TteokGuk is a traditional Korean New Year soup. Korean people celebrate the Lunar New Year, and this soup is the main dish for that holiday meal. On New Year’s morning, we wear HanBok (Korean traditional clothes) and greet (bow) our grandparents, parents, or relatives. Older people give a blessing for the New Year to their children along with some money called “SaeBatDon” (새뱃돈). After greeting the older people, family and relatives eat breakfast together. The meal will have New Year’s soup, different kinds of vegetable dishes, fish, jeon, japvchae, galbi jjim, and so on. Since Koreans calculate their age according to New Year, and not according to their actual birthday, eating the bowl of New Year soup on New Year’s Day means becoming one year older. It might sound a little crazy. Sometime we joke, “I don’t want to eat more than one bowl of New Year’s soup, otherwise I would become more than one year older.” hehe
Yield: 2 Servings
Short Korean Lesson: *^^*
- SaeHae Bok MaNi BaDeuSeYo (새해 복 많이 받으세요) = Have a lot of good fortune for the new year. This is the Korean greeting for New Year’s Day.
Video Instructions
Main Ingredients
- 3 Cups Sliced Rice Cakes for TteokGuk
- 5 Oz Beef Brisket (½ Cup)
- 1 Green Onion
- 2 Eggs (2 Pinches Salt)
- 2 Sheets Roasted Seaweed
Beef Broth Ingredients
- 7 Cups Water
- ¼ Onion
- 3 Garlic Cloves
- 1 Green Onion
- 8 Peppercorns
- ½ to ⅔ tsp Salt
Beef Seasoning Ingredients
- 1½ tsp Soup Soy Sauce
- 1 tsp Sesame Oil
- 1 Tbsp Finely Chopped Green Onion
- ½ tsp Minced Garlic
- 1 Pinch Black Pepper
Directions
To make the broth, in a large pan, pour 7 cups of water, add the 5 oz beef brisket, ¼ of an onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 1 green onion (half in cut), and 8 peppercorns. Boil for about 45 minutes on medium high.
Meanwhile, make the egg topping. Heat a pan and wipe it with an oiled paper towel. Reduce the temperature to medium low.
I separated 2 eggs. Keep the yolks and whites separated.
Add 1 pinch of salt for each and fry them.
Cut them thinly. I fried them separately for better color, but usually I just mix them together and fry. 
Occasionally, remove the foam from the surface of the broth. After 45 minutes, the broth will be reduced to about half. (About 3½ cup).
Remove the cooked beef from the broth and put it aside.
Remove and discard the rest of the vegetables from the broth.
In the reduced broth, add 3 cups of rice cakes. Rinse the rice cakes before you use them. Cook them for 10 to 15 minutes, until the rice cakes are soft.
Mean while, make the beef topping. Thinly cut or tear the cooked beef.
Add the beef, 1½ tsp of soy sauce, 1 tsp of sesame oil, 1 Tbsp of finely chopped green onion, ½ tsp of minced garlic, and 1 pinch of black pepper. Mix them all together, and set it aside.
Prepare 2 sheets of roasted seaweed. Use one sheet for each serving.
Add ½ to ⅔ tsp of salt to the soup, depending on your tastes.
When the rice cakes are almost cooked, add 1 chopped green onion. Cook for 2 more minutes. Turn off the heat.
Pour some rice cake soup in a bowl. Then add the egg, beef, and seaweed toppings. Mix everything together before eating. Does it looks delicious? I hope you will enjoy this. Someday, I will show how to make my shortcut version of TteokGuk.
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Happy new year Aeri!!! I’m going to make your delicious dukk guk again. Hope all is well!
Hi Aeri. Huikyong and I will be hosting a Lunar New Year party. Last year I made your New Year soup recipe and it was very popular. Now I must make it again as everyone wants it! LOL I have to feed 20 people!
Luckily we have many friends, who will bring Filipino, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese dishes for our celebration. There will be lots of food in addition to the soup.
Thank you for sharing the recipe!
새해 복 많이 받으세요
hi Doug,
Have a happy new year !!!
Thank you for your comment. I’m very excited to hear your story that people liked your korean food.
Hi Aeri, this soup is one of my favorites! I like to make a lot, do u think I could freeze it?
hi Mee Ae,
Haha, make the soup a lot and freeze it? Actually, I’ve never freeze it before but I guess you can do it. Try it. Thanks
SaeHae Bok MaNi BaDeuSeYo (새해 복 많이 받으세요) to you Aeri and family. so did you cook this dish today? i did and my first for this 2011. delicious and fulfilling…the taste still lingers on my mind, simple yet filling! instead of using bean, i use lean pork (can’t eat beef due to religion issue). i’ll cook for the lunar new year which falls on Feb 2 if i’m not wrong. chinese new year is around that time. aish, i’ve been following korean’s tradition more than my chinese one…is ok i dun mind the ‘another-year-older’
안녕하세요.
I just cooked this recipe last night! The taste was very nice. The brisket cooked for 45 minutes tastes really nice compared to just like Hamburger meat or something.
I had one question about your recipe though—every time I have had it previously, it always had 만두(Dumplings) in it. What sort of dumpling would you recommend for this one?
Thank you again for so many recipes on your site! I have used so many of your recipes as reference if I cannot remember something while I am cooking. ^^ It has been very helpful. 감사합니다!
Oh, and one other question—do you cook 갈비탕 by any chance? I heard it is very difficult to cook, and better just to eat at restaurant. But, I don’t have any delicious Korean restaurant near me.. I hope someday you will show us how to make it if it is possible! ^^
hi 브렌든 (Brendan),
Thanks for your message.
About your question, you can use any kinds of dumplings you like.. but you asked me my recommend for this soup.. so I will say.. dumpling for soup.. it has round shape like a small ball.. we usually use them.. you can use those kind of steamed dumplings.. you can check my kimchi dumpling post for it.. ^^
I will add your request to my list to.
Hi Aeri,
Can i use a bone-in, skin-on chicken breast instead of beef. Since the bone and skin give good flavor, would it be a good substitute? I hope you can answer my question. Thank you! I love your recipes!
RedRanger123
hi RedRanger123,
Yep.. you can do that.. in Korea some people use chicken instead of beef for their new year soup. thanks
Hi Aeri,
Thank you for your response! I’d love to see some more rice cake recipes!
RedRanger 123
Hi Aeri unnie!
I already have all the ingredients but i can’t eat beef, could i use chicken? Thank you ^^
I can’t wait to try this recipe, i’m sure its delicious!^^
hi Yashi,
Good luck ~~~
Huk… I replied to your blog before..and now it’s disappeared with my old hosting company.. @,@
If you are going to use chicken… just skip the part you mix some seasoning with the cooked beef.. instead… after you make the broth.. tear the chicken to the size you want… and put them back to the broth..and cook with the rice cakes.. rest of things will be same. Just you might have to add more salt in this case depending on your taste.
oh mine….it’s the time of the year. how time flies! i’m going to make this next week. gosh, lunar new year is just around the corner. are your parents in the states to see cute bryson now? i remember you mentioned that they are coming around this time….
Hi layping,
My parents came here Jan 21,,and stayed about 2 weeks..they went to back to Korea.. they had a great time here.. thanks
I know.. really time flies..hehe wow.. your memory is very good.. smart girl
bet they were charmed by bryson, huh?
yes, i got the stuffs to make this soup. are u going to have it this sunday too? wow, wish you a happy lunar new year. it’s a year of tiger for 2010. wooooow
hi layping,
love you~~
Yes, they did.. they miss Bryson a lot now… hehe one of my Korean friend invited us to her lunar new year meal tomorrow… so I can eat yummy new year soup there.. assa !!! hehe.. thanks .. best wish for 2010 to you and your family…
hello! I am exchange student from korea ! I’m living in America with my host family. I wanted to make korean food to my host parents. But I’d never cooked food before.!!
So I found korean cook website . And finally I found this cite, and It really helped me cook Korean food. ^^
Yesterday, I tried to cook ddok guk for the first time and It was good!
But I had a problem with beef. I boiled it for 1 hour, but it didn’t get well done. (still red color). I don’t know what the problem is. Do I have to cook beef separately?
Tomorrow I am going to make ddook guk to my friends. I hope i can make perfect delicious ddook guk! ^_^
Hi, hae yeon (혜연?)
한국분이시네요 ..너무 너무 반갑습니다.
I’m happy to hear that you made and served this Korean new year soup for your host family. That’s sweet !!! Oh~~ I wonder if your beef chunk was too big. I usually cut it like the picture, it will be faster to cook. The temperature will be medium-high. If you try it again.. Cut the beef smaller..and cook untill the beef is completely cooked.. if you lose too much water from boiling it, you can add some water occasionally. Good luck..^^ I hope your life in America is happy.
hello! happy new year! we had this for our lunch to usher the new year! everyone luved it. hmm, a good way to start the year of ox :p
Hi, layping
Thanks !!
hey~~~ Happy New Year !!! I’m happy to hear that your new year starting was good with tteokguk.
Ahaa..I love rice cakes! There was once a small Korean shop near where I live, run by two Korean students, they make the most delicious rice cake dishes I’ve ever had! I don’t know the name, but it was pretty spicy. Unfortunately they were shut down soon…
Hi, DJ
spicy rice cake dishes?? hm..it’s not dessert right ?? hehe..if it’s not I can guess what it was.. maybe tteokbokki.. I have that recipe here.. will you check it ?? here is the link..
http://aeriskitchen.com/2008/10/ddeok-bok-ki-떡볶이/
thanks !!
yipeeee! finally, we got the recipe :> i’ll be making this on 26th jan. hehe, can’t wait for lunar new year. will u be celebrating with your honey? yes, i want to see u wearing hanbok too!! hanbok is sooo graceful and beautiful too!
Hi, layping
Oh~~ another person who wants to see me wearing a hanbok ?? oops ~~~ Enjoy your new year holiday ~~~ thanks !!!
so when exactly is the korean lunar new year? is that the rice cake i showed a picture to you a while ago? this looks really delicious. i love how you make your eggs! very clever!!!
happy new year aeri! so are you going to wear a hanbok? hehe i wanna see!
Hi, Farleen
The Korean lunar new year is.. 26th.. this coming Monday !!! Yes, that’s the rice cake..hehe hanbok?? ..oops..