Instant Pot Korean Rice Cake Soup (Tteokguk) (2024)

Instant Pot Korean Rice Cake Soup (Tteokguk) is a great simple recipe with a rich beef broth. Make the beef broth for the soup in your Instant Pot in much less time without sacrificing the flavor.

Recently, my neighbor friends talked about how important having family traditions is. And I tried to think about what our family tradition was growing up…Definitely, the biggest family tradition that stands out (related to food) in my mind was making Kimjang with the whole family – for 2-3 days our house was filled with the smell of garlic and fish sauce.

But besides that, having Tteokguk on New Year’s day was a great tradition. When I was growing up we celebrated New Year for about 3 days and by the end of it, I was pretty tired of having Tteokguk..especially one where the rice cakes have been swimming in the soup for a while, making the soup like paste and the tteok being too soft and gummy. 😑🤢

But when cooked properly and eaten right away, it’s the MOST comforting and delicious soup any time of the year!

Tteokguk (Korean Rice Cake Soup) and New Year’s connection

Koreans have a special tradition of eating Rice Cake soup (Tteokguk) on New Year’s Day. Traditionally, it is eaten on Lunar New Year (Seollal 설날) but many now also have a bowl of this wonderful comforting soup on regular New Year’s day also.

An interesting fact is that Koreans traditionally counted their age by how many New Year’s day you have lived because you age on New Year’s day – not on your Birthday as it’s the case in the western world. And because of that, Koreans have 2 different ages – Korean age (Hankuk Nayi 한국나이) and Non-Korean Man Nayi (만나이).

Thus, a Korean age starts as 1. When a baby is born, the baby starts at 1 year old. So the Korean age is +2 than the common American age (depending on what time of year) until you reach your birthday and then you are +1 year than the American age after you pass your birthday.

“How many bowls of Tteokguk have you eaten?” = How old are you?

Because of that, Koreans like to say that you cannot age without eating Tteokguk, and therefore, instead of asking someone how old they are, they sometimes askHow many bowls of Tteokguk have you eaten??This also makes you realize the fact that the rice cake soup was a SPECIAL soup that Korean commoners (not royalty) could only afford to eat on New Year’s day. If they could have eaten Tteokguk any time of the year like today, then everyone would be hundreds of years old!!! hahaha..😆😆

The Korean idiom “Chicken instead of Pheasant” 꿩대신 닭 (Kkwong daesin Dak) means having to settle for a lower quality substitute when your first choice is not available.

Old history books record that the broth for rice cake soup was made with pheasant meat and people substituted chicken when they couldn’t find any pheasant. So this phrase refers to substituting a second choice when the 1st best choice is unavailable. In recent times though, Koreans hardly use pheasant to make the broth. Tteokguk is now made mostly with beef, dried anchovies or chicken broth.

Variations of Korean Rice Cake Soup

• Just use Chuck Stew Meat – I like my meat to be a bit chewy so I stopped at 13 minutes but if you want a melt-in-your mouth tenderness, just cook on HIGH for 1-2 more minutes. Using a more expensive tender cut of meat is not always the best thing to do for stewing. As stated in this great article.
• Don’t overcook– Rice cakes will start to become too soft and gummy if you boil it for too long. Add tteok only after everyone is ready to eat. You only need to cook it for 2-3 minutes if the rice cakes are already thawed or fresh.
• Try anchovy broth Tteokguk – fora lighter and cleaner tasting broth, try my Anchovy stock based Tteokguk (pic on the right)
• Try fancier version – make an egg garnish separately by beating the egg, pan frying it into a thin pancake and slicing them into strips. (pic on right)
• Soak beef in cold water to make clear broth. Soaking beef in water is NOT a necessary part of this recipe but to make a clear looking broth (without the little brown bits), try soaking the beef in cold water for 10-20 min. before making the broth.
• Serve with some Chonggak Kimchi or Baechu Kimchi in the least. Check out my Korean Food for New Year post for other side dishes and dessert ideas for your New Year feast.
• It is best not to have any leftovers because the tteokguk will become one pasty porridge after couple hours. Some enjoy them this way but I don’t. So cook in batches.

Making Korean Rice Cake Soup ahead of time:

• To prep ahead, make just beef broth or other broth ahead of time, season the beef(stop after step 12 below) and keep the broth and beef frozen or keep in fridge separately for couple days until you are ready to use. When you are ready to cook, heat up the broth and once it starts to boil, add the tteok and beef together. Follow the rest of the instructions from step 13 but just heat up the beef with the tteok.

1. If using frozen rice cakes, quickly rinse and soak in water for just couple minutes, until the rice cakes separate from each other. If they are not in big clumps, you can just put frozen rice cakes directly in water. If using fresh rice cakes, just quickly rinse with water and drain.
2. Turn Instant Pot on to Saute function and drizzle some sesame oil. Wait a couple of minutes until you can feel the heat when you put your hand over the top.
3. Add the chunks of stew beef into the hot pot. It should sizzle when you add the meat. Cook for 3-4 minutes until the outside is nicely browned.
4. Add water. Add onion and garlic cloves.
5. Close the lid, seal the valve and turn on Manual High for 13 min.
6. While the Instant Pot is cooking, whip 1 egg. Set aside. (Optionally, you can make Gyeran Jidan or egg strips. See my other Tteokguk post.
7. Chop green onions and garlic. Slice onions and also green onions. Set aside.
8. When Instant Pot has finished cooking, let it just sit (Natural Release) for 5 min. (NR 5 min)
9. Turn the Instant Pot valve knob to Steaming and release steam. (Quick Release)
10. When the pressure has fully released, open the lid. Take out cooked beef, onion and garlic from the broth. Discard garlic and onion. Let the beef pieces cool. Keep Instant Pot covered with a glass lid or with its own lid until you are ready to cook.
11. Once beef is cool to touch, slice thin into smaller pieces. In a bowl, add beef and season with chopped green onions and garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce (jin ganjang), black pepper and sugar. Massage the beef with your hands so the seasoning is evenly distributed throughout the beef. Set aside – this will be a topping at serving time.
12. Uncover Instant Pot and season beef broth with Guk Ganjang (Soy Sauce for Soup) and salt. Stir.
13. Add sliced onions to pot. Turn on Saute function and bring broth to boil. Coverwith a glass lid or just roughly coverbut not lockwith the lid – in order to boil quicker.
14. Once the broth starts boiling, add Tteokguk Tteok (rice cakes)!
15. Then add sliced green onions, and some more chopped garlic and fresh black pepper.
16. Swirl in the beaten egg to the soup. Let it boil for 2-3 minutes.
17. It’s should be ready! Serve rice cake soup in a bowl. Top it with a spoonful of the seasoned beef slices. Provide some extra fresh black pepper and crush some toasted gim (seaweed) on the table for people to add. Get some nice kimchi (see my video how I eat it) and wow! Enjoy!!

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Happy New Year!

XOXO ❤️🎊

JinJoo