Korean Tofu Soup (soondubu jjigae)

One thing I miss the most with being gluten free is Asian food. Since being diagnosed with celiac’s, I’ve been scared to eat at any type of Asian restaurant. There is soy sauce in EVERYTHING and hidden wheat in many of the sauces. The worst part is I know how deliciously good the food used to taste.

My favorite Korean dish is tofu soup, also known as soondubu jjigae. Tofu soup is a traditional Korean stew, hearty and full of flavor. It’s usually made spicy with soft tofu that melts in your mouth. You can add seafood or beef, both equally delicious. Normally, there shouldn’t be any gluten in tofu soup. Every restaurant, however, makes their soup different, and my inability to speak Korean and uncertainty of knowing what ingredients they use makes eating too risky.

Luckily, I have a great Korean friend who told me how to make this dish and referred me to a handy Korean cooking blog: www.maangchi.com. The website has many Korean recipes and video instructions.

The recipe was simpler to follow than I thought and turned out fantastic. The flavor mainly comes from the anchovy base and the red pepper flakes, which give the stew a beautiful red color. The only thing I regretted was not adding enough red pepper flakes and tofu.

To my knowledge, all my ingredients were gluten free. However, for those that are more sensitive celiacs, double-check your ingredients and use accordingly to your own disease state. The fish sauce I used does not list wheat as an ingredient, but I’m not sure how reliable Asian products are with their manufacturing. So please be mindful to your individual symptoms when choosing what brands to use.

Some ingredients, found at local asian grocery store:

Preparation:

Dried Anchovies.

I used a metal container like maangchi recommended to keep the anchovies in one place so they won't seep into the soup.

Onions and Garlic

Dried shiitake mushrooms and seaweed.

Add the anchovies, onion, garlic, dried mushrooms and seaweed to boiling water for the soup base.  Let the base boil for about 30 min.

Once soft, take the mushrooms and seaweed out and cut into slices:

Next cook the beef with oil in a stone pot, add the mushrooms.  Then add red pepper flakes and cook some more to bring out the spicy flavor.  Next add the soup base (without metal-containing anchovies), seafood, slicked seaweed, and soft tofu.  Cook until the scallops and shrimp are ready.

 

Add 1 tbsp of fish sauce and sesame oil, stir.  Crack 2 eggs to the boiling soup and top with chopped scallions.

Here is the full recipe from http://www.maangchi.com/recipe/soondubu-jjigae:

Ingredients:

• 12 dried anchovies
• 4-5 pieces of dried seaweed
• 1 onion, cut in half
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 5-10 shiitake mushrooms (depends on how much you like)
• 1/2 lb of thinly sliced ribeye beef (can use regular beef, thinly sliced ones cook faster but thicker slices can be more flavorful).
• 2 scallions
• 2-5 tbsp of hot pepper flakes:
• 2 tbsp - mild, 3 tbsp-medium, 4 tbsp - hot
• olive or vegetable oil
• sesame oil
• 2 tubes of soon du bu (can add more to your liking)
• 1 tbsp of fish sauce
• 2 eggs

For the stew base:

1. Fill a pot with 5 cups of water or the amount of soup you anticipate on eating.

2. Add dried anchovies, onions, garlic, dried seaweed, dried mushrooms, and garlic.

3. Boil for about 30 min or when the onion and dried seaweed and mushroom become soft.

4. Take the seaweed and mushrooms out to chop into slices.  Set the soup base aside.

For the main dish:

1. Heat vegetable or olive oil in a stone pot.  Add the beef and stir fry.  

2. Once the beef is almost cooked add the sliced mushrooms and stir.  Then add the desired amount of red pepper flakes and stir to bring out the flavor.

3. Pour in the soup base.  Add seafood, sliced seaweed, and soft tofu.  Cook until ready, then add fish sauce and sesame oil.

4. Top with 2 eggs and scallions.

Enjoy!