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.
