Tteokbokki is a highly popular Korean street food and a portion of delicious comfort food. You can make it at home with this easy tteokbokki recipe. The spicy, slightly sweet, and chewy rice cakes are simply addictive!
What is tteokbokki?
Literally translated as “stir-fried rice cake,” tteokbokki (떡볶이) is a beloved Korean rice cake dish with many variations and rich history. It’s also spelled ddukbokki, ddeokbokki, dukbokki or topokki. This spicy rice cake dish is enormously popular as a street food and is also often enjoyed at home.
Unlike gungjung tteokbokki , which has been around for hundreds of years, the red spicy tteokbokki has a relatively short history. It was developed in 1953, the year the Korean War ended, by a woman named Ma Bok-rim in the Sindang-dong neighborhood in Seoul. The chewy rice cake in a spicy gochujang sauce instantly became popular as an affordable comfort snack.
Why We Love This
If you love Korean street food, you’ll love this amazing homemade tteokbokki recipe! It’s cheap to make, flavourful, and deliciously filling, perfect as a spicy meal for lunch, dinner, or as a quick and easy snack.
The simple stock base features powdered dashi along with classic Korean ingredients like Korean chili flakes and gochujang paste.
Keep it simple with just the essential garage-tteok rice cakes, or adapt the recipe with extra ingredients like Korean fish cakes or leftover veggies from the fridge.
Korean Spicy Rice Cake
Course: Dinner2
servings10
minutes10
minutes300
kcalGet this easy tteokbokki recipe on the table in just 10 minutes! This spicy Korean rice cake stir fry features chewy tteok rice cakes in a flavor-packed tteokbokki sauce. It’s quick, easy, and deliciously spicy.
Ingredients
750 g water
▢1 ½ tsp dashi powder stock powder
▢2 tbsp Korean hot pepper paste/gochujang Korean chili paste
▢1 tsp Korean hot pepper flakes / gochugaru
▢1 tsp sugar
▢1 tsp soy sauce
▢150 g Korean rice cakes round or flat, soaked overnight or prepared as below
▢1 spring onion / green onion some reserved as garnish
▢1 tsp sesame oil
Directions
- Pour water and dashi powder into a large wok, frying pan, or skillet and bring to a boil. Add the gochujang, gochujang chili flakes, sugar, and soy sauce and stir until evenly mixed through the stock.
750 g water,1 ½ tsp dashi powder,2 tbsp Korean hot pepper paste/gochujang,1 tsp Korean hot pepper flakes / 1 tsp sugar,1 tsp soy sauce - Add the tteok rice cakes and spring onions / green onions and bring back to a boil, then simmer for around 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until the rice cakes have softened and the sauce has thickened. Tip: If the rice cakes aren’t soft enough, add a little more water and continue to cook until soft.
- Just before serving, stir in the sesame oil. Transfer to serving plates and garnish with more spring onion / green onion.