Soups & Stews · 4 of Ladles · Four of Ladles

Mandu-guk

Mandu-guk (Dumpling Soup) · 만둣국

Difficulty: Medium
Time to plan: 80 min
Serves: 2 servings (만두 16개)
Recipe: 5 steps
Listed places: 2

Food notes and context

This mandu soup cooks pork, tofu and sprout dumplings in beef broth. Purchased dumplings replace the wrapper-and-filling preparation with the manufacturer’s own cooking instructions.

A rice-cake-and-dumpling soup adds another starch; bowl size alone does not establish dumpling count or whether rice is included. Eat the dumpling separately or open it into the broth as you prefer, taking care with its hot filling.

Cook this version

Images are AI-generated illustrations, not records of a kitchen test. Follow the written ingredients and steps. Ingredients and substitutions guide

Ingredients (2 servings (만두 16개))

Ingredient	Amount	Substitute abroad
Dumpling wrappers	16	Korean grocers; larger than gyoza skins
Ground pork	200 g	Half beef works well
Firm tofu	1/2 block, squeezed dry	Any market tofu
Mung bean sprouts	1 handful, blanched and chopped	Blanched cabbage
Chives or scallion	1/2 handful	Anywhere
Garlic, ginger, sesame oil	A little	Korean grocers online
Beef broth	5 cups	Bone-broth packs or anchovy stock
Egg and seaweed flakes	For garnish	Egg ribbons
Soup soy sauce and salt	To season	Anywhere

Step by step

1.Make the filling
Combine the squeezed tofu, blanched chopped sprouts, pork, chives, garlic, ginger, sesame oil, and salt, and knead until sticky.
2.Fold the dumplings
Wet the wrapper edges, add a spoonful of filling, fold into half-moons, then join the two corners into a fortune-pouch shape.
3.Boil the broth
Bring the beef broth to a boil and season lightly with soup soy sauce and salt.
4.Boil the dumplings
Drop the dumplings into the boiling broth and cook two minutes after they float. For tteok-mandu-guk, add sliced rice cakes too.
5.Garnish and serve
Top with egg ribbons, seaweed flakes, and scallion. A pinch of pepper wakes the broth.

Measurement, doneness and storage references

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Places to check when planning a meal

Candidates to investigate for this food. Maps use sourced location records; confirm the current menu, opening and booking directly. This list is not a tasting review or an award certification.

Gaeseong Mandu Koong

Insadong, Jongno-gu, Seoul

Exact current location is not verified here. Confirm the venue through its official information before planning a visit.

Pyeongnaeok

Euljiro, Jung-gu, Seoul

서울특별시 중구 마른내로 21-1 (저동2가,1층,2층)Checked 2026.08.09

Public-record location check, not a live opening-hours guarantee. Confirm with the restaurant before visiting.

Location source 1

Directions Naver Map

The fictional face of this dish

Earth element · a round, full face

You silently wrap up whatever runs deep. The center that gathers the whole family's hands on a holiday: a face that serves fortune in a single bowl.

Upright: What you have wrapped and held returns as fortune today. Embrace the people you meet the way a wrapper embraces its filling, and a beginning fresh as New Year's ripens inside.

Reversed: So much filling the wrapper is about to burst. The greed to hold everything is the ailment, so take some out today and pinch the seams. A burst dumpling only clouds the broth.

The K-Roast take: Grandma's roast

Fictional food metaphors inspired by traditional face-reading, not measurements of your face or personality.

That nose is plump: a storehouse face. Why is mandu a luck-bringing food? Because it is folded in the shape of a fortune pouch and filled to the brim. Your nose is shaped like that dumpling. It is no accident that people and means gather at your side. My only worry is that you open the storehouse so readily the threshold is wearing thin.

Those lips are plump: a face rich in affection. Mandu is not a dish one person can make; every holiday the whole family divides the labor, one rolling wrappers, one filling, one supervising with commentary. Wherever you are becomes that dumpling table. Your affection gathers people onto one floor. Do not resent hosting it; that is the principal of your fortune.

That chin is thick: solid late-life luck. The people of Kaesong shaped their joraengi rice cakes like little snowmen, said to squeeze the bad luck out. Your generous chin is that joraengi. A face that presses down misfortune and strains out only the blessings; your broth will only run clearer with age.

A mandu never shows its filling, yet one bite tells everything. The care you have wrapped will prove itself in a single mouthful someday. May fortune float up in every new start of yours, like the first mandu-guk of New Year's morning.
Grandma's blessing

Table compatibility

Crisp cabbage kimchi beside your mild broth is a match verified every New Year's morning. Next to the fiery jukkumi seasoning your clean-hearted filling gets buried, so seat the holiday table and the street-tent table separately.