Tteokguk (Korean Rice Cake Soup)

Happy New Year! For Koreans, auspicious food for a prosperous New Year is definitely tteokguk (떡국) — rice cake soup! This starchy and soothing bowl of soup is not only a New Year’s tradition but is a classic comfort food any time of the year!

What is tteokguk (or ddukguk)?

Tteokguk is a soup made with sliced rice cakes, usually in beef broth. It’s a traditional must-eat New Year’s dish. The rice cake used for this soup is garaetteok, which is unsweetened and shaped like a long cylinder. For the soup, garaetteok is sliced into thin oval shapes. The white oval shape symbolizes a bright and prosperous new year.

Growing up, I always loved to eat long steaming garaetteok that my mother used to bring home from a rice cake mill to prepare for the New Year’s feast. She would wait a couple of days for the garaetteok to turn hard before slicing them into thin oval slices. These days, pre-sliced gareatteok is widely available all year around, making the soup preparation much easier.

Often, I add mandu (Korean dumplings) to tteokguk, in which case the soup is called tteok-manduguk (떡만두국). You can use any kind of mandu in the soup. My favorite is  kimchi mandu because of its pungent flavor and crunchy texture, which I think adds a nice contrast to the mildly flavored broth and soft rice cake slices.

How to make beef broth for tteokguk

You can make tteokguk with any broth such as anchovy broth, vegan broth, and chicken broth. However, beef broth is classic. It’s also common to use milky beef bone broth. 

There are largely two ways to make beef broth for Korean soups.  For the first one, you cut the meat into small pieces, season with Korean soup soy sauce and sauté with a little bit of sesame oil before boiling in water. Since the meat is thinly sliced, it cooks up quickly, more so if you use a tender cut of meat. Use a cut of meat with some marbling that’s not too tough. Beef chuck or bulgogi meat is good for this. 

Another method is to boil a large chunk of flavorful beef with some aromatic vegetables. This is what I used in this recipe. In Korea, beef brisket (yangjimeori, 양지머리) is a popular cut of meat for making soups. It’s a tough cut of meat cooked in large chunks, so it takes longer for the meat to turn tender, about an hour. The resulting broth has a deep flavor. The meat is then shredded, seasoned and used as a garnish. 

Variations and tips for making tteokguk

1. Use soup soy sauce (guk ganjang, 국간장) to season the broth, if available. Guk ganjang is essential for authentic Korean soups such as this rice cake soup. It adds delicious savory flavor to the soup. A good substitute is a fish sauce.
2. If you want to add some mandu (dumplings), you can drop them in along with the rice cake slices, stirring gently so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Boil until all of them float, and continue to cook for another minute or two. You can also steam mandu or cook in boiling water separately, and add to the soup when the rice cake is softened. This method will keep the soup from becoming too thick from all the starch released from the rice cake and mandu.
3. Although egg jidan (sliced egg crepe) is a classic garnish for rice cake soup, a common alternative is to drizzle a lightly beaten egg over the boiling soup (do not stir) immediately before turning the heat off.  Or you can omit the egg part entirely if you like.

This recipe was originally posted in January 2013. I’ve updated it here with new photos, more information and minor changes to the recipe.