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! : )
I love your videos, your personality, and recipes. This stew is my ABSOLUTE favorite dish of all time. Thank you for sharing. I hope to meet you someday!
Thank you for your recipes! You are so cute! My best friend is korean and I have happy memories of learning ro cook with them. I cannot cook american food, but korean i enjoy very much. My dongsaeng told me about your recipes and I have been a fan since.
3 things
1) I am vegan so i substitute the fish & shrimp & use seaweed for ocean flavor. I like it!
2) In the future if you have any advice for those of us who cannot eat gluten but Loooooooove korean food, please share. My doctor said I cannot eat, but wheat is in so many korean pastes. TT Now, I cannot eat many of my favourite korean foods. So, I cook for my mom but i miss samjang! If you know, please share.
3) I am curious if i can make doenjang jigae in a very large pot and freeze small portions for my mother? That way if i am not there she can heat it and add fresh wild onion. I like to make her healthy meals that are easy for her to heat.
dear maangchi,, is it alright if i didn’t use the dried anchovies and shrimp ? i’m allergic to seafood.
and is there any other ingredients that i can use to replace those two ?
thankyouu
Dear maangchi
hi, forgot to include this haha!
See full size image
Hi! Thank you for this recipe! And here’s mine, I added Fisk cake too. And it was delicious with kimchi! Thank you!
hi maangchi…i don’t have earthenware pot. can i just use stainleessteel pot? thank you
Yes, you can use a regular pot! I sometimes make it with my stainless steel pot, too.
ah..ic….so i can use my regular pot for all jjigae recipe right? tq so much maangchi…
Dear Ms Maangchi !
Millions of wishes and appreciations for your great job !
I am from India, but now living in Beijing China. I had opportunity to lived in Seoul Korea as well. Being a new and stranger in China in terms of language and Chinese food, I found couple of Korean Restaurant to eat Korean foods, but I could not get the taste of real Korean authentic food. So I thought to learn by my self Korean simple cooking at home. And with this search or thought, I got to hangup on your website, I feel wow..its amazing what I was looking for…you saved my time and money !!
I brought earthen black pot, and 된장 from Korea Mart and tried to cook 된장찌게…wow taste was superb !
I will learn more dishes one by one from your website and hope me and my friends will enjoy Korean food at my Indian home Kitchen.
Thank you so much for your wonderful work…!!
Hi Maangchi!
I am newbe in Korea. I found your blog last week and I tried this Doenjang Jjigae recipe just now. Easy and yummy….I added a little of hot pepper paste bacause we like spice. Can’t wait until my children come back from school because I made it as per their request.
Thank you Maangchi!
Did you get some compliments on your doenjang jjigae from your children? : ) Good luck with your Korean cooking!
They said it was like real Korean cooking we usually eat at local restaurant :D They like it and also my husband! Now I have source whenever I want to try cooking some Korean dishes. Thanks a lot.
Good luck with your Korean cooking!
Thanks for another simple yet delicious and healthy recipe!
Just one thing: from my past readings I learnt that miso (so I assume the same would be true for doenjang?) shouldn’t be boiled for more than 1-2 minutes in order to not kill the healthy beneficial enzymes, however this recipe calls for boiling it for 15-20 minutes.
I’m just curious to know your/everyone’s opinion on this “medicinal” aspect, which is something I’m quite passionate about.. I guess I’ve watched too much Dae Jang Geum! ;)
Cheers
Don’t worry much about the enzymes. Probiotic Bacillus subtilis can endure extreme heat during the stew is cooked. Good luck with your Korean cooking!
Hi Maangchi!
I have been following your blog for quite some time and cooked some truly delicious dishes per your recipes!
I have a questions regarding doengjiang jiggae – can I use Dashida anchovy soup stock for instead of 7 dried anchovies? How many tb spoons of the stock I should put to replace them?
Thanks!
yes, you can use the soup powder, maybe 1 tablespoon? Taste the stew and add more if you want. Good luck!
I just found this recipe. It’s really simple and tasty! Since I am not a fan of anchovies, I used a few places of dashima (dried kelp) instead. I found the jjigae lacked salt overall, probably because I didn’t use the anchovies. Do you recommend I add some soup soy sauce (gook gan jang) or salt to make up for the lack of saltiness?
You can add more doenjang which is this stew’s main ingredient. Doenjang is salty.
And also you can use beef or chicken broth instead of using dried anchovies. Adding dried kelp is great! : ) https://www.maangchi.com/ingredient/doenjang
Dear maangchi,
A couple of years ago I made this recipe, it was yummy !
Now I came across doenjang in the asian store, so I thought of this again. I’ll make a ‘frugal’ vegetarian doenjang this time, also with delicious fresh tofu from the asian store. I’m sure I will remember how good this recipe was !
Your frugal doenjang jjigae sounds great and healthy!
I would like to thank you so much for posting up these recipes and the ingredients preparation pictures! As someone who does not know anything about Korean cooking, your pictures have helped me a lot with finding these ingredients in the Korean supermarket. I would like to specifically point out the pictures for the doenjang. If it weren’t for that picture, I would not have known what I should be looking for. I am looking forward to trying out these recipes.
Sincerely,
xjapaholic.
Great great! Happy cooking!
Dear Maangchi…I have been using the recipes from your site for a few years now but never took the time to write to you, how happy you made me and ny husband with your recipes.
We both think you deserve a big STATUE!!! Everything is explained so clair! Before we went to Korea I already made Jap Chae and because I never tasted it before it was a bit difficult. When we tasted the dish in Korea we found out that the taste was very simmular to what I made….You can imagine how proud I was… My husband was born in Korea and now we live in the Netherlands. Thank you so much !!! warm regards Petra Lee X
“You can imagine how proud I was..”
yes, I’m also proud of you, too! Someday I’d like to taste your japchae! : )
It’s early morning here in Mexico city. You already made my day!
Happy cooking!