Tteokguk (rice cake soup) is a delicious, filling soup made of disc-shaped rice cakes in a clear broth. Koreans always eat it on Seollal (Korean New Year’s Day), the first day of the Lunar calendar and one of the most important holidays in Korea. Traditionally, according to Korean age reckoning, everyone’s age went up one year on Seollal, and the process wasn’t totally complete until you had a bowl of tteokguk. I make a beef broth in this recipe, but you can use any meat you prefer, or use seafood, or just make an anchovy stock or kelp stock.
You’d ask someone on Seollal: “Did you eat a bowl of rice cake soup today?” Meaning: are you one year older?
These days Koreans also have tteokguk on Western New Year’s day, January 1st, too. The whiteness of the soup symbolizes a clean, fresh start to the new year, and the disc-shaped rice cakes look like coins, so they symbolize a wish for upcoming prosperity for anyone who eats them.
Despite the symbolism, this soup is not just for special occasions: personally, I eat it all the time, because it’s delicious and easy to make! It’s a one bowl meal.
I think the real key to this soup is i making a clear, delicious broth, which takes some care and attention to do. But overall this is a very easy recipe to make: you can buy the rice cakes in a Korean grocery store, or even make your own with my garaetteok recipe.
Why don’t you make a resolution to try tteokguk on new year’s day, and let me know how it turns out!
Ingredients (2-3 servings)
- 1 pound store-bought sliced tteok rice cakes or homemade rice cakes (store-bought or homemade, if they are frozen, soak them in cold water for 30 minutes and drain before using)
- 7 cups water
- ½ pound beef (flank steak or brisket), chopped into small pieces
- 3 to 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 dae-pa large green onion (or 3 green onions), washed and sliced thinly and diagonally.
- 2 teaspoons vegetable oil
- 2 eggs
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce (or soup soy sauce to your taste)
- 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 sheet of dried seaweed paper (gim aka nori)
- 1 red pepper (optional), chopped
- salt
Directions
- Bring the water to a boil in a heavy pot over high heat and add the beef and garlic and cook for 5 minutes.
- Turn the heat down to medium, cover, and cook for 20 to 25 minutes until the beef is tender and has infused the water with flavor.
- Roast both sides of a sheet of gim until it’s bright green and very crispy. Put it in a plastic bag and crush it by hand. Set aside.
- Separate the egg yolks from the whites of two eggs, putting yolks and whites into separate bowls. Add pinch of salt to each and mix with a fork. Remove the stringy chalaza from the yolks.
- Add the cooking oil to a heated non-stick pan. Swirl the oil around so it covers the pan, and then wipe off the excess with a kitchen towel, leaving a thin oily layer on the pan.
- Turn off the heat. Pour the egg yolk mixture into the pan and tilt it so it spreads evenly and thinly. Let it cook on the hot pan for about 1 minute. Flip it over and let it sit on the pan for another minute, then take it off, slice it into thin strips and set it aside.
- Add the rice cake slices to the boiling soup along with fish sauce and kosher salt. Stir it with a ladle. Cover and let it cook for 7 to 8 minutes until all the rice cakes are floated and are softened throughout. Pour the egg whites by little by little into the soup and cook for 30 seconds.
- Add sesame oil, ground black pepper, and chopped green onion. Stir the soup. Remove from the heat and ladle the rice cake soup into individual serving bowls. Garnish with yellow egg strips, crushed seaweed, and red pepper if you want.
- Serve it right away, with kimchi and more side dishes if you want. If you wait too long the rice cakes will get soggy, so everybody dig in and enjoy!
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Thanks for this wonderful duk guk recipe, which I just made and ate. It was really good. The broth I used was made with beef bones, which I simmered overnight in the crockpot. I don’t know if it is typical in Korean cuisine to slow simmer beef bones for broth, but it does make a great stock. Thanks for your lovely website—it makes cooking Korean food so easy:).
Maangchi, can you use the stock that you make for soondobu for dduk gook?
This soup always reminds me of my childhood. Everytime if it was cold outside, my mom would cook this. When it rained, I knew for sure my mom would have this ready for me when I would come home from school.
; ) You must be missing your mother! Mom’s food is the best!
My mom isn’t around anymore so I am feverishly looking for recipies I loved as a child. Thank you for sharing this :) It was very very good!!!
cool! Your mom will be proud of you!
When I was younger, my mom made this for me all the time. I made some of this just recently and had my mom try it. She told me it was just like how she remembered it from when she was a child. I am sooo glad I found this website and your recipes! It brings back a lot of memories for me and my mom. Thank you soo much!
I think this weekend I am going to try to make Jeonbokjuk for my mom and myself. I am very suprised, this is one korean dish I have not tried yet, but it looks delicious.
Yes, When I eat certain food, it sometimes reminds me of my family, too. I’m sure your mom will love the Jeonbokjuk.Good luck with making delicious jeonbokjuk! I would like to meet your mom someday because she said her recipe for rice cake soup is very similar to mine.
hi maangchi,
i never noticed… but were the rice cakes frozen or dried? i couldn’t tell from the video and you didn’t mention. my family is not korean and in the past, we’ve used the dried version… but i’m not sure if that is the same one you used? please help me clarify that.
thank you!
You could use either frozen or dried. Soak them in cold water before putting in the boiling stock.
Hi Maangchi! :)
Did you ever post a recipe for the mustard leaf kimchi? lol I really do love that kimchi! :) I also love this soup. I had it when I was in Korea & it was very delicious. You are such a good cook! Can I just move in with you? LOL Just kidding! You’re awesome, keep up the great work!! :D I love your videos and your recipes!
Mustard green kimchi was requested by someone else long time ago, but I haven’t posted it yet. I will keep the recipe in mind. Thank you very much!
just now, i made this soup together with kimchi (don’t know if this combination is good though haha) and it looks delicious! but i still have to taste it yet…
thanks for all the recipes! they are all good..! most of the time good cook don’t tell their “secrets”… and that’s a pity! :)
I sometimes make kimchi soup and add sliced rice cake and enjoy it a lot. So what you made sounds like the soup that I make! kimchi ddukguk! (kimchi rice cake soup) Good job!!
Hi again Maangchi!!!
Today I used the rest of my rice cakes and made the dukguk again (this time with the right ingredients), but the soup still came out not very flavorful. My soup is very liquidy, is it suppose to be more thick because of the rick cakes? I remember eating duk mandoo guk and the soup was kind of thick. So I think I may need to add less water than 8 cups? Do you have any other suggestions? Like adding salt while boiling the beef? Thank you again for your help, Maangchi!! I think I’ll try the pickled broccoli soon!! YAY!!!
I think well made ddukguk shouldn’t be thick. You will be able to enjoy both rice cake and clear soup! If it’s too bland for you, use more beef and cook longer before putting rice cake.
Hi Maangchi!!
I finally started cooking some of your recipes! I started with the dukguk and haha it turned out kind of funny looking, I have a low quality picture if you’d like to see it. So I didn’t have any 3 crab fish sauce :( so I used oyster sauce instead and instead of beef, I used chicken stock to make the stock and it came out tasting pretty bland. Next time I will buy the right ingredients at H-mart, anyways I just wanted to thank you for your hardowrk on the recipes and replying to us!! Goodluck with your cooking class as well, I kind of wish I lived in NY!
Thank you very much for letting me know about your cooking experiment! : ) I’m sure your next rice cake soup will be super delicious. oh, oyster sauce is not used in rice cake soup! 3 crabs, yes! haha,I’m a big fan of the fish sauce!
Hello Maangchi,
This is 가영 who met you in midtown on Sunday afternoon. After I watched your video, I have tried 떡국,경단,오뎅떡볶이. Anyway, we both in the same town, hope see you soon.
Gayoung!
Nice meeting you! Yes, me,too. I hope to see you again…
Hi Maangchi
Thank you very much for your recipes and videos. I’m chinese but I love Korean food. I’m really into cooking Korean food now as you make them look so easy. So far, I’ve tried Kimchi, bibimbap and mandu.
They tasted great and some Korean housewives here even commented that the kimchi tasted better than the ones they make:)
However, not much luck with the rice cake soup. It seem to taste a bit bland and I can’t pinpoint what I should add to make the soup more flavorful. I live in New Zealand and I don’t see any 3 crab brand of fish sauce here. Do you think it’s a problem with the fish sauce I use and what would you recommend? thanks
hmm, yeah, the fish sauce is very delicious, but if it is not available, use a different kind of fish sauce.
To make good rice cake soup, the soup (stock) should be delicious. You could add some chicken broth or use more beef, or boil the water and beef longer until the stock turns good. Then add the sliced rice cakes.
Annabelle,
You will get 2 large bowls of rice cake soup from this recipe.
Hi Mananchi, If I serve large bowls of this soup (like in your video and pictures), can you tell me how many servings or bowls of soup this recipe makes? An estimate would be helpful! Thanks!
Hi Maanchi!
Yes, I was asking about the leftover soup, so I’ll make sure to make only the amount we can eat in one night. I am making this soup tomorrow for my family! Thank you for the recipe, and for replying so fast!
annie,
Thank you for the update!
Briana,
I don’t understand your question. Do you like to know how to store sliced rice cake?
Sliced rice cake should be kept either in the fridge or freezer. Personally I never save leftover rice cake soup.
I usually make the right amount so there are no leftovers.
Yum! I can’t wait to make this! I love dduk mandoo guk! I was wondering, though: can I freeze or refrigerate this to save it?
thank you maangchi! now my dduk gook tastes just like my mom’s. :) thank you so much for your recipes.
annie,
your rice cake soup really looks delicious! I like the clear looking soup that you made. : )
i made this tonight for dinner!! thank you for your recipe maangchi :) http://flickr.com/photos/yeheunkim/3318299962/
Anonymous,
You can make ddukbokkie with the round rice cake.
And also you can add it to “hot spicy fish stew (maewoontang) or kimchi stew. Delicious!
Other than this soup, what else can i make with these round rice cakes??
Nishu,
Yes, the stock made with dried anchovies could be used for ddeokguk, too. I actually prefer anchovy stock : ) You are an awesome cook!
Anyong Haseyo Maangchi!
Wow Wow Another Gr8 Recipe I made it yesterday is was so good and also in winter instead of beef i made stock with Dasshima and Myulchi and used Korean soup soy sauce it ws great with seasoning of kim & Egg
Thank You ^_^V
sooji,
Thank you very much!
Regarding fish sauce, someone else asked the same question, so I answered her. I am copying and pasting my answer here.
“There are 2 kinds of soy sauce that Koreans use: dark soy sauce (“jinganjang”(진간장)and soy sauce for soup called “gukganjang” (“국간장” in Korean)
Koreans use gukganjang (soy sauce for soup) instead of fish sauce. I’m living in New York , so it’s difficult to make homemade gukganjang (soy sauce for soup). I know they sell it at a Korean grocery store here, but the taste is a little different from the soy sauce that I used to use in Korea.
I found fish sauce gives the similar taste of well fermented gukganjang. That’s why I use fish sauce (“aekjjeot”: 액젓 in Korean) in ddeokguk. ”
Check the forum where I posted this answer.
https://www.maangchi.com/talk/topic/duk-gook
maangchi i love your recipes! you wouldn’t believe how much help it has been in learning how to cook korean food! :)
i was wondering though, what does the fish sauce do? i don’t remember my mother ever putting it in (i think she might instead put dashida) but i was just wondering what purpose it serves in the ddukgook. thanks maangchi!
Liz,
I’m glad to hear that your rice cake soup turned out great!
James,
Living in a dorm with a kitchen sounds fantastic! : ) I go to 32nd and 5th ave hanarum (한아름) market to get Korean groceries.
Hello Maangchi!
I love this website! I’m a Korean-American living in New York City. I’m a college student, but I live in a dorm with a kitchen. I’m trying to cook Korean food for myself, but I’m finding it rather difficult to find the proper ingredients. So I was wondering where you go for groceries.
Thanks,
James
Hi Maagnchi,
Your website is amazing and your recipes are so great! I made your 떡국 for the new year and it was delicious! Thank you so much :D
gabieolie,
That’s a very good question! sure, some people use anchovy and sea kelp stock to make rice cake soup.
Hi Maangchi,
Can I use anchovy and sea kelp to make the soup instead of beef? I was just wondering… I don’t have any beef in the refrigerator, but I have other ingredients ready to make this soup – just in time for the new year : )
@hankido duk mandu guk is very simple. Just follow the above recipe, and about 10 min b4 the end, just add in the mandu (use either Maangchi’s recipe: https://www.maangchi.com/recipe/mandu or use the frozen kind). Done!
Mm! I had some soup at a local Korean restaurant with those sliced rice cakes in it. It was described as a dumpling soup, and also had mandu in it. The sliced rice cakes were the best part, even though I didn’t know what they were.
I love ddeok mandu guk even more -.^
oh!!!! i love dduk gook :)