Korean Blood Curd Soup (Spicy Ox Blood and Beansprout Stew)
Quick answer
Seonji-guk is a Korean blood curd soup built from coagulated ox blood, seasoned napa cabbage outer leaves, and bean sprouts in a spicy, doenjang-accented broth.
What makes this special
- Napa greens pre-seasoned with doenjang and garlic build a savory base first.
- Blood curd cut large and cooked only 8 minutes to stay tender-chewy
- Baechu pre-seasoned with doenjang and garlic builds savory base first
Key ingredients
Core cooking flow
- 1 Cut 150 g napa cabbage greens into bite-size lengths.
- 2 Pour 1500 ml water into a pot and bring it to a full boil over high heat.
- 3 Once the soup returns to a boil, lower to medium heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
Seonji-guk is a Korean blood curd soup built from coagulated ox blood, seasoned napa cabbage outer leaves, and bean sprouts in a spicy, doenjang-accented broth. The napa greens are pre-dressed with soybean paste, garlic, and chili flakes before going into the pot, where they simmer and release an earthy, fermented depth into the liquid. Bean sprouts are added for their crisp texture and clean, refreshing bite. The blood curd - cut into large cubes - goes in partway through cooking and simmers just eight minutes to heat through without breaking apart. Its texture is soft and faintly springy, unlike anything else in the Korean soup canon, and it absorbs the surrounding spicy broth. Gochugaru gives the soup a ruddy color and a slow-building warmth. In Korea, seonji-guk is closely associated with the morning-after meal, served in dedicated haejang-guk restaurants as a restorative after heavy drinking.
Instructions
Read the steps as a cooking flow: prep, heat, seasoning, doneness control, and finish.
- 1Season
Cut 150 g napa cabbage greens into bite-size lengths.
Add 1 tablespoon soybean paste and 1 tablespoon minced garlic, then rub the seasoning through the leaves and stems so no thick clumps of paste remain.
- 2Control
Pour 1500 ml water into a pot and bring it to a full boil over high heat.
When it bubbles strongly, add the seasoned greens and 120 g bean sprouts, spreading them into the liquid instead of pressing them down hard.
- 3Control
Once the soup returns to a boil, lower to medium heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
It is ready for the next step when the greens loosen, the broth turns cloudy from the soybean paste, and the sprouts still look firm.
- 4Control
Cut 300 g blood curd into large pieces and slide them gently along the side of the pot.
Keep the heat at medium and simmer for 8 minutes, avoiding deep stirring so the curd heats through without breaking.
- 5Control
Stir 1 tablespoon red chili flakes into a ladleful of hot broth first, then return it to the pot so it disperses evenly.
Add sliced green onion and simmer 5 minutes more, until the broth turns reddish.
- 6Finish
Taste the broth and adjust only with salt if it needs more seasoning.
Serve hot when the blood curd is fully heated and still intact, while the bean sprouts keep a little crisp texture.
After the steps
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