SOUP · Easy · 50 min
Tteokguk Recipe — How to Make Korean Rice Cake Soup
By Tteok Curator
Clear beef or anchovy broth, soaked oval rice-cake coins, egg garnish. Seollal soup that also works on a Tuesday.
TL;DR
Soak 400 g tteokguk-tteok. Simmer 6 cups clean broth. Add cakes 4–6 minutes until they float. Garnish with jidan, gim, scallion. Long method: /blog/how-to-make-tteokguk/.
Prep 20 min + soakCook 30 minServes 4
Ingredients
- 400g tteokguk-tteok (oval sliced), soaked until they bend
- 6 cups beef or anchovy-kelp stock
- 200g brisket, sliced thin after simmering (optional)
- 2 eggs for jidan (yolks and whites separated)
- Soup soy or regular soy, salt, pepper
- Toasted gim, scallion, sesame oil for the bowls
Steps
- Soak refrigerated ovals 15–20 minutes in cool water until a slice bends. Drain. Do not use the soak water as broth.
- Simmer brisket in the stock with onion and garlic until sliceable, or make a 15-minute anchovy-kelp broth (pull kelp at 8 minutes). Season the broth before the cakes go in.
- Add drained tteok to a gentle simmer 4–6 minutes until the coins float and the edges look slightly translucent. Pull off heat while they still have chew.
- Cook thin yellow and white egg sheets in a barely oiled pan; julienne.
- Bowl broth, cakes, and brisket. Top with jidan, torn gim, scallion, and a few drops of sesame oil.
Tips
- A rolling boil shreds the coins and clouds the pot.
- Store leftover broth without the cakes — they swell overnight.
- Long-form method and buying notes: /blog/how-to-make-tteokguk/ and /blog/how-to-buy-garaetteok/.
What you'll need
Pantry searches on Amazon — we do not invent prices or pick a single “best” brand.
- Garae-tteok (cylinder rice cakes)Cylinder rice cakes for tteokbokki and tteokguk. Check rice vs wheat on the label.
- Toasted sesame oilFinish japchae, gimbap, and tteokbokki off the heat.
- Roasted seaweed sheets (gim)Full-size roasted sheets for rolling gimbap, not snack packs.
- Dried anchovies and kelpThe stock behind tteokbokki and many stews. Gut large anchovies before simmering.
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More Korean food
Relevant pages on the two hub sites — recipes and a BBQ directory on bulgogi.ai, street rice cakes on tteokbokki.ai.
- bulgogi.ai — recipes & BBQ directory →Marinades, cuts, and a USA Korean BBQ map.
- tteokbokki.ai — street rice cakes →School-cart sauce, rose, mala, and tteok types.
- Wheat vs rice tteok for braising →Street tteokbokki chew lives on the hub, not this everyday-tteok journal.