Fermented soybean paste stew mixed with fresh salad

Doenjang-jjigae geotjeori bibimbap 된장찌개 겉절이 비빔밥

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)

Directions

Make doenjang-jjigae

  1. Prepare an earthenware pot. Add potato, onion, garlic, zucchini, green chili pepper, shrimp, and dried anchovies.
  2. Add the water, just enough to cover everything.
  3. 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

  1. Add the mixed greens and cucumber to a bowl.
  2. Make the sauce by mixing the soy sauce, hot pepper flakes, sugar, sesame seeds and toasted sesame oil.
  3. Mix the vegetables with the sauce. Transfer the salad to a glass bowl or a big plate to serve.

Finish the doenjang-jjigae

  1. Add tofu and cook another 5 minutes, occasionally stirring the boiling stew with a spoon.
  2. Add green onion over top.
    *tip: to check whether or not the ingredients are cooked, taste the potato.

Put it all together

  1. 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! : )

Posted on Thursday, July 12th, 2007 at 4:12 pm. Last updated on August 10, 2021.
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260 Comments:

  1. Woodstock1986 Kansas City, Missouri joined 9/17 & has 1 comment
    Posted September 17th, 2017 at 3:25 pm | or create a profile.

    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!

  2. Mariegael Ohio joined 8/17 & has 3 comments
    Posted August 14th, 2017 at 3:32 pm | or create a profile.

    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.

  3. prissvinn China / Indonesia joined 5/17 & has 1 comment
    Posted May 1st, 2017 at 3:05 am | or create a profile.

    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

  4. duday76 USA joined 12/16 & has 9 comments
    Posted December 28th, 2016 at 9:24 am | or create a profile.

    Dear maangchi
    hi, forgot to include this haha!


    See full size image

  5. duday76 USA joined 12/16 & has 9 comments
    Posted December 28th, 2016 at 9:23 am | or create a profile.

    Hi! Thank you for this recipe! And here’s mine, I added Fisk cake too. And it was delicious with kimchi! Thank you!

  6. oliv14 Jakarta,Indonesia joined 11/16 & has 3 comments
    Posted November 7th, 2016 at 1:20 pm | or create a profile.

    hi maangchi…i don’t have earthenware pot. can i just use stainleessteel pot? thank you

  7. singh joined 7/15 & has 1 comment
    Posted July 13th, 2015 at 11:04 pm | or create a profile.

    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…!!

  8. Diana W joined 4/15 & has 2 comments
    Posted April 7th, 2015 at 2:48 am | or create a profile.

    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!

  9. heinza austrlia joined 9/13 & has 2 comments
    Posted December 10th, 2014 at 2:59 am | or create a profile.

    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

  10. Miga Sweden joined 8/14 & has 1 comment
    Posted August 18th, 2014 at 2:32 pm | or create a profile.

    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!

  11. hannahk New York joined 2/11 & has 2 comments
    Posted August 3rd, 2014 at 11:46 pm | or create a profile.

    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?

  12. sirdanilot Terneuzen, The Netherlands joined 10/09 & has 25 comments
    Posted August 3rd, 2013 at 1:31 pm | or create a profile.

    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 !

  13. xjapaholic United States joined 6/13 & has 1 comment
    Posted June 17th, 2013 at 7:31 pm | or create a profile.

    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.

  14. babylee Amsterdam joined 3/13 & has 2 comments
    Posted March 16th, 2013 at 7:02 am | or create a profile.

    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

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