Soups & Stews · Season 23 · Season of Winter I

Tteokguk

Tteokguk (New Year Rice Cake Soup) · 떡국

Difficulty: Easy
Time to plan: 40 min
Serves: 3 servings
Recipe: 5 steps
Listed places: 2

Decision notes · editorial comparison of references and preparation plans

Can frozen rice cakes use the same timing as fresh ones?

Start from the rice cakes’ condition and package directions. Dumpling filling has different cooking needs; floating alone cannot serve as an interchangeable test.

Check before ordering or preparing: Check frozen or chilled cakes, beef or seafood broth, added dumplings and egg garnish.

KTO describes sliced rice cakes in beef or other regional broths. KTO · Sliced Rice Cake Soup (떡국 / Tteokguk) · 2026-09-13

Alternative to compare: Mandu-guk (Dumpling Soup)Make an order card Prepare this version

Food notes and context

Tteokguk cooks sliced rice cakes in soup. This version uses ready-to-use beef-bone or anchovy-kelp stock, without extracting stock from raw brisket. Cook both rice cakes and egg through.

Compare the bowl with a version that includes dumplings. Rice cakes change texture while sitting in broth, so prepare around serving time. References to counting age are cultural expressions, not a property of the food.

Cook this version

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

Times and yields are planning values for this editorial preparation, not measured kitchen results. Substitutions can change flavor, texture and cooking needs. Read product directions and our measurement and doneness guide together.

Ingredients (3 servings)

Ingredient	Amount	Substitute abroad
Sliced rice cake for soup	500g	Joraengi tteok
Ready-to-use beef-bone or anchovy-kelp stock	Labeled quantity for cooking 500g rice cakes	This route uses prepared stock and does not fry raw brisket.
Eggs	2	Egg garnish strips or ribbons
Roasted seaweed and scallion	A little	Anywhere
Soup soy, salt, garlic	To season	Anywhere
Sesame oil (optional finish)	A little to taste	Optional finishing oil, not an instruction to fry meat.

Step by step

1.Prepare the selected rice cakes
Check whether the rice cakes are chilled or frozen and follow their thawing and soaking directions. A twenty-minute soak does not fit every product.
2.Prepare ready-to-use stock
Prepare the stock quantity labeled for 500g rice cakes, dilute if required and bring to a boil. Skip raw-meat frying and stock extraction on this prepared-stock route.
3.Boil the tteok
Cook the cakes according to their package, then check that the center of a piece is soft without a hard core. Floating alone is not enough.
4.Ribbon the egg
Pour beaten egg in a thin stream into the boiling soup and continue heating until fully set. Do not switch off immediately after pouring.
5.Garnish and serve
Serve with seaweed, scallion and optional sesame oil. This version does not include a beef garnish.

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People eating (1–20)

Text to take with you

떡국 · Tteokguk · Tteokguk (New Year Rice Cake Soup)

1명이 먹으려고 합니다. 인분·접시·냄비 중 주문 단위와 최소 주문량, 추천 양을 알려 주세요. / This is for 1 person. Please explain whether you sell portions, plates or pots, the minimum order and the recommended amount.

밥·반찬이 포함되나요? 따로 주문하는 항목과 추가 비용을 알려 주세요. / Are rice and side dishes included? Please explain separate items and extra charges.

주재료와 양념에 무엇이 들어가나요? / What are the main ingredients and seasonings?

Check frozen or chilled cakes, beef or seafood broth, added dumplings and egg garnish.

If you have ingredient restrictions, name them and ask about sauces, toppings and preparation equipment. The seller must confirm whether changes are possible.

https://k-roastmysoul.com/en/foods/tteokguk

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.

National Folk Museum Seollal Festival

Jongno, Seoul

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

Gyeongdong Market Mill Alley

Dongdaemun, Seoul

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

The fictional face of this dish

Metal element · an angular, solid face

You know how to reset yourself every year. A face like the first bowl of tteokguk on New Year's morning.

Upright: One bowl, one year: stir last year's failures into the broth and swallow them down. At the New Year's first table, the successful and the stumbling start again from the same white soup.

Reversed: Eating two bowls does not make you two years older, and hurrying the bowl count does not make you an adult. Age comes not from the broth but from how you empty the bowl.

The K-Roast take: Grandma's roast

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

Those eyes are clear as a New Year's dawn: reset eyes. Do you know what tteokguk's whiteness means? The white ethic of washing off the old year and starting clean. Your eyes are that white broth, and people who meet you find the courage to begin again. Only grant that same reset to yourself, child. Stop relaunching everyone else while your own year sits unwashed.

That nose runs straight and white as a garae-tteok: wealth drawn out long. Why is the cake pulled long? So fortune and lifespan stretch with it. And why slice that long cake into coins? So wealth rolls in from every direction. Pull long, slice round: that is your earnings formula too. Take the long view, and collect in small round pieces.

That mouth is plain and immaculate: a first-spoonful mouth. Tteokguk is the year's first official food, and nobody takes it carelessly. Your words are received like that first spoonful, and a remark you toss off can become someone's plan for the year. Know that weight and choose your opening line. Your mouth is a New Year's morning table.

Tteokguk returns without fail even after a failed year, holding out a new bowl. Whatever last year was, the broth before you is white again. Receive it not as pressure to act your new age, but as permission to start over.
Grandma's blessing

Table compatibility

Tteok-mandu-guk, where rice cake meets dumpling in one bowl, is the North and South's New Years reconciled, while midsummer mulhoe holds the first table of its own season and neither ever covets the other's seat.