Vegan Tteobokki (Spicy Rice Cakes)
Vegan Tteobokki (or spicy rice cakes) are a plant based twist on a classic Korean street food dish. They are soft and squishy with a fiery sauce. Get the recipe below.
Page Contents
Korean street food
It can be said that street food is a big part of the foodie scene in Korea and any visit must involve going down the various street food alleys to see what amazing yet affordable dishes you can find.
Tteobokki is one of the many dishes available. Crispy rice cakes and milder soy rice cakes are two common variations.
They can come in lots of different varieties now including “fusion” flavours but today we’re sticking with the classic dish but making it vegan.
I love the classic tteobokki recipe because of the spicy, salty, slightly sweet sauce made from gochujang and gochugaru. The flavour of these two ingredients always makes me think of Korean food. You just can’t do without them. The rice cakes are also satisfyingly squidgy and chewy when you bite into them.
Specialist ingredients
To make my vegan tteobokki, you’ll likely need to visit a specialist store to get some of the ingredients. (Or you could shop online). Those ingredients are:
- Korean rice cakes (the tube shaped ones not the flat round ones)
- Dashi (stock)
- Gochujang (Korean chilli paste)
- Gochugaru (Korean chilli flakes)
You should be able to get the rest of the ingredients like soy sauce and sesame oil in your local supermarket.
Korean rice cakes
These are the star of the show. They are soft and squishy, made from glutinous rice. I’ve seen them in two shapes (tubes or flat). The texture is a little bit unusual but I love it!
There’s not really a replacement for these as it would make it an entirely different dish. BUT, this sauce would taste great with cubes of tofu.
Dashi
Dashima Myeolchi Yuksu is a stock often used in Korean recipes. It’s made of dried seaweed and dried anchovies. In this recipe we simply substitute that for a seaweed only dashi. You can also get vegetable dashi and mushroom dashi which would also work well.
Gochujang
Gochujang is made from fermented soybeans, glutinous rice flour, salt and dried red chilli powder. It is spicy thanks to the chilli.
What makes gochujang extra special is that it is aged in the sun. This might be for months or even years! This is how it gets a really intense, deep flavour.
Gochugaru
Gochugaru is the dried red chilli powder used to make gochujang but which is also often added as a spice in its own right to sauces, soups and dishes like kimchi.
Other ingredients
The good news is that all of these ingredients are naturally vegan.
This recipe is sometimes not vegan due to the stock but as we mentioned above we use a vegan seaweed stock in this recipe to give it extra flavour but remaining plant based.
The recipe
Vegan Tteobokki
Ingredients
- 500 g Korean rice cakes
- 450 ml vegan dashi
- 50 g onion thinly sliced
For the sauce
- 3 Tbsp gochujang
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 tsp gochugaru
To garnish
- 1 tsp toasted sesame seeds
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 spring onion finely sliced
Instructions
- Soak the rice cakes in warm water for 10 minutes until they are soft.
- Bring the stock to a boil and stir in the sauce ingredients.
- Stir until dissolved.
- Add in the rice cakes and sliced onion.
- Boil until the rice cakes and onion are cooked.
- Thicken the sauce by simmering it until you have your desired consistency (roughly 5 minutes).
- Garnish with the sesame seeds, sesame oil and spring onion and serve warm.
