New York has been under a cold and ugly spell for a while, and that means that I’m breaking open my stash of beef dumplings for dumpling soup! The soup, called Mandu Guk (만두국), is a warm and hearty dish that I look forward to eating each Winter.
As long as my mom and my grandma made dumplings, we would *always* eat dumpling soup at some point during the Winter. Quite often, we would find ourselves eating this a half-dozen times, diminishing our stock of homemade dumplings very quickly. To supplement the soup, we would add rice cakes (떡 – tteok) and make it a meal. It was the absolute *best* when we ate the guk with freshly made dumplings!!
Tteok Guk is traditionally eaten on January 1st (or Lunar New Year) to signify the birth of the new year and becoming a year older. To ring in the festivities, my mom would make us Tteok Mandu Guk for breakfast, for blessings and good fortune in the new year. Sometimes we would find ourselves eating this twice in a day, or on two consecutive days; once at home, and the other at our grandma’s home! This is my variation of my mom’s recipe, which is the one I’ve definitely eaten the most.
[hsprsrecipe id=”8″]
If I’m wanting a quick dinner, I make myself some of this Mandu Guk and eat with a few banchan; it’s ready in less than 30 minutes, and does a great job warming you up in this chilly weather.
**Here are some of the ingredients I use for this recipe. Please, feel free to browse and ask questions on anything you see listed below.**
