Korean soup recipes fall into a few families: light everyday soups called guk, long-simmered bone broths, and thick, spicy stews called jjigae. They share one idea, which is that a bowl of something hot sits next to the rice at every meal. Below you will find the main types explained, ten classics from our cookbook at a glance, a chart of what the ingredients bring to the bowl and one full recipe, kimchi jjigae, that you can cook in about 45 minutes.
In brief:
- Korean soups come as light guk, rich bone broths and hearty jjigae stews.
- Kimchi jjigae is the easiest place to start: one pot, about 45 minutes.
- Use sour, well-fermented kimchi and fry it before adding any liquid.
- Kimchi, soy sauce and gochujang are salty, so taste before you season.
- Serve it with rice and a few small side dishes.
In this article · 11 min read
- Korean soup recipes: guk, tang and jjigae
- Ten Korean soup recipes at a glance
- Which Korean soup should you cook first?
- Recipe: kimchi jjigae, the classic kimchi stew
- Tips for better Korean soup recipes
- What is in the bowl: protein in common soup ingredients
- A video to watch
- Where our book fits
- When to ask a professional
- Who it is for
- Key terms
- Frequently asked questions
- Sources
A Korean meal is built around rice, and the soup or stew is not a starter that comes first. It arrives with everything else, which is why the cookbook describes the rhythm of the table as "one bite of rice, one spoonful of stew". That is also why a soup does not have to be a project. It can be one pot, a bowl of rice and a plate of kimchi.
Korean soup recipes: guk, tang and jjigae
The names tell you what to expect. Beyond Kimchee, a Korean recipe site, groups its more than 40 soups into light brothy soups, hearty jjigae and nourishing tang, with noodle soups on the side (Beyond Kimchee). A fourth family, jeongol, is a hot pot cooked at the table and shared. In practice they are easy to tell apart:
| Family | What it is like | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Guk | A light, clear soup served beside the rice, often with seaweed, sprouts or radish | Miyeokguk (seaweed soup), kongnamul guk (soybean sprout soup) |
| Tang | A rich broth, usually from bones or a whole bird, simmered for a long time | Seolleongtang, galbitang, samgyetang |
| Jjigae | A thick, strongly seasoned stew with less liquid, often cooked in a small pot and set in the middle of the table | Kimchi jjigae, doenjang jjigae, sundubu jjigae |
Our cookbook draws the same line in its opening chapter: lighter soups refresh the palate, while heartier stews bring comfort with rich, layered flavours. If you only cook one kind first, make it a jjigae. It needs no bones, no long simmer and no special equipment.
Ten Korean soup recipes at a glance
Chapter 5 of The Delicious Korean Cookbook holds ten soups and stews, numbered 31 to 40. The table below says what each one is and the idea the book builds it around.
| Soup | What it is | What the book does |
|---|---|---|
| Kimchi jjigae | Kimchi stew with pork and tofu | Fries the kimchi in the pork fat first |
| Doenjang jjigae | Soybean paste stew | Makes a quick broth of dried kelp and dried anchovies |
| Sundubu jjigae | Soft tofu stew with egg | Fries the chilli paste until the oil turns red, then cracks eggs into the pot |
| Seolleongtang | Milky ox bone soup with brisket | Simmers for about 3.5 hours and is seasoned at the table |
| Samgyetang | Whole small chicken stuffed with sweet rice, ginseng and jujubes | Served with salt and pepper on the side |
| Galbitang | Short rib soup with radish | Soaks and parboils the ribs before the long simmer |
| Budae jjigae | "Army stew" with SPAM, hot dogs, ramen and cheese | Arranges each ingredient in its own section of the pot |
| Gamjatang | Pork neck bone and potato stew | Cleans the bones first, then simmers |
| Haejangguk | Beef, cabbage and bean sprout soup with doenjang | Seasons the broth with doenjang |
| Kongnamul guk | Soybean sprout soup | Keeps the lid on for the first 10 minutes |
Two things stand out. The first is how many dishes start the same way: garlic, ginger and green onion, then a paste, then liquid. Learn that rhythm once and most of the chapter opens up. The second is the cleaning step for bone soups. Seolleongtang, galbitang and gamjatang all begin by soaking the bones, boiling them briefly and pouring that water away, so the final broth is clearer.
Which Korean soup should you cook first?
A short guide to choosing:
- A weeknight, 45 minutes: kimchi jjigae or sundubu jjigae. One pot, ingredients you can keep in the fridge.
- A quick, light soup beside a bigger meal: kongnamul guk. Soybean sprouts, onion, garlic and green onion, about 20 minutes of simmering.
- A slow weekend: galbitang or seolleongtang. The book gives these roughly two to three and a half hours, so they suit a day at home.
- A table of friends: budae jjigae. It is built to be eaten straight from the pot, with everyone picking their own mix.
- A first try with fewer unfamiliar ingredients: doenjang jjigae, if you already have soybean paste. The book says Japanese miso can stand in, though the flavour will differ.
If your pantry is still empty, start with our guides to Korean side dishes and to substitutes for gochugaru, the red pepper flakes that most of these stews need.
Recipe: kimchi jjigae, the classic kimchi stew
This is our rewrite of recipe 31 in the cookbook. It is the dish most people picture when they search for Korean soup recipes: sour kimchi, pork, tofu and a lot of heat. The metric amounts are conversions from the book's cups and ounces, so a kitchen scale helps.
Serves: 4. Prep: 10 minutes. Cook: about 35 minutes. Difficulty: easy.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (about 300 g) well-fermented napa cabbage kimchi, cut into bite-size pieces
- ½ pound (about 225 g) pork belly or pork shoulder, sliced ½ inch (1 cm) thick
- ½ medium onion, sliced
- 1 block (14 ounces / about 400 g) firm tofu, cut into ¾-inch (2 cm) cubes
- 2 green onions, cut into 2-inch (5 cm) pieces
- 2 tablespoons gochugaru (Korean red chili flakes)
- 1 tablespoon gochujang (Korean red chili paste)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 3 cups (700 ml) water or unsalted chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Method
- Put the pork and onion in a medium pot over medium heat. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring now and then, until the pork starts to brown and its fat melts.
- Add the kimchi and stir-fry for 3 more minutes, until it softens and the pork is coated.
- Stir in the gochugaru, gochujang, soy sauce, garlic and sugar and mix well.
- Pour in the water or broth and bring to a boil over high heat.
- Lower the heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.
- Add the tofu and green onions and simmer for 7 minutes more, until the tofu is hot all the way through.
- Drizzle with the sesame oil, season with the black pepper, then taste and adjust with a little more soy sauce or gochugaru. Ladle into bowls and serve hot with rice.
Make sure the pork is cooked through before you serve. For a different protein, the book suggests canned tuna or beef brisket instead of pork, and half a cup of kimchi juice stirred in for a deeper flavour.
Zoe Patton's view
In The Delicious Korean Cookbook, Zoe Patton makes one point about kimchi stew that is easy to miss: the kimchi is not simmered in the liquid, it is fried first. Her kimchi jjigae starts with pork belly and onion until the fat melts, then the kimchi goes in and is stir-fried for about three minutes before any seasoning or water. She also asks for well-fermented, sour kimchi, and suggests half a cup of its juice for extra depth. The result is a stew that tastes roasted and sharp rather than simply spicy. It is also the book's answer to a common question: what to do with a jar of kimchi that has gone too sour to eat on its own.
Tips for better Korean soup recipes
Use sour kimchi. Korean Bapsang, another Korean recipe site, says that cooking with kimchi calls for fully fermented, sour kimchi, and that the older the better (Korean Bapsang). If your kimchi is still fresh, keep it in the fridge for a few more days, or use it in a quick stir-fry instead. Our guide to making kimchi at home explains how it ferments.
Fry before you pour. Frying the paste or the kimchi in a little fat for a minute or two is the habit behind most jjigae. In the cookbook's sundubu jjigae the chilli paste cooks until the oil turns red, which is the cue to add the broth.
Watch the salt. Kimchi, soy sauce and gochujang are all salty, and a stew puts them together. The World Health Organization recommends that adults eat less than 2,000 mg of sodium a day, which is less than 5 g of salt, or just under a teaspoon (WHO). Taste before you add soy sauce, add water if a pot is too strong, and ask a doctor or dietitian if you have been told to limit salt.
Keep the heat adjustable. Gochugaru is the main source of heat in the book. Start with less, and add more at the table. Most of the book's recipes end with a note on milder or spicier versions.
What is in the bowl: protein in common soup ingredients
Soups in this style are usually built from a few ingredients that are cheap and easy to find. The US Department of Agriculture publishes the composition of foods in its FoodData Central database. In its SR Legacy data, 100 g of raw soybean sprouts have 13.1 g of protein, a raw egg 12.6 g, raw pork belly 9.3 g, regular tofu 8.1 g, raw shiitake mushrooms 2.2 g, raw Chinese cabbage 1.2 g and raw daikon radish, which the database lists as oriental radish, 0.6 g (USDA FoodData Central).
These are raw weights, so the figures change once the food is cooked and the broth is added. The point is the pattern: soy foods and eggs carry most of the protein in a bowl, while vegetables such as radish and cabbage add bulk, sweetness and texture. A typical jjigae uses tofu and a little meat together, so one pot can balance both.
A video to watch
A short video from Maangchi, a well-known Korean cooking teacher, shows how her kimchi jjigae comes together:
How to make kimchi jjigae, a quick video from Maangchi
Where our book fits
Our book The Delicious Korean Cookbook by Zoe Patton is a beginner-friendly cookbook with 60 numbered recipes in seven chapters, from banchan and kimchi to soups, noodles and desserts. Chapter 5 is the soup chapter: ten recipes, from the quick kimchi jjigae to the slow seolleongtang, each with a closing note on swaps. Twenty-six of the 60 recipes in the book are rated easy. Two honest notes: the measurements are in US cups, spoons and ounces, and the book is a cookbook, not a health book, so it gives no nutrition figures. The recipe above is our own rewrite of the book's kimchi jjigae, with metric amounts added.
At Books Go Publications, an international publishing house based in Brentford, United Kingdom, we publish cookbooks in English, French, German and Spanish and edit each language with native speakers. You can find the rest of our books on the Books Go Publications home page.
When to ask a professional
This is a cooking guide. If you have a medical condition, a food allergy or advice to limit salt, ask your doctor or a dietitian how much kimchi, soy sauce and gochujang suits you. Pregnant women, young children, older adults and anyone with a weak immune system should make sure meat is cooked through and eggs are cooked until firm. Samgyetang and similar broths are enjoyed as comfort food: this article makes no health claims about ginseng or bone broth.
Who it is for
Korean soups suit many kitchens, from beginners to people who already cook with kimchi.
- Home cooks new to Korean food: a single pot, a few shop-bought pastes and clear steps make kimchi jjigae a gentle first dish.
- People with a jar of old kimchi: the stew turns sour, over-fermented kimchi into the star of the dinner.
- Weeknight cooks: a stew that is ready in under an hour and tastes better on the second day is useful on busy evenings.
- Hosts who like one-pot meals: budae jjigae and other shared stews work well at the middle of the table.
Key terms
- Guk: a light soup served next to the rice.
- Jjigae: a thick, strongly seasoned stew with less liquid than a soup, often cooked in a small pot.
- Tang: a rich broth made by simmering bones or a whole bird for a long time.
- Gochugaru: coarse Korean red pepper flakes, fruity and a little smoky, the main source of heat in kimchi and stews.
- Gochujang: a thick fermented red chilli paste, slightly sweet, with heat that builds slowly.
- Doenjang: an earthy fermented soybean paste used as the base of several stews.
Frequently asked questions
What are the main types of Korean soup?
The three you will meet most are guk (light soups), tang (rich, long-simmered broths) and jjigae (thick, spicy stews). Jeongol, a shared hot pot, is a fourth. Each one is eaten with rice.
What is the easiest Korean soup to make?
Kimchi jjigae and kongnamul guk are the easiest. The first needs one pot and about 45 minutes. The second is soybean sprouts, onion, garlic and seasoning, simmered for about 20 minutes.
Do I need Korean ingredients to make these soups?
A few help a lot: gochugaru, gochujang and good kimchi. The book also suggests swaps, such as Japanese miso for doenjang, though the flavour will differ.
What is the difference between a soup and a jjigae?
A jjigae has much less liquid, a thicker texture and a stronger seasoning. It is usually served bubbling in a small pot and eaten with a spoon alongside rice.
Can I make Korean soup without pork?
Yes. The book suggests canned tuna or beef brisket in kimchi jjigae, and, for a vegetarian sundubu jjigae, vegetable broth with no meat or fish sauce.
How long does the kimchi stew keep?
Cool it quickly, keep it covered in the refrigerator and reheat it until it is steaming hot. For how long leftovers keep, follow the food-safety advice of your health authority.
Is Korean soup very salty?
It can be, because kimchi, soy sauce and gochujang are salty. Taste before adding more, use unsalted broth, and add water if needed.
Sources
- 40+ Cozy Korean Soup Recipes, Beyond Kimchee
- Kimchi Jjigae (Kimchi Stew), Korean Bapsang
- Sodium reduction, World Health Organization
- FoodData Central, U.S. Department of Agriculture (SR Legacy, 2018: raw soybean sprouts, egg, pork belly, tofu, shiitake, Chinese cabbage and oriental radish)
- Jjigae, Wikipedia
