Tteok Mandu Guk. A popular Korean rice cake dumping soup made of a light broth, chewy rice cakes and delicious dumplings. This is a quick and easy recipe in 15 minutes with minimal ingredients in one pot. A great meal for the family to enjoy!
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What is Tteok Mandu Guk?
Tteok mandu guk features savory plump Korean dumplings, bouncy rice cakes simmered in a light beef broth garnished with eggs, green onions and seaweed.
In Korean, "Tteok" means rice cakes, "Mandu" stands for dumplings and "Guk" means soup. In Korean tradition, it's served as a main dish on Korean New Year Day (January 1st) to celebrate Lunar New Year. But you can enjoy this all year round!
It's eaten on New Year's Day to bring good fortune and good luck since Koreans turn a year older on the first of January. This soup is also perfect for the cold weather to warm the body up!
This dumpling rice cake soup is best served with rice and other Korean side dishes like kimchi. I share a list of pairing suggestions below.
Ingredients & Substitutes
Please scroll down to below recipe card for exact measurements.
- Beef brisket or flank steak: I prefer using either of these two cuts to make my beef stock. Or substitute with a lean cut of beef and avoid a fatty cut or you'll need to skim the broth.
- Dumplings (aka Mandu): I recommend Korean dumplings, like pork or kimchi dumplings. Store-bought dumplings will make things easier. Feel free to use frozen dumplings or fresh dumplings or even homemade dumplings.
- Korean Rice Cake Slices: Buy the sliced rice cakes that look like discs and not the kind that are cylindrical long tubes as these take longer to cook and release a lot of starch into the broth. Frozen or fresh rice cakes both work. The fresh ones are located near the front of the Korean grocer.
- Water: Or substitute with chicken broth, anchovy stock, dashi stock or beef broth for extra flavor.
- Neutral oil: like avocado oil, sunflower oil, grapeseed oil, peanut oil, vegetable oil or canola oil with a high smoke point. Avoid olive oil that has a low smoke point.
- Chicken bouillon powder: to help flavor the soup!
- Regular soy sauce: or substitute with low sodium soy sauce or light soy sauce. If you’re gluten-free, substitute with tamari sauce, coconut aminos or a gluten-free soy sauce.
- Sesame oil: for that nutty flavor! If you're allergic, omit this ingredient.
- Garlic
- Black pepper: this accentuates the beef flavored stock. Don't skip!
- Gim: aka Roasted Seaweed in Korean or Nori.
- Eggs: to be separated and fried into pancakes and sliced into strips for a traditional garnish. This egg garnish is called "Jidan" which originates from Korean Royal cuisine.
- Green onion: garnish
Variations
- For a vegetarian version: omit the beef, water and chicken bouillon powder and substitute with vegetable stock. Substitute the dumplings with vegetarian ones.
Note: Your Korean or Asian grocery store will carry most of the Asian specific ingredients.
Expert Tips
- Rinse the rice cakes under cold water to remove excess starch which make the broth cloudy and thickens it.
- Marinate the beef for an extra flavorful broth!
- Cook the beef until browned for more flavor.
- Make sure to skim the broth with a soup skimmer. Otherwise the broth will be cloudy and less smooth.
- Simmer broth on a rolling boil so the broth is lighter in color.
- You can cook the dumplings separately in a small pot to avoid a cloudy broth but to make things easier, you can simply boil the dumplings in the broth for the suggested time.
Instructions
Below are step-by-step instructions on how to make Tteok Mandu Guk:
Prepare Beef & Rinse Rice Cakes
Dice beef into small cubes. Transfer to a small bowl. Season beef with Marinade ingredients and set aside to marinate for 2-3 minutes.
Then rinse rice cakes with cold water a few times to remove any starch. Strain and set aside.
Brown the Beef & Make Broth
In a large pot on medium heat, heat vegetable oil and fry beef until browned.
Pour in water (or stock). Cover and bring to a boil. Then reduce to medium-low heat for 15 minutes for a gentle boil. Skim off any scum for a clean broth.
Season & Boil Dumplings with Rice cakes
Season broth with soy sauce and chicken powder.
Uncover and add in dumplings and rice cakes. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Cook until they float, about 3-4 minutes. Remove the soup off heat. Note: If using large dumplings, cook them 4 minutes earlier than the rice cake as they’ll take longer to cook.
Make Egg Garnish
Separate egg yolks from egg whites in two separate bowls. Beat the egg yolks and egg whites separately. In a pan set on low medium heat, lightly grease it with oil and paper towel. Pour in yolk mixture and let it set into a thin pancake. Fry on both sides until cooked, a couple minutes in total. Repeat this for egg white mixture.
(Alternatively, you can beat the whole eggs without separating and pour the eggs in a thin stream in a circular motion into the soup, like Egg Drop Soup).
Transfer egg yolk pancake to a cutting board. Roll up the pancake and slice thinly. Repeat the same with egg white pancake.
Garnish and Serve
Divide and serve the soup into large bowls. Garnish with cooked eggs strips, green onions, and gim. Feel free to season with a pinch of salt to taste if you'd like it saltier.
Storage
- Tteok mandu guk is best consumed same day as the dumpling wrappers and rice cakes will turn soggy by next day. But if you have leftovers, separate the broth from the cooked dumplings and rice cakes and store in separate airtight containers and when you're ready to reheat, combine them in a pot to re-boil.
- Freezer-friendly? I don't recommend freezing tteok mandu guk as the rice cakes will turn hard after reheating.
Pairing Suggestions
Tteok mandu guk serves well with white rice and other Korean side dishes or banchans like:
FAQ
I would suggest to only make the broth up to 4 days in advance and stored in an airtight container in the fridge. When ready to serve, boil the dumplings and rice cakes in the reheated broth closer to serving time.
You may add beef bones to the stock, but I would suggest adding some of the meat or the broth could lack in flavor. Don't forget to remove the bones before you add the dumplings and rice cakes.
In my experience, this depends on the state of the rice cake and how they come when purchased. If they come frozen, I would suggest only rinsing them as they can disintegrate if you soak them in cold water and then boil. If they come fresh or refrigerated, soak them in cold water and strain them before you add them to the soup.
That's okay! It will still taste great and that’s what counts the most. The light-colored broth is more for aesthetics. The darker color broth does signify that it was boiled at a higher temperature instead of a slower rolling boil. Next time, reduce heat to medium-low heat and see if this produces a lighter colored broth.
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📖 Recipe
15-min. Easy Tteok Mandu Guk (Korean Rice Cake Dumpling Soup)
Ingredients
- 5.29 oz beef brisket or flank steak cubed
- 10-12 dumplings store bought or homemade work well (feel free to add more if desired)
- 1.5 cups Korean rice cakes rinsed and soaked in cold water
- 6 cups water (or sub with chicken, beef, vegetarian broth, or anchovy broth for additional flavor)
- 2 teaspoon vegetable oil or any neutral oil
- 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon powder (I like using the Knorr brand)
- 2-3 teaspoon regular soy sauce
Beef Marinade:
- 2 teaspoon regular soy sauce
- 2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 2 clove garlic minced
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Optional Garnish:
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ sheet gim aka roasted seaweed/nori cut into thin strips
- 1 green onion finely chopped
Instructions
- Dice beef into small cubes. Transfer to a small bowl. Season beef with Marinade ingredients and set aside to marinate for 2-3 minutes.
- Then rinse rice cakes with cold water a few times to remove any starch. Strain and set aside.
- In a large pot on medium heat, heat vegetable oil and fry beef until browned.
- Pour in water (or stock). Cover and bring to a boil. Then reduce to medium-low heat for 15 minutes for a gentle boil. Skim off any scum for a clean broth. Season broth with soy sauce and chicken powder.
- Uncover and add in dumplings and rice cakes. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Cook until they float, about 3-4 minutes. Remove the soup off heat. Note: If using large dumplings, cook them 4 minutes earlier than the rice cake as they’ll take longer to cook.
- Optional Garnish: Separate egg yolks from egg whites in two separate bowls. Beat the egg yolks and egg whites separately. In a pan set on low medium heat, lightly grease it with oil and paper towel. Pour in yolk mixture and let it set into a thin pancake. Fry on both sides until cooked, a couple minutes in total. Repeat this for egg white mixture.Transfer egg yolk pancake to a cutting board. Roll up the pancake and slice thinly. Repeat the same with egg white pancake.
- Divide and serve the soup into large bowls. Garnish with cooked eggs strips, green onions, and gim. Feel free to season with a pinch of salt to taste if you'd like it saltier.
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