Tteok Mandu Guk (Korean Rice Cake Soup with Dumplings)

two bowls filled with korean rice cake soup with dumplings (tteok mandu guk)

5 from 3 votes

Tteok Mandu Guk (Korean Rice Cake Soup with Dumplings)

Celebrate the New Year with Tteok Mandu Guk or Korean Rice Cake Soup with Dumplings! Savory beef broth, chewy rice cake, and mandu (dumplings) are garnished with egg strips, roasted nori, and green onions. A kid-friendly soup that's just as easy to make for weeknight dinner. Pre-made beef bone broth and frozen dumpings make this comforting Korean rice cake soup especially quick to prepare.

Prep Time10

Cook Time20

Course: Soup

Cuisine: Korean

Keyword: Guk, Mandu, Rice Cake Soup, Tteok

Servings:

Calories: 965kcal

Equipment

Large stock pot

Ingredients

Beef:

3/4 lb/225 grams beef chuck, beef flank steak, top round, beef brisket, or bulgogi beef *look for a well marbled piece
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Sesame Oil

Soup:

7 cups stock (pre-made beef bone broth, beef stock, anchovy stock, chicken stock, vegetable stock, or clam broth)
1-2 Tbsp CJ Dasida Beef Bouillon powder (depending on salt content of stock that's added; add to taste)
1-2 Tbsp Soy Sauce (to taste)
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups sliced Tteok
2 cups frozen bibigo mandu (dumplings)
1 Tbsp sesame oil (drizzle right before serving)

Garnish:

3 eggs, preferably organic
2 packages roasted seasoned seaweed snack (Gim)
3 green onions

Instructions

Prep beef. Slice beef into 1/8-inch thin strips, against the grain, so it's not too chewy. Season with soy sauce and sesame oil. Set aside to marinate for 10 minutes.
Prep garnish. While the beef marinates, prep the 3 garnishes. Snip nori into thin strips with scissors or crush with hands; set aside in a bowl. Finely mince green onions abd set aside in a bowl.
To make the egg garnish: whisk eggs in a small bowl. Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat. Add 1 tsp oil and swirl in the pan. Add eggs and immediately swirl the eggs so they reach the edges of the pan and make a thin, crepe-like pancake. When the bottom of the egg pancake is firm and the top is mostly cooked, flip to the other side. Turn off the heat and let the residual heat cook the other side, about 30 seconds. Transfer to a plate and cool completely. When the egg pancake is cool, roll as tightly as possible. Slice into thin strips. Set aside in a bowl.
Cook beef. Heat a stock pot to medium heat and add 1-2 tsp of cooking oil. Add beef and stir frequently, until browned and mostly cooked. It's ok if the beef is not fully cooked.
Add soup stock. Add soup stock of choice, beef bouillon (dasida), and soy sauce. Bring to a boil and skim out the scum that rises to the surface. Cook for additional 10 minutes, with the lid partially askew, until the flavors meld together.
Add rice cakes, mandu, and garlic. While the soup is simmering, add rice cakes, frozen mandu, and garlic. Stir gently and cook until the dumplingsand rice cakes float, about 4-5 minutes. Taste a rice cake to make sure they are soft and chewy. Do not overcook!
*Mandu that are not pre-cooked or especially large may take longer to cook. In that case, add the mandu first then add the rice cakes a few minutes later.
Serve. Right before serving, add a drizzle of sesame oil to the soup pot for extra richness. Ladle into bowls. Garnish with egg strips, nori (crushed or cut into strips), and green onions. Enjoy!

Notes

Additional Tips:

Buy pre-made beef stock. My favorite cooking tip for making fast, easy, high-quality Dduk Guk at home. Look for pre-packaged, milky white, beef bone stock (sometimes called Seollangtang) at the Korean grocery store. They will be available in foil envelopes/pouches or plastic soup containers.
Make sure to slice beef against the grain. To prevent overly chewy beef, it's important to slice as thinly as possible AGAINST the grain. Look for the long strands of beef that point in the same direction. Slice in a perpendicular direction so the long beef strands are cut into thin strips.
Don't overcook! Tteok Mandu Guk is easy to overcook. The rice cakes, especially, can turn mushy, start falling apart, and disintegrate into the broth when cooked too long. Instead, cook until the rice cakes float, are soft and chewy, but still retain their shape, about 3-4 minutes. Look at the edges of the rice cakes and make sure they are still firm and not "melting" and disappearing.
To prep rice cakes. Defrost frozen rice cakes by soaking in cold water for 15 minutes. If using refrigerated rice cakes, rinse in cold water to remove starch or residual moisture. Room-temperature rice cakes can be directly added into the soup, as is.

Variations:

Make it Vegan. Swap out the beef stock and make a vegan broth instead. For the broth, combine kombu and shitake mushrooms and cook for 20 minutes. Slice shitake mushrooms thinly and marinate as you would the beef. Use egg substitute in place of the egg garnish.
Add egg directly to the soup. The egg can also be added directly to the soup. The resulting texture will be thicker, like egg drop soup with fluffy, silky egg ribbons swirled throughout.
Tteok Guk Ramen. For a different texture, add a package of instant noodles and cook until soft. The combination is delicious.

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