I’m so excited to share this simple and nutritious soup with you today! Soybean paste soup with napa cabbage (baechu-doenjangguk), a favorite of all Koreans. It’s warm, hearty, savory, filling, healthy, made with doenjang (fermented soybean paste), and inexpensive and easy to make. It’s a staple of Korean life and diet. If you ever meet a Korean who doesn’t like baechu-doenjangguk, be sure to let me know because it’s pretty much impossible.
There are many types of soybean paste soup (doenjangguk) in Korean cuisine. A typical Korean meal consists of rice accompanied by soup and various side dishes, such as kimchi, and doenjangguk is a common soup to make. And this soup is the king of doenjangguk!
The traditional way to make baechu-doenjangguk is to make the soup broth with the water from washing rice (called tteumul: 뜨물 in Korean) instead of just plain water. This makes the broth a little milky. I used to watch my grandmother making it this way: every morning she made a huge amount of rice to feed her family. When she washed, rubbed, and rinsed her rice grains, she got tteumul. Then when she made doenjangguk, she used that milky rice water in her pot. We can do the same thing in this recipe, on a smaller scale. However if you don’t want to make rice for this you can just use plain water, and then mix in around 2 tablespoons of flour to make it thicker and milky.
As I mention in the video, I used to live next to an early morning one-woman restaurant where the only dish she served was baechu-doenjangguk and makgeolli (Korean rice liquor)! She made this soup exactly the same way I’m showing you here. The only thing she added that I skip is MSG. : ) Instead of MSG, I use more dried anchovies. Whenever I have this soup I think of her and miss her a little. We lost connection a long time ago when my family moved.
I hope you enjoy this soup. Make it for your friends and family, with some rice and side dishes, and enjoy it together!
Ingredients
Serves 4
- 2 pounds of napa cabbage with the leaves split
- 10 large dried anchovies, heads and guts removed
- ¼ cup doenjang (Korean fermented soybean paste)
- 1 or 2 green chili peppers, chopped
- 6 garlic cloves, minced
- 7 cups of tteumul (or water with 2 tbs flour)
- 1-2 tablespoons gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste) (optional, if you want it more spicy)
Directions
Collect tteumul (water from washing rice)
- Place some rice (at least 3 cups) in a washing bowl and cover it with cold water, stirring the rice carefully.
- Tilt the bowl and slowly pour out the water, ensuring not to lose any rice (alternatively, drain the rice through a strainer and return it to the bowl). Repeat this process once more.
- Swish the wet rice around in the bowl with one hand, then fill the bowl with about 7 cups of cold water. Pour the white rice water into a separate bowl to collect it. Measure 7 cups for your baechu-doenjangguk and set it aside.
How about the rinsed, damp rice?
Make fluffy white rice with it, of course! It’s already rinsed and ready, so you can use a rice cooker or make rice on the stove. It will go well with this soup.
Prepare the cabbage
- Place the anchovies in a soup strainer or wrap them in cheesecloth. Set aside.
- Blanch the cabbage in a large pot for 1 minute, stirring with a wooden spoon.
- Strain and rinse the cabbage in cold running water in a large bowl, changing the water a few times until very clean. Drain and gently squeeze out excess water.
- Chop the cabbage into small pieces and transfer to a large pot.
Make soup!
- Add doenjang, green chili pepper, and garlic to the cabbage, mixing well by hand. Add the strainer of anchovies.
- Add the tteumul (rice wash water) and cover. Cook for 15 minutes over medium-high heat.
- Stir the soup with a ladle, then reduce the heat to medium and cook for additional 15 minutes. If you want a spicy version of this soup, you can add 1 or 2 tablespoons of gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste), depending on your taste.
- Remove the anchovy strainer and serve the soup with rice, kimchi, and more side dishes!
Enjoy your hearty and healthy baechu-doenjangguk!
Maangchi's Amazon picks for this recipe
It's always best to buy Korean items at your local Korean grocery store, but I know that's not always possible so I chose these products on Amazon that are good quality. See more about how these items were chosen.
Why does the cabbage need to be blanched separately first? Is there something else besides dirt that needs to come out? If not, then wouldn’t it be the same to chop up the cabbage, rinse all the dirt out, then add it to the soup? I am a busy mom and any steps I can shorten helps me a lot,lol! Thank you for your great recipes all these years!
Hello, I would really like to make this recipe. But my doenjang is super black colour. It looks like the black bean paste but it’s not. I already check the box. It’s a soy bean paste so my question is Would it still be good to use it? Since super black I’m worried it might affect the taste and colouring.
Hi Maangchi.
I can’t find dried anchovies here at my local asian market, so I was wandering: since I have some (very very small) dried shrimps would it be ok to use them in place of the anchovies? And how many of them should I use? I’d really like to try this recipe, thank you for sharing it :D
The reason I use dried anchovies is to make the broth savory. So if they are not available you can use anything that will make it savory. The most important thing is that if the broth is delicious, your soup is going to be more delicious!
Hi Maangchi, it’s me again! :D I hope you don’t mind me leaving so many comments recently.
I made this today, and it’s incredibly simple and so, so hearty, healthy and tasty! Maybe next time I’ll add some more vegetables in, too, like leek and carrot… I also added some leftover ssamjang (about a generous tablespoon or so) before simmering, and the soup turned out delicious! Perfect food for a gloomy, cold rainy day.
Thank you so much for sharing so many of your wonderful recipes, they’ve brought a lot of sunshine and variety in my life. :)
I’m glad you like this, it’s a very traditional Korean soup!
Dear maangchi, can we use cabbage instead of napa cabbage? If we can how long should we cook it for? Should I place it last? Thank you in advance ♥
I’ve never tried this soup before but wanted to try cooking it after reading your recipe and watching your video. I couldn’t find napa cabbage and large anchovies in my local store. Only small Chinese cabbages and medium sized anchovies were available, so I used two small cabbages and more of the medium sized anchovies (no fish parts removed) as substitutes. I also didn’t have a strainer for the anchovies so simply stirred them into the rest of the ingredients. Well, guess what? The soup turned out super delicious! I even ate the anchovies which were were soft and tasty! Love your recipe and video! Can’t wait to make it again! It’s a perfect winter soup! Thank you for sharing, Maangchi!
Hi maangchi, i hope you will response so you can help me, can i eat this cabbage and soybean paste with Samgyeopsal instead of doenjang jjigae??
Yes, baechu-doenjangguk is a good choice for grilled pork belly meal.
Served this today for dinner. Made a double batch to be sure there was enough. This is bapdoduk. Served with spicy tofu. I got my recipe mixed up with doenjang jjigae, and had already cut up some zucchini and some onion so I tossed those in as well. Couldn’t hurt. Everyone had seconds. I’m a star with this recipe.
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OMG this is delicous. I made this last night and it turned out so good :) I had cooked shrimp earlier, so I used the shrimp shells to make a stock then used it along with the dried anchovies for this recipe. TASTY! Garlic goes so well with this. Next time, I’m adding even more!
omg omg omg… I made this again yesterday :) This time I adjusted it to my own taste by doubling the garlic, using a lot less liquid, and increasing the flour significantly. mmm I like it thick like a stew like that. And the anchovy or something similar is an absolute must for this recipe. I happen to use Hondashi (japanese instant dashi powder) just because its easy and I have it on hand already and need to use it up :) LOVE LOVE LOVE the briny, earthy doenjang flavor in this… (i increased that a LOT too lol)… THIS RECIPE IS AWESOME!!!! THANK YOU MISS MAANGCHI!!!!!
with Maangchi’s soy marinated medium boiled eggs, turnip kimchi (awesome), and perilla leaves :)
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Maangchi,
Thank you so much for this! I try to cook Korean food often, but usually I eat it alone because my parents and nephew don’t like much of what I cook. But my nephew (21 months) could not get enough of this! I mixed it with peas and rice and he was shoveling it in. I will cook it more often! :)
Thank you again,
Chandler
Hi Chandler,
I can picture your 21 moth old nephew’s eating the soup happily which is so cute! Now you are not alone eating the Korean dishes that you make!
I can’t eat wheat flour (I’m gluten free) so can I use the milky rice water instead? How do you make it? Just wash some rice and use the water from it? :) Or, should I use rice flour instead of wheat flour? Also I can’t seem to find dried anchovies here (Tasmania, Australia) so I will use beef stock instead as I read other people suggested that for those that don’t like anchovies. Maybe one day when I can find the dried anchovies I will try it! Excited to try this recipe :)
Thank you so much for this recipe it is quite easy to make, and very tasty. I made this with Korean radish leaves, and my husband and 2 1/2 year old love this soup. I will have to make this for my mother-in-law when she comes to visit, since she also loves doenjang soups.
I was wondering what other main dishes, soups, or banchans that you would advise for someone with a child?
I’m so glad to hear that your baby loves this soup! Probably your baby will love Korean food forever! With this soup, check out my recent video for grilled yellow corvina: https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/gulbi-gui I show in this video how to feed your baby!
For some other ideas, you can try my nonspicy recipes: https://www.maangchi.com/recipes/non-spicy
Amazing! Though probably not quite the same as yours. D: My boyfriend doesn’t like anything fishy, so I used beef broth instead.
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yes, some Koreans use beef instead of using anchovy stock. It looks great!
Can i use regular cabbage if im in a budget and i already have on hand?
Of course you can!
You may have to blanch it a little longer, but otherwise – null problemo! ;-)
Bye, Sanne.
“null problemo” cute, sanne! : )
Yes, you can use regular cabbage, but napa cabbage will turn out more delicious.
My wife picked this one for me to cook tomorrow.
Hi Maangchi!
This soup is one of my long-time favourite because it is so easy to make! I am now reviewing this recipe again as I just bought some perilla seed powder home today. Can I know how I can apply the powder to this soup? Many thanks!
You could add it to boiling soup directly or put a strainer into the boiling soup and add some powder and stir with a spoon just as I showed in the video of taro soup. https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/toran-guk
I’ve made many of Maangchi’s recipes and this one was the first that I didn’t like. It was really fishy. It’s not Maangchi’s fault- I’ve discovered that I really don’t care for anchovies. I’ll eat all kinds of fish, but don’t like the broth made from the anchovies. I did eat a bowl of the soup, though, adding lots more soybean paste, soy sauce, sauce from the Fire Chicken recipe, and putting the tofu side dish on top and mixing it all up. It was good that way. :) The tofu side dish was AMAZING! I’ll try making the soup again with beef, chicken, or veggie broth and see if I like that better.
One thing I’m not sure of- are the guts removed from the anchovies BEFORE they’re dried? I didn’t use the heads, but assumed the guts were removed already. If not, won’t they be hard to spot to remove?
“I’ll try making the soup again with beef, chicken, or veggie broth and see if I like that better.
Good idea! Some Koreans who are not a big fan of anchovy stock, they use beef or chicken stock.
Stop what you are doing and make this soup. For my guests tonight, I thought I needed a sort of boring, non-spicy soup that would do the job of being the soup but not steal the show like those bossy showoffs in bubbling clay pots with 87 ingredients. (You know who I’m talking about, soondubu jjigae). I had hoped that the spicy stir-fried pork was going to be the star tonight, but this humble, simple, utterly inexpensive soup completely captivated everyone.
Polish girl: “Hey! This is cabbage soup. Wait. Whoa! No it’s not!”.
Mexican guy: “There is something SPICY in here!”.
Korean girl: “Who taught you how to make this? It’s just like mine, except that it tastes good”.
American guy: Slurping noises, but no comments.
Thank you Maangchi for another winner!
Hi Maangchi,
I’m new to your website :) Thanks for sharing all your recipes.
I made this soup today thanks to you. This is the first real Korean dish I ever cooked (ok, I can make congee too)!
Instead of dried anchovy I used anchovy stock powder. The taste was good but I want to be sure it’s ok to use that for other of your recipe too ?
Also, I want to cook Korean dishes for my son of 18months. Except for congee/juk, what kind of dishes can I serve him ? Is this soup ok for a toddler ?
Many thanks.
Yes, you could use anchovy stock powder instead of real dried anchovies. It will be tasty but it can’t be compared to the taste used real dried anchovies. This soup is perfect choice for a baby who can chew. But I recommend you not use green chili peppers. : )
Thank you for your answer :) I made it again along with your tofu side dish recipe. Your site is a goldmine ^^
Hi Maangchi,
I can’t find dried anchovies, can I use fish sauce instead?
Also I will try with Chinese cabbage :-)
thanks. I love your videos. It has become my new hobby to cook your dishes :-)
Carmen
Carmen,
“can I use fish sauce instead?” No,dried anchovies make the broth delicious. They are sold either at a Korean grocery store or Japanese grocery store. https://www.maangchi.com/ingredient/dried-anchovies-myulchi
If you really can’t find dried anchovies, how about using chicken stock?
Hello
Thank you for your effort. I enjoyed your video very much. this video is fun and easy.
and you are so friendly.
I learned your soup, and I have a question. when you made a soup with flour, and you said your mother’s friend did. and your garnadmother used milky rice water. Can I could use rice powder instead of flour?
My daughter has a gluten alergy. So I want use. rice powder.
My English is very little. so I am going to write Korean. Please read and answer to me.
안녕하세요. 이 블러그를 찾은지 몇일 되지 않았지만 제 딸과 함께 정말 재미있게 보며 배우고 있습니다. 무엇보다도 많은 재료들을 사용하지 않고 음식을 만들어 내시는게 정말 좋구요.
만드시는 방법을 보면 우리엄마가 하시던 방법과 매우 비슷하여 혹시 전라도 분이 아니신가 궁금해 지기도 합니다.
위에 너무 짧은 영어실력으로 우선 질문을 올렸는데요. 제 뜻이 정확히 전달디었는지 모르겠어요. 딸이 글루텐 알러지가 있어서 밀가루를 제한하는 식사를 하고 있어서 가능하면 쌀가루를 쓰는데..아무래도 밀가루 보다 쌀가루가 더 좋기도 하구요..위의 단계에서 쌀가루를 써도 괜찮겠죠?
바쁘셔서 제가 쓴 글을 읽으실 수 있을지 걱정되지만 혹시나 해서 올려 봅니다.
그럼 앞으로도 건강하시고 지금처럼 행복하세요~~^^
yes, you can use rice flour. 제 웹사이트가 도움이 되고 있다니 감사합니다.
Maangchi,
I was looking for some easy to make comfort food and I thought I would try this. It looked easy and I had been wanting to do something with 된장. This was only the second time I’ve used it. I love its flavor! This soup with rice and 멸치 부친 was perfect! I felt satisfied after eating it!
감사합니다!
Dave
yes, when this soup boils, the smell makes me go crazy. : ) yum!
I live in Korea so, naturally, I have access to all the ingredients at emart. I see dried anchovies everywhere. Can I buy cleaned, dried anchovies? If so, what is the Korean name?
I often do vegan interpretations to most of your recipes. For this kombu is a nice substitution, but when i’m in a hurry I use veggie fish sauce. (yes there really is a such thing!) Such good comfort food. :)
I’m vegetarian and I’m never sure what to use as a substitute, I normally just go for shitake mushrooms, where do you get veggie fish sauce from??
Can’t wait to make this delicious miso soup. :-)
The broth had great flavor! I think I will shorten the cooking time next time… the cabbage was a bit overdone.
Made it earlier today for lunch! IT was so good! I had it with rice and kkakdugi :) delicious!
Hi! I was wondering how many people does this recipe serve? Thanks! :D
I made this soup today. So good!! And still have leftovers!! Yum! I couldn’t find the green chili peppers. So other green peppers at the store but wasn’t sure which one to get. So, next time, I will stop by the nearest Asian market to see if the have them.