Restaurant Version Soybean Paste Guk

When you go to a Korean B.B.Q place, you will often get this tasty soybean paste soup along with your ordered meat. Even if the soup is like a side dish for the main meal, some people might want to go there just for the soup because it is that delicious. 🙂 So, today I want to share my tasty restaurant version of this soybean paste soup with some special secret ingredients. Please cook this delicious soup at home with what you normally would have in your kitchen.

Yield: 2 Servings

Short Korean Lesson

JongI (종이) = Paper
NakSeo (낙서) = Scribbling

Video Instructions

Main Ingredients:

3 Cups Rice Water
1 Cup Tofu
½ Cup Fresh Shiitake Mushroom
½ Cup Korean Radish
½ Cup Onion
½ Cup Zucchini
½ Cup Potato
¼ Cup Green Onion
1 Tbsp Red Hot Pepper

Seasoning Ingredients:

6 Pieces Dried Kelp (2 x 1.5 Inch)
1½ Tbsp Seasoned Soybean Paste (SsamJang)
1½ Tbsp Soybean Paste (DoenJang)
1 Tbsp Hot Pepper Powder
2 tsp Fish Sauce or Soup Soy Sauce
1 tsp Garlic, Minced

Directions

One of the special secret ingredients we are going to use for this soup today is rice water. When you wash the rice, get rid of the water that you pour out fist, but keep the 3 cups of milky rice water that remains.

These are all of the seasoning ingredients we will need for this soup today: 6 pieces of dried kelp (2 x 1.5 in.), 1½ Tbsp of seasoned soybean paste (SsamJang), 1½ Tbsp of soybean paste (DwenJang), 1 Tbsp of hot pepper powder, 2 tsp of fish sauce or soy sauce, and 1 tsp of minced garlic.

Another secret ingredient for this soup is seasoned soybean paste. This is basically soybean paste seasoned with some other ingredients, and is almost always used for seasoning Korean B.B.Q wraps.

Pour the rice water into a pot and add the seasoned soybean paste (SsamJang), soybean paste (DoenJang), 1 Tbsp of hot pepper powder, and 6 pieces of dried kelp (2 x 1.5 Inch).

Among the main ingredients, some of the firm ones take longer to cook and others take less time. So, prepare the firm ingredients first. Here they are: ½ cup of Korean radish, ½ cup of onion, and ½ cup of potato.

Cut them into bite sized pieces.

Once the broth starts to boil, add the chopped vegetables into the pot. Cook them for about 10 minutes on medium-high.

Meanwhile, chop the soft main ingredients, 1 cup of tofu, ½ cup of fresh shiitake mushroom, and ½ cup of zucchini

Cut into bite sized pieces. You can use other kinds of mushroom you like or you can even use chopped beef or clams instead.

After 10 minutes, discard the kelp from the broth.

Next, add the soft vegetables and tofu into the pot. Cook for another 5 minutes on medium-high.

Season the soup with 2 tsp of fish sauce (or soup soy sauce) and 1 tsp of minced garlic.

Chop ¼ cup of green onion into about 1 inch pieces and slice 1 Tbsp of red hot pepper thinly.

After 5 minutes, all the vegetables will be cooked enough. If you want to serve the soup boiling hot, you can put some of the soup in a small clay pot called TtukBaeGi. Garnish the red hot pepper and green onion on top of the boiling soup and serve.