JOYEATSRAMEN – Simple Asian Food Recipes

An easy yet comforting miyeokguk, a 6 ingredient Korean seaweed soup with beef stripes recipe.

This recipe shows step-by-step guidelines to make a hearty Korean seaweed soup.

It is a Korean soup that is traditionally enjoyed during birthdays and post giving birth.

Thanks to the global interest in South Korea culture, people around the world now enjoy the country’s foods, including myself.

I first had miyeokguk, made by a pair of aged Korean couple in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Since moving to the Netherlands, I have been wanting to order it again but it is not widely available. This intrigues me to recreate the recipe!

Preparation & Cooking Steps:

Ingredients you need for this Korean seaweed soup

• Toasted Sesame oil: A fragrant oil that is often being used in Korean and Chinese cuisines. If you are new to sesame oil, I recommend you to use regular sesame oil to stir fry beef first, followed by drizzling a teaspoon of the same sesame oil upon cooking completion.

• Minced Garlic: You can’t miss this super earthy, aromatic and savoury herbs in most of the Korean soups, including this recipe.

• Korean seaweed: Do you know that there are different types of seaweeds (algae)? I did some research and found out that Korean seaweed soup belongs to the species of Undaria pinnatifida. It is also known as wakame, a brown algae.

• Light soy sauce: It is an iconic, umami punched soy sauce that is salty, sweet and acidic.

• Black pepper: While it is not a traditional ingredient, I added this to increase the depth of seaweed soup flavour and introduce a hint of spiciness.

Salt is optional. I ended up not adding any salt as the soup tasted flavourful enough for my taste bud.

To add salt, I recommend to leave it to the last step to avoid over flavour it. If you happen to over salt it, add water and boil to taste for every 5 minutes.

Step 1: Rinse and soak the seaweed

For 4 people serving, I prepared a total of 20 grams of pre-rinsed seaweed.

Rinse it once and fill the bowl with water.

Watch it magically expand and leave it aside with the water. Save the water to make a bowl of flavourful Korean seaweed soup.

Next, minced 4 cloves of garlic and get ready for the cooking process.

Step 2: Add oil to the wok on high heat

Start the stove gas in high heat, pour 2 tablespoons of sesame oil.

Step 3: Sauté the minced garlic

Before the wok starts to produce smoky heat, include the minced garlic first.

This provides ample time for the garlic to release aroma. It will also avoid the garlic from being overcooked.

Tip: For an easier measurement, add garlic right after the oil. Start to sauté once the garlic starts to bubble.

Stir fry for around one minute and turn the stove gas to medium heat if necessary.

Step 4: Add beef to the wok

Include beef stripes to the wok and stir fry continuously for one minute in high heat.

The beef doesn’t need to be fully cooked as we will add sauces and continue to cook for a few minutes.

Optional: Add more sesame oil to stir fry with beef

As a big fan of sesame oil, I decided to add an additional tablespoon to infuse more flavour to the beef and garlic.

This is totally optional, especially if you are still new to Korean seaweed soup and sesame oil.

Step 5: Add light soy sauce

Stir fry the beef stripes for one minute.

Add two tablespoons of light soy sauce.

Step 6: Sprinkle black pepper to the dish

I sprinkled a total of 4 dashes of black pepper for 4 servings.

Tip: Feel free to add more or less black pepper. If you are not sure about it, add a dash of black pepper, stir and taste to achieve the preferred flavour.

Step 7: Final stir fry before adding water to boil

Mix light soy sauce, sesame oil (optional) and black pepper evenly with the Korean seaweed and beef.

Stir fry for around one minute to release more flavour.

(Final) Step 8: Add water to boil

Finally, add a total of 1 litre water consisting of seaweed water and drinking water.

When I brought the seaweed to sauté, I moved the seaweed water to a measure pot and added more water to 1 litre.

Tip: If you don’t have a way to measure water, don’t worry. Add water till it covers the beef and seaweed. There’s no hard rules on this as you could add more water if the soup is too heavy flavoured for you.

Boil till the soup simmers.

Once the soup simmers, taste test and add any final condiments, if required.

Enjoy it with a bowl of warm rice.

I hope you enjoy this Korean seaweed soup as much as I do.