Fermented soybean paste (Doenjang-jjigae) is made with vegetables, tofu, and fermented soybean paste (doenjang). It’s Koreans’ everyday house food. We eat it with other side dishes and rice, but sometimes, especially in the southern part of Korea where I’m from, we eat this stew with barley rice, vegetable salad (Geotjeori), and hot pepper paste all mixed together as bibimbap. This is the style I’m going to teach you to make today.
Ingredients for Fermented soybean paste stew (Doenjang-jjigae)
- 1 medium size potato (about 1 cup’s worth), peeled and cut into ½ inch cubes
- 1 cup worth of zucchini or squash, cut into ½ inch cubes
- 1 cup worth onion, cut into ½ inch cubes
- 5 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 green chili pepper, chopped
- 7 dried anchovies, with the heads and intestines removed, chopped
- 2½ cups water
- 1 stalk of green onion, chopped
- 150 grams of tofu, cut into ½ inch cubes
- 5 tbs of fermented soy bean paste (doenjang)
- 4 large shrimp, peeled, deveined, and chopped
Ingredients for Korean style mixed green salad (Geotjeori)
- 5 to 6 cups of washed mixed greens (or just lettuce)
- 1 cucumber, sliced thinly
- 1 green onion
- 1 clove of garlic
- 3 tbs soy sauce
- 1 tbs of Korean hot pepper flakes (gochugaru)
- 1 ts sugar
- ½ tbs toasted sesame seeds
- 1 tbs of toasted sesame oil
Directions
Make doenjang-jjigae
- Prepare an earthenware pot. Add potato, onion, garlic, zucchini, green chili pepper, shrimp, and dried anchovies.
- Add the water, just enough to cover everything.
- When it starts boiling add the fermented bean paste, stir the stew, and keep cooking for another 15 to 20 minutes. In the meantime you can make your geotjeori. If you don’t want the mixed salad, then you can finish the doenjang-jjigae (see below) and serve with rice and side dishes.
Make geotjeori
- Add the mixed greens and cucumber to a bowl.
- Make the sauce by mixing the soy sauce, hot pepper flakes, sugar, sesame seeds and toasted sesame oil.
- Mix the vegetables with the sauce. Transfer the salad to a glass bowl or a big plate to serve.
Finish the doenjang-jjigae
- Add tofu and cook another 5 minutes, occasionally stirring the boiling stew with a spoon.
- Add green onion over top.
*tip: to check whether or not the ingredients are cooked, taste the potato.
Put it all together
- In a big bowl, place your rice first, then a scoop of doenjang-jjigae, and then some geotjeori. Mix in some hot pepper paste and toasted sesame oil. Wow, it’ll be delicious! : )
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.
i am cooking this dish tonight for the first time. i am very excited! i am sure that it will be delicious.
Jenny,
I think you should get large size of dried anchovies for good broth.
hi Maangchi.can i use smallest anchovies for this recipe ?
Hi Maangchi,
My family says I should leave you a message on how much we have been enjoying your recipes. My daughter absolutely loved your salad from doen jan chigae video. I have made so far doen jang chigae, yuk gae jang, vegetable jun (with successful flips), bibim naeng myeon which was fantastic, dduk bok kie, soon dubu chigae, bulgogi and bulgogi jungol. My children ask me if we are having “Maangchi dinner” and they love it.
I want to thank you for easy to follow great tasting recipes. Thank you, thank you and thank you!!!
Melissa
Actually it doesn’t matter. You can use either soft tofu or firm tofu depending on your taste.
Hi Maangchi,
I’m planning on making this doenjang chigae, does it matter if I use firm or soft tofu? Thank you!
— Melissa
Cool!
Yes, I posted them on my site, on the side! You encourage a lot of people.
Here is the link to the post of the Korean style mixed green of my blog:
http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/aga-suka/article?mid=294
Did you receive the picture of my salad?
Agasuka,
You are an expert in Korean cooking now. : )
I made the korean style mixed green salad with cucumber, carrot and onion.
Hi,Romanian girl!
Sorry about late answer. I did not see yours for some reason.
I live in Toronto Canada, but I’m staying in Korea now. I used to live in the southern part of korea. I know Koje! It’s beautiful city. Thanks
nhfeqrejg is my id…
the girl from Romania
hi maangchi!
i’m from Romania and i”ve leaved in korea for 5 years!
i eat only korean food and i was amazing of your korean recipe you cokked on video…
i was wondering in wich part of korea you”re living cause your cooking style is very nice!i was living in koje^^aniong cial isoy!!
Hello,Orangerepublic,
“sagyejeol” means “Four seasons” in korean which is a brand name, and “Soonchang”(a town in Korea) is a brand name as well.
You should buy “Doenjaang”(bean paste)instead of Ssam Jjaang.
Cindy,
Good to hear that you made good Doenjaang chigae. Boricha(Burned barley tea) is so simple to make that I would not make video for it.
Buy a package of barley tea.
Pour water in a kettle and put some barley tea(about 1 or 2 TBS) and boil it. It’s drunk hot or cold. To drink cold, keep it in the refrigerator.
Thanks,
I made this soup today.. It’s really simple and taste really nice. I love it so much. Can i request the barley tea for next video? I’m not sure whether that’s tea or not as it is a sweet and cool drink. I drink it in Korean restaurant. Very nice..
Cindy
Hi Maangchi,
Thanks for the answers. so you said that Ssamjang is for dipping. but are both sagyegeol and sunchang ssamjang the same thing? are they both Ssamjang?
Hi Maangchi,
thanks for all of the great videos on youtube. i tried leaving a comment on your video on youtube, but they didn’t show up for some reason.
i bought sagyegeol and sunchang ssamjang. (they just say bean paste in english) i was wondering if i could use those for the tofu soup? if not, could you tell me what they are for? thanks !!
Hi,tumuon,
The purple grain rice is a kind of sweet rice. When you make multi-grain rice(barley,rice, and sweet rice) using a rice cooker, make it like the usual way of making rice.
Hi Maangchi,
Love your recipes.
Some of the rice I eat at Korean restaurants around here has a little bit of purple grain in addition to the rice and barley. Do you know what might that be? Any idea how to cook it in a rice cooker?
Thanks!
Agasuka,
Good choice! I would choose small grains of barley or the one you chose, pressed one. By the way, don’t expect “Boricha” flavor from barley rice. : )
There are several kinds of barley available in the supermarket.
Big particles, small particles, round like a marble, and pressed barley. I bought the pressed kind.
I have not had a chance to cook it yet, I will report to you after making it in the future.
I like barley tea (Bo Ri Cha), I expect a similar taste from barley rice.
Question: Can I use a rice cooker instead of the stove to make barley rice?
Hi,vince
ok, Soondooboo!
Thank you very much. Next week when you make this dish, let me know how it goes.
This looks really delicious, im going to try and make it next week, i hope in the future you will post up a recipe for soon dubu chigae
Agasuka,
Here is recipe for rice
ingredients:
1 cup of uncooked rice, 1 cup of barley rice and 2.5 cup of water
1.Rinse the mixture of rice and
barley in a pot.
2.Put 2.5 cup of water and cover
the lid of the pot.
3.Heat it over high heat until it
boils, and stir it with a
spoon a few times.
4. Simmer about 20 minutes over
low heat
That’s it! Good luck : )
May I confirm the ingredients & steps for making barley rice:
1 c. uncooked rice
1 c. barley
4 1/2c. water
Mix them all and heat them up until boiling.
Simmer for 20 min.
Turn off stove.
Let it sit for 10 min.
Please correct me if I make any mistakes. Thanks.
hi,agasuka,
I am not sure, but I think you can make more than 3 pots of Doenjaang chigae with one canister.
How many pot of Deon Jang Chigae can you make with one can of gas? Thanks.
ginger,
Thanks for sharing your successful cooking story with us.
Yeah, it’s very easy recipe. All koreans love this food.
Hello again! I just wanted to report that I’ve made this soup about 5 times now in the last 2 weeks!! It’s so simple! I started to add a small spoon of chili paste and I can’t believe how similar it tastes to the Korean restaurants! Maangchi this recipe is a definite keeper! Thank you for sharing your skills and recipe with all of us!! ^_^
PS I never thought I’d cook with dried anchovies! LOL
Hi,
Check out this website. One of my youtube readers made this stew by my instruction. It looks delicious and I think she added some hotpepper paste there.
http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/jw!fRcxarKTFxY5k6QGsJ605Q–/article?mid=54
as you know, youtube doesn’t allow us to write website addresses in comments, that’s why I’m posting here.
What a simple soup! I can’t wait to try it =)
I’m curious though, what’s the name of the bean paste you put in the soup? Is that the same type of bean paste that they give you at Korean BBQ restaurants?
The stuff at the restaurants is sam-jang and is different from deonjang. There is also gochu-jang, used in bibimbap, so you have to know your jangs!
Thanks,jon!
Wow, thanks, this blog is a great contribution to Korean cooking. Thanks!