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 doenjangguk using different vegetables such as spinach, potato, radish leaves, fresh mugwort (ssuk)… Of all the vegetables, baechu (napa cabbage) doenjangguk 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-doenjangguk. 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 doenjangguk, 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-doenjangguk. 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 doenjangguk 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), ⅓ cup soybean 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 ⅓ 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).
Tofu side dish
May 24th
Apr 20th
Mar 19th
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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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!
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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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
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 ^^