice water in her pot.
When I was in middle school, the lady next door ran a restaurant. She sold baechu doenjang guk. She and my mother were friends, so we were like family. Most of her soup customers were male workers who needed a cheap and simple breakfast before starting work early in the morning. What time in the morning? Before dawn! To be ready to serve this soup, she probably should make it at 2-3 am? Her soup was very popular so that her restaurant was always crowded especially in the morning.
I saw her serving her soup to her customers. When her customer was sitting at the table, she ladled the soup into a large bowl from her huge pot and added a little barley rice (about 2 tbs?), and put it on his table. Only one side dish was there, kkaktugi (radish kimchi). That’s all! The worker’s stomach will get warm with the hot soup and a little bit of rice!
I used to wake up with the irresistible aroma from the soup she made. Sometimes the smell made me go crazy! : )
Her doenjangguk was not spicy and a little brown and milky. It was super tasty!
I saw she used flour instead of rice water. She made this doenjang guk exactly this way I’m showing in this video recipe. Only thing I skipped is MSG. : ) Instead of MSG, I use more dried anchovies.
I miss her now. We lost connection long time ago when my family moved to another place.
Ingredients:
700 grams of Napa cabbage (half of a medium size napa cabbage), 1/3 cup soy bean paste, 10 dried anchovies, 6 cups of water, 1 green chili pepper, 5-6 cloves of garlic, 2 tbs flour.
Directions:
- Put about 700 grams of Napa cabbage directly into boiling water and stir it with a large spoon for 20 seconds. Boil it for a minute with the lid open.
- Rinse it in cold water a couple of times to clean any remaining dirt from the cabbage leaves. Gently squeeze the leaves to get rid of any remaining water.
- Chop the cabbage into small pieces and put them into a large pot.
- Add 1/3 cup soy bean paste, 5-6 cloves minced garlic, 1 chopped green chili pepper, 10 large dried anchovies (after removing heads and guts), and 2 tbs flour to the pot.
- Mix it by hand or a wooden spoon.
- Add 6 cups of water and bring to a boil for 20 minutes over medium high heat.
- Lower the heat and simmer another 10 minutes.
- Serve hot with rice and other side dishes.
*tip: Do you like spicy soup? Then add some hot pepper paste right before simmering (step 7).
Hey, Maangchi, I would really like to make the soup today, but I don’t have anchovies. Can I just make the soup without them ?? If not with what should I replace them ?? Oh, and can I just put some hot pepper paste instead of green chili pepper ??
hmm, dried anchovies make this soup delicious. How about using vegetable stock, chicken stock, or beef stock? Yes, add hot pepper paste to the soup, it will be delicious.
Hi Maangchi! I absolutely love your site! I was wondering for this dish, is there a vegetarian alternative to the anchovies? I wasn’t sure if kelp would give it a bit of “seafood flavour”….will appreciate any ideas!
I actually first made this last winter and it was so delicious! I don’t know why I didn’t leave a comment on here. I suddenly got a craving for this, so I went out today to buy the ingredients. I’m so excited to eat this again! Thanks, Maangchi, for sharing a wonderful and healthy recipe!
yes, this soup is very popular among Koreans. “I suddenly got a craving for this..” oh yeah? : )
this is my 2 year old daughter’s favorite food. my mom used to make it for her pretty often when we lived with her. now I know how to make it for her! I omitted the baechu and put instead 1 pkg of firm tofu cut into cubes and 1/3 of a stalk of muu sliced and cut in half, since my daughter also happens to love muu and tofu :) it was a hit! i tried eating the anchovies but they were too fishy for me so i’m going to use the strainer ball next time. thank you so much maangchu!! i can’t wait to try more of your recipes. next up is soondooboo chigae!!
“I omitted the baechu and put instead 1 pkg of firm tofu cut into cubes and 1/3 of a stalk of muu sliced and cut in half, since my daughter also happens to love muu and tofu :) it was a hit”
You are proving some recipes can be modified to your taste. Wonderful variation!
I live in Seoul and my son attends daycare here. He eats this soup at daycare all the time. Sometimes at home he only wants to eat Korean Food (even though his daddy and I are both American)! So I am really glad I found this recipe to cook for my son – thank you so much for posting it!
“Sometimes at home he only wants to eat Korean Food (even though his daddy and I are both American)! ..”
Aww! so cute! : )
Wow, this soup was easy and very delicious! Thank you, Maangchi, your recipes are amazing =D
great news!
your dried anchovies seem different thn mine.. did u do something to them before putting it in the tea strainer n taking the guts out..and if so are u supposed to do it to ever dish with dried anchovies??
Thanku sooo much i totally love korean food now i eat my container kimichi when i watch my korean dramas/movies lol
To make delicious anchovy stock, you will need right dried anchovies.
http://www.maangchi.com/ingredients/dried-anchovies-myulchi
Check the recipe step 4!
… 10 large dried anchovies (after removing heads and guts)..
Good luck with making delicious baechu doenjangguk! : )
I made this yesterday and it was Awesome! The napa cabbage at the store was old and nasty so I used savoy instead. It came out great anyway. Thank you for this delicious recipe.
Thank you for your update! Good news!
Im really having a HARD time finding the Green Chili Pepper and the tea strainer for the dried anchovies(hve the dried anchovies though).. is their anythin i can substitute to make the dish? I went to Toronto no luck finding it…HELP ME lol plz..
No problem!
Use jalapeño instead of green chili pepper. Put the anchovies into the soup and take them out before serving. (Some friends of mine eat the cooked dried anchovies from the soup! lots of calcium! ^^) Or tie them up in cheesecloth before boiling in the soup.
Wow. I just found this recipe today and knew my Korean husband would love it (he has loved 99% of the things I’ve cooked from your site). His reaction to the first spoonful? MMMMMMMM! You can make this every day! You can freeze it and save it for later! He was so excited to have this soup. We had it with 멸치볶음 myulchi bokkeum, 대구전 / Daegujeon (for me, I don’t like mackerel), broiled mackerel and some other side dishes (bellflower root, seaseoned dried seaweed, 깍두기 kaktugi kimchi – your recipe!). My daughter (9) loves your myulchi bokkeum so much, I have to have it at the table for every meal! :-P (Today she made it herself.) THANK YOU, MAANGCHI!
I’m so happy to hear about your successful Korean cooking! I can imagine your dinner table where your whole family is eating delicious Korean meal!
Hey…me again..I found a link to some photos someone took and it happens to be that restaurant…..they said it was sundubu guksu. This is the link so you can see what it looks like…I guess they gave me a smaller portion to go with my noodles.
http://picasaweb.google.com/tataAbed/090910SunDuBuGukSu?feat=embedwebsite#
Darlene
Hi, Darlene,
I have never tasted and made it, but I think it will be very easy to make! : ) Make some noodle soup and add some soondubu! I will post my noodle soup recipe someday. Check my sujebi recipe. You may have an idea of making this soondubu noodle soup then.
http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/sujebi
Thanks for the response. I looked at the sujebi recipe and I think I can make the soondubu guksu pretty easily. Off to the E-Mart for supplies this weekend. When I try it I will let you know! Thanks for pointing towards a recipe to start with.
Darlene
Hi Maangchi,
I was in a noodle shop yesterday and had bibim guksu. i wanted to ask you about the soup they served with it and how you think I could make it. It was a clear fish based broth with gim and korean chili peppers in it with chunks of tofu. I loved it! Any ideas on how I could come up with it or what the name of that soup would be? It was a Myeongdong Noodle Story pace. It has a picture of a korean halmoni on the logo. The soup was spicy and delicious. My korean is very limited so I had no way to ask the ladies that work there.
Thanks for any help.
Darlene
Hi Maangchi,
I have a lot of lettuce leftover from a previous meal, and was wondering if I could substitute that for the cabbage.
Would the dish taste weird?
Thanks!!
yeah, it sounds strange to me because I’m not accustomed to doenjangguk made with lettuce instead of baechu (napa cabbage).
But you can try it out. Why not?
I’m enjoying your recipes and will try making this tonight — it’s like watching my mother-in-law cook! I wanted to ask, why do you blanch the baechu first before adding all the other ingredients instead of using it raw?
to make the cabbage softer so that the soup will be more delicious.
I tried to buy soybean paste, but I think I bought the wrong one ><
The one that I bought looks like this
http://cfs4.tistory.com/upload_control/download.blog?fhandle=YmxvZzg4ODAwQGZzNC50aXN0b3J5LmNvbTovYXR0YWNoLzAvMjAwMDAwMDAwMDAwLkpQRw%3D%3D
Can I use this one, or will it turn out weird?
Thank you~~
oh, you bought ssamjang(dipping sauce)
The recipe is posted here:
http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/samgyeopsal-gui
You could use ssamjang for this soup. It won’t be weird taste!
But someday when you get soybean paste, try it out. You can compare the taste difference.
Happy cooking!
Thank you~~~
I am going to try and make this tomorrow then :D
I made this again today, this time I added one potato cut up and some tofu cubes. Very yummy for a cold day.
The flour is the secret to a rich broth.
aww you are a smart cook! : ) Happy New Year!
Hi,
I love your recipe :D It’s really tasty! Do you think it would be possible to substitue Anchovies for small dried shrimp instead?
Thankyou Maangchi!
I think so, why not?
Thank you for the excellent recipes and the broadening my knowledge of your culture. In making this soup is there something I can substitute for the anchovy. I have a seafood allergy. Thanks for your reply
William
hmm, why don’t you skip dried anchovies and use shiitake mushrooms (2 or 3) and onion (about 1 cup amount sliced onion) in this recipe?
I think it will be good. Let me know how it turns out!
Hi Maangchi!
Sorry to trouble you, but is it possible to list down the ingredients in the fermented soy bean paste? Those that are available in Singapore are all in Korean and I do not understand the words. As I have some food allergies, hence I would need to know what are used in the paste. Thank you!
anything that says 된장 should be okay. most likely the store will carry this product – http://www.smart.co.kr/shopimages/plusrich/0760020000172.jpg and all soy bean paste is in a brown plastic container so if its brown plastic, then u should be buying the right stuff!
Why don’t you ask the shop owner? They should be able to give you accurate allergy information.
What are your allergies? I heard that sometimes ground anchovies and wheat flour is added as additive (check wikipedia for more information).
Hi Maangchi,
Accidentally I put in two tablespoons of polenta (corn flour) instead of all purpose flour.. Whoaa, big shock :S.
I scraped some out and put in the tablespoons of flour. Turned out great after all.. Love the recipe!
Thanks :)
oh, yeah? corn flour worked well? Nice!
Hi Maangchi,
I just made a pot of this soup this afternoon… as you know, it’s pretty cold in the NYC area today, and this soup is excellent for a cold day.
This is an excellent recipe… I substituted a teaspoon of the Korean fish sauce that is used in kimchi for the anchovies, and it tasted pretty good.
Thanks for this and all of your other recipes! Great website.
I’m glad you like this recipe!
If I don’t have anchovies or the container you used for them, is it possible to use Japanese dashi powder as a substitute? I haven’t been to H-Mart in a long time, but I do have a box of dashi in a cabinet.
Sure, try it out with the dashi powder.
When I hear this music, it makes me think of Jewel of the Palace and makes me want to eat! This looks so good!
hey, manggchi… when making this 국, can i add 두부?
I usually don’t add tofu to this soup, but why not? : )