Recipes with radish

Clear Gul Dubu Guk (Korean Oyster Tofu Soup)

With oysters and big cubes of tofu in a clear kelp broth, the salt from the oysters seasons the soup more than you might expect. So the salt goes in only after the oysters, a taste at a time.

Prep 15min Cook 15min 3 servings

Prep 20min Cook 25min 4 servings

Korean Steamed Octopus (Whole Salted Radish Broth)

Holding the whole octopus by the head and dipping it into boiling water two or three times makes the legs curl inward into a neat shape for slicing and serving. Before that, coarse salt is rubbed firmly between the suckers to strip the slime; without that step an off smell lingers after cooking. It cooks for only about 15 minutes over a bed of radish and green onion, then rests under the lid, which keeps it chewy without turning tough. The water is kept at a quiet simmer the whole time, since a rolling, splashing boil makes octopus tougher. Instead of a spicy dipping sauce, slices are dipped in sesame oil mixed with salt, letting the octopus taste of the sea, and the plate works just as well with drinks.

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Gul-guk (Clear Oyster Radish Soup)

The broth gets its base from radish, cooked until translucent before the oysters go in. That is why the radish is sliced an even 0.3 cm thin, and no tofu or separate stock is used.

Prep 15min Cook 20min 2 servings

Prep 20min Cook 30min 4 servings

Korean Braised Squid with Radish

Radish and squid cook at very different speeds, so the radish half-moons simmer in soy broth until nearly tender before the squid rings go in for a brief final braise. Chili flakes and gochujang give a clean, peppery heat, while the radish softens it with its own sweetness. What's left in the pan is a small amount of thick, spicy sauce that tastes of both squid and radish, good spooned over rice.

Korean Seafood Hot Pot Soup

Blue crabs go in shell and all, turning red as they cook and flavoring the radish broth, and with cheongyang chilies for heat the pot goes in the middle of the table for everyone to dip into.

Prep 25min Cook 30min 4 servings

Prep 15min Cook 22min 2 servings

Samchi Jjim (Korean Steamed Spanish Mackerel)

Thick slices of Korean radish line the pot and soak up the soy broth, while the Spanish mackerel rests on top, never touching the bottom, so its soft flesh keeps its shape. A short rest in rice wine before cooking tones down the fishy smell, and the seasoning stays light with just soy sauce and garlic. Cheongyang chili added at the end gives the mild broth a clean, spicy finish, and the radish is as much a part of the meal as the fish.

Hikado (Yellowtail and Chicken Soup Thickened with Sweet Potato)

Diced skin-on sweet potato stays in pieces, while raw sweet potato grated in at the end melts into the broth, giving mild sweetness and a rustic body. Hikado is a Nagasaki winter soup, and its name is linked to the Portuguese picado, meaning finely chopped; it is said to have grown out of a stew that arrived through contact with the West and was remade with local fish and vegetables. No flour slurry is used, and with yellowtail and chicken in the same pot, fish and meat flavors overlap.

Prep 30min Cook 30min 4 servings

Prep 20min Cook 25min 2 servings

Korean Braised Spanish Mackerel with Radish

Spanish mackerel has white, tender flesh that flakes apart easily once cooked, so this braise never flips the fish. Instead, the pot gets a gentle shake and the sauce is spooned over the top. A gapless bed of radish, thicker slices in the middle, keeps the fish off the pot. The red sauce of soy, gochujang and gochugaru seasons both the mild flesh and the radish, which turns translucent as it cooks.

Korean Dried Pollock Potato Soup

The potatoes are cut 0.7 cm thick, enough to hold their shape while their edges fray slightly and give the clear pollack broth a little body. Wring the pollack shreds hard before toasting them, or they steam instead of turning nutty.

Prep 15min Cook 30min 4 servings

Prep 20min Cook 55min 4 servings

Korean Samgyeopsal Ganjang Jorim (Soy-Braised Pork Belly)

Pork belly and big chunks of radish braise together in soy sauce, and by the end the radish has absorbed as much of the rich, salty liquid as the meat. The belly is blanched briefly and rinsed first; skip that and the surface impurities and porky smell end up in the sauce. The radish is cut large because small pieces fall apart over the long simmer. Covered at first and then uncovered, the pot moves from gentle braising to reducing, which leaves the pork and radish coated in a glossy soy glaze rather than sitting in thin broth. It holds up well when made ahead, because cooling and rewarming drive the seasoning in further.

Korean Dried Pollack Egg Soup

Pollock left on racks in Gangwon-do through the winter, freezing and thawing over and over until it dries, becomes hwangtae. Its chewy strips and wisps of soft egg end up in the same spoonful of this clear soup, which is made for hangovers and for ordinary breakfasts alike.

Prep 10min Cook 18min 4 servings

Steamed Hard

Korean Braised Beef Shank

Beef shank carries a lot of connective tissue that stays tough after a quick cook but lets the meat pull apart along the grain after a long, low simmer. As the braise cools, gelatin from the shank sets the sauce, and warming it again melts it back into a glossy, slightly thick glaze.

Prep 25min Cook 120min 4 servings

Korean Dried Pollock Radish Soup

The pollack shreds are not soaked, only swished briefly in cold water. A long soak would wash their savoriness away.

Prep 12min Cook 22min 4 servings

Prep 25min Cook 35min 4 servings

Korean Hairtail Braised with Dried Greens

Dried radish greens (siraegi) stay chewy through the braise and soak up the gochujang and soy sauce, so here they are as good with rice as the hairtail itself. The greens are tossed with a little doenjang beforehand, which leaves a nutty, savory note under the braise.

Soups Hard

Ishikari Nabe Salmon Miso Hotpot

Salmon fillet with skin and bony parts, milt, and loosened roe all go into one pot of kelp stock seasoned with miso in this Hokkaido-style nabe. It is said to come from fishermen near the mouth of the Ishikari River, who dropped fresh salmon pieces and bones straight into miso soup to celebrate a big catch. Root vegetables, konnyaku, tofu, and rolls of blanched spinach wrapped in napa cabbage are arranged in sections around a mound of miso in the center. A final dusting of sansho pepper over the whole pot adds a tingling lift to the miso broth.

Prep 40min Cook 30min 4 servings

Prep 20min Cook 35min 4 servings

Korean Braised Mackerel with Dried Radish Greens

Oily mackerel and earthy dried radish greens cook down together, the fish fat seeping into the greens while the greens soften the strong flavor of the fish. Radish on the bottom of the pot grows sweeter the longer it braises and takes the edge off both the chili heat and any fishiness. The sauce is left slightly loose, enough to spoon over a bowl of rice.

Itoko-jiru (Adzuki and Root Vegetable Miso Soup)

This Ishikawa miso soup comes from the Buddhist temple tradition and uses no meat or fish stock: kombu dashi is mixed with the water the adzuki beans cooked in. The first boiling water is thrown out for its astringency, and only the second goes into the soup.

Prep 15min Cook 85min 4 servings

Prep 20min Cook 45min 4 servings

Korean Braised Beef and Radish

In this braise the radish matters as much as the beef: thick rounds go into a soy broth that has already simmered with brisket and drink up its meaty flavor as they turn translucent at the edges. Trimming the sharp corners of each piece keeps them whole through the long, low braise. Serve the radish with a spoonful of the salty-sweet liquid over rice.

Korean Abalone Radish Soup

The abalone guts are fried with the radish in a little sesame oil before anything else, and they are why this otherwise clear soup turns faintly green and smells strongly of the sea.

Prep 20min Cook 25min 2 servings

Prep 20min Cook 28min 4 servings

Korean Steamed Rockfish (Spicy Gochugaru Radish Braise)

A whole rockfish cooks in a broth of soy sauce and gochugaru (Korean chili flakes), and each spoonful takes some of the spicy liquid, the white flesh and a piece of radish that has soaked up both.

Jesa Tangguk (Ancestral Clear Beef Soup)

Because this soup goes on the table for ancestral memorial rites, even the way it is cut matters. Brisket, radish and tofu are sliced into neat squares of the same thickness, and the fat that rises is skimmed off to keep the broth clear.

Prep 20min Cook 30min 4 servings

Prep 20min Cook 25min 2 servings

Korean Soy-Braised Rockfish

Shallow cuts in the thickest part of the rockfish let the sauce reach the center and help it cook at the same pace as the thinner flesh. The radish simmers first until its edges turn translucent, because radish that is still hard when the fish is added stays firm while the fish dries out.

Soups Hard

Iwate Kenchin-jiru

The first things in the pot are 8 tablespoons of oil and firm tofu crumbled by hand. Once the tofu has broken into loose crumbs, daikon, burdock, zenmai, warabi and butterbur are fried with it, and only after that are the dashi and light soy sauce poured in. There is no meat.