Hot and slightly spicy Korean Kimchi and Tofu Jjigae (soup)
Hot and slightly spicy Korean Kimchi and Tofu Jjigae (soup)
Soup Name:
Korean Kimchi and Tofu Jjigae (Soup)
Nature: Cool (although could be warmer depending on how spicy you make it, but this is driven by the cooling white radish and tofu)
Taste: Sweet, Salty
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I know there’s a thought that this is a fusion (and not completely authentically Korean) of Chinese and Western elements, and you’re right!
The Korean soup dashi base though, I can assure you is completely authentic! You can find the full post and video available for you to start this amazing soup.
The great thing about this soup base is that you can make so many soups with this base! And today, I really wanted a kimchi and tofu soup (usually served with rice!).
Once you have the soup base, you can craft or create the soup you want. I’ve gone with a simple combination that is less spicy and a bit untraditional in that it’s more like a Chinese fusion version with the Korean dashi soup base.
Some key ingredients in Korean spicy stews is the pepper flakes. This is what makes it bright red and spicy!
Prep time: 5 mins (with 40 mins from dashi prep)
Cook time: 10 mins
Total time: 15 mins
Serves: 1 L individual pot of stew (or soup)
- Start with the Korean dashi soup base (see this post here on how to make this)
- 50 g of fresh kimchi (or the amount you want)
- 150 g of fresh soft tofu (or the amount you want)
- pan fried soy sauce beef (or any meats you want, such as spam, ham, even dumplings!)
- fresh sliced cabbage
- fresh green onions
Optional:
- 20 g of Korean pepper flakes (gochugaru)
- 1 tsp of toasted sesame oil
- 1 raw egg
To make the Korean dashi (soup base), you can follow these instructions below (and also following this post):
- Remove the heads from your dried anchovies and put them into your soup pot. No washing or cleaning is needed, just simply remove from the bag.
- Remove the dried seaweed sheet from the packaging and snap into pieces to fit into the pot and put into the pot
- Peel your white radish (enough to remove all the skin if you plan to eat it, as the skin can be quite tough and unpleasant to eat) and slice into 1 cm thick slices (or any thickness you’d like)
- Put everything into your soup pot
- Add in the water
- Boil on high for 10 minutes, covered
- Reduce boil to another 20 minutes
- Strain all the ingredients, separating the liquid from the soup goodies
- This strained soup is your dashi! You can use directly as is into your soup of choice or put into mason jars and store in the fridge for up to 3 days.
To make the rest of the kimchi tofu soup:
- In a separate individual pot, scoop the Korean dashi soup to start this dish. For mine, I’m using ox tail and fresh white radish, so I’ve scooped healthy amounts as part of my meal. Scoop in ONLY HALF the volume of the pot as you’ll want to save space for the additional ingredients
- Turn that on to a medium boil
- Add in the fresh kimchi, soft tofu (in the middle), fresh cabbage and any meats
- Cover and let that boil for 10 minutes to allow all the ingredients to soften together
- Once soft, you can garnish with green onions
- Serve while still bubbling and enjoy!
