I have been absent for quite some time, for more than a month I think. Some of it was my time off and then some were work and health-related things.  Today I am posting this traditional Korean recipe, vegan tteokbokki that I made while I was in Germany. This does not mean that I am 100% back yet, but I would like to reconnect with my readers, even via one small post.

Vegan tteokbokki are Korean spicy rice cakes, made with no animal products. They are basically soft, cooked rice cakes in thick, spicy sauce. I wanted to make these for quite some time, but could not find all of the ingredients. Luckily, Germany is full of good Asian food stores, so I was able to find these things while I was visiting a friend.  Yet again, I came back with an additional suitcase.

These rice cakes are really easy to make, you just need the right ingredients. Some of the ingredients can also be made, as you will find out if you keep reading. I have to mention that these vegan tteokbokki are very spicy. At least they were for me. If you don’t like spicy food I suggest you stay away from these. But if you are someone who is used to spicy dishes, this could be pretty mild.

A piece of advice

This recipe is super simple, which is why I am only going to talk about the ingredients here briefly. You can whip this up very quickly, and normally I would not write out a recipe like this. But I liked it a lot and wanted to share it with my readers.

Gochujang or red chili paste is a savory, sweet, and spicy fermented condiment popular in Korean cooking. I once read that you can actually make it by using soybean paste, maple syrup, chili, things like that. I did not really go into those recipes, mainly because I wanted store bought gochujang.  But if you can’t find it, feel free to google them. I found this paste in an Asian food store, and I think that is the only place where you should be looking for it, at least in Europe.

Same goes for the rice cakes. I have failed trying to make these a while ago, so I gave up. Imagine the joy when I finally found them in a store. If you want  your vegan tteokbokki sauce to be less thick, you can add more water than I did. You can also decide and do this by the end of the cooking. In my case, I wanted the sauce to be kind of medium thick, and I think I achieved that. The thickness also depends on the cooking time. The longer you cook these, the thicker the sauce. So that is something to consider as well.

These measurements are enough for one rather large, or two smaller portions of vegan tteokbokki. Adjust the measurements to your needs if necessary. I think I wrote down everything I wanted you to know. Hopefully you’ll enjoy my vegan version of Korean rice cakes. It has been quite a while and I almost forgot how to write a post. I do apologize if it is worse than usual, it will take some time to fully get back to writing.

If you liked this recipe, make sure you check out my other recipes like:

– vegan zucchini roll-ups

– vegan Korean savory pancakes

– vegan cauliflower gnocchi

Feel free to tell me what you think about this in the comments below, or send me the pictures of your own vegan tteokbokki. If you did something differently, I would also like to hear that, I’d love to see the things you come up with.

P.S. for more recipes like this and a bunch of other stuff, follow me on Instagram, @margo_drobi.

Also, I recently started a Patreon page, where you can subscribe and help me create more/better content. In return, you will get an exclusive piece of content (recipe) each month. My plan is to increase the amount of that content if I gain a few subscribers. If you are interested and you want to find out more, I will leave the link to my Patreon right – here.